Film Study: A key secret to Carmelo Anthony’s shooting technique

When the Lakers acquired Carmelo Anthony in free agency on a veteran’s minimum deal, one of the major reasons was for his shooting ability. It’s easy to see why, as according to Basketball-Reference, his shooting from the perimeter has hovered around 40% for the last two seasons on over four attempts per game.

For a team with a LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Russell Westbrook, surrounding their lineups with shooters was going to be imperative. Anthony has lived up to the billing, as he’s hit at a 39.3% clip from beyond the arc on more than six attempts per game! That’s pretty dang good, especially considering the volume.

Anthony’s shooting has always interested me, because he didn’t come into the league as a great shooter from distance, but developed himself into one, working on and tweaking multiple elements of his shot to finally arrive at his present form.

In the following video, I detailed one of those key modifications that has been on full display for the Lakers this season.

The next time you watch Carmelo play, keep an eye out for this technique and really pay attention to how adaptable he is with it as well. Because if shooting is an art form, Carmelo is a true master artist at work.

If you want to learn even more on Anthony’s shooting technique — specifically another key element Carmelo added to optimize his shot — you can listen to my Skill Science podcast on it (available on Apple or Spotify).

Dr. Rajpal Brar, DPT has a doctorate in physical therapy from Northern Arizona University, and runs his own in-person and online sports medicine and performance business, 3CB Performance, in West LA and Valencia, CA in which he further combines his movement expertise and fitness training. He also works at a hospital — giving him experience with patients in the immediate healthcare setting and neurological patients (post stroke, post brain injury) — and has been practicing for 4 years. Brar is additionally training at UCLA’s mindful awareness research center (MARC), has a background in youth basketball coaching and analyzes the Lakers from a medical and skills perspective for Silver Screen and Roll and on his own YouTube Channel. You can follow him on Twitter at @3cbPerformance.