Exclusive | Lakers starter opens up about changing shooting form, unique routine

While Matisse Thybulle was playing for the Trail Blazers — the same team the Lakers hosted Tuesday night — he knew he needed to make a change to his shot. The results have not only led to a strong shooting stretch to kick off his tenure as a Laker but also a unique pregame shooting routine that’s paying off.The eighth-year wing out of Washington has a unique twist to his pregame shooting routine: Thybulle cycles in “no-dip” 3s (when a player catches the pass and immediately shoots it from their chest or above their head without dropping the ball down around their waist) and one-handed 3s.The origins of the No.20 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft incorporating unorthodox shooting into his routine stems from working with Trail Blazers shooting coach John Townsend during 2024-25 as he was rehabbing from a preseason right knee surgery and sprained right ankle that sidelined him for the first 67 games that season.“My shot has never been something I was confident in,” Thybulle told the California Post on Tuesday.

“It was always an insecurity of mine.”The most significant changes that were made to his shot: moving Thybulle’s right (shooting) arm more to the side and keeping his elbow more tucked in.Townsend had Thybulle go through “platform shooting” to accommodate him not being able to always jump as he rehabbed from the lower-body ailments.“And then I started to notice some differences,” Thybulle told The Post.“I was probably like a month out of being able to play again.

And he’s like, ‘Well, you kind of have to decide now: Do you want to change your shot and stick to it and you can’t go back? Or keep shooting the way you’ve been shooting?’“I was like, ‘But I want to change it.’ So then we just decided to just stick with the changes that we were doing, trust the work and not really worry too much about the results for a little bit.”The changes yielded positive results.After shooting 34.6% on 3s in 2023-24, Thybulle shot 43.8% f...