Taking a look at LeBron James' new shooting motion

What's the story?

LeBron James has a new shooting motion for the 2017-18 season; which prompted the question, why change it up in his 15th season in the NBA? The reason was simple, he injured his shooting elbow in the offseason, but nobody knew about it.

In case you didn't know...

Though it is early in the season, LeBron is on pace to destroy his career-best 3-point shooting percentage if he continues to shoot this well with the new shooting motion. Through five games he is shooting 45% from three, and his career best was 40.6% in the 2012-13 season with the Miami Heat.

The heart of the matter...

The injury caused LeBron to work on a new release point over the summer. Oddly enough, he's shooting 61.1% from the field through five games. His career best FG% for an entire season is 56.7% in the 2013-14 season with the Miami Heat.

It's not the first time that LeBron has dealt with a bum shooting elbow, as he injured it in 2010 so much so that he couldn't bend his arm.

Former NBA star Tracy McGrady breaks down LeBron's past and present shooting motions at the 45-second mark of this video:

What's next?

LeBron and the Cleveland Cavaliers (3-2) travel to New Orleans to take on the Pelicans (2-3) that could be without Anthony Davis. He injured his knee on Wednesday and is currently day-to-day.

Author's take...

All of the greats in the NBA have to adjust their game one way or another to maintain the high level of production in the later years of their career. With the way that LeBron is shooting the ball early in the season, he probably wonders why he didn't make the change sooner, but then he probably looks back at all his trips to the NBA Finals and doesn't worry about it too much.