A recent ESPN.com article by Tom Haberstroh delved into the issue of big men struggling at the free throw line. It focused on the Detroit Pistons’ Andre Drummond in particular, and revealed that his free throw issues are both mechanical and psychological.
“Freebies”, free throws are often called. Or the line itself, the “charity stripe”, because the opposing team is said to be giving points away when they send a player there. But for Andre Drummond and free throws, these sayings do not apply.
Pardon my unacceptable tardiness in today’s 24-hour news cycle, but I just got around to reading Tom Haberstroh’s piece on ESPN.com on big men and free throw struggles. The in-depth piece is really insightful and I’d recommend that you take the time to read it in its entirety.
The article tries to identify reasons that big men, particularly Drummond, DeAndre Jordan, and Dwight Howard, struggle so mightily from the free throw line. These three are a few of the main reasons why the “Hack-a-player” strategy has vaulted into a national discussion.
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According to Haberstroh, some 450 intentional free throws were shot in the NBA last season.
2015-2016 regular season free throw attempts:
- James Harden – 837
- DeMarcus Cousins – 663
- DeMar DeRozan – 653
- Jordan – 619
- Drummond – 586
Jordan and Drummond, who rarely have plays run through them, have no business being in the top five, but this is the world we live in. Today’s coaches are taking an analytic-based approach to the strategy and using it more and more. And why shouldn’t they, especially against Drummond.
Drummond shot a career-worst 35.5 percent from the line last season. He: missed a total of 378 of them, set a record for the most free throws missed in a single game, and is well on his way to breaking Ben Wallace’s record for the worst career free-throw shooting percentage.
Related Story: The impact of Andre Drummond's free throws
Drummond may be the worst of them, but he’s far from alone. According to Haberstroh, NBA players that are 6’9” and taller make only about 72 percent of their free throws, and 75 percent of the worst free throw shooters in NBA history are 6’9” or taller.
But why?
That’s what the article aimed to find out. Using SportVU data-based research from Dr. Michael Beuoy of Inpredictable.com, Haberstroh took a look at several factors pertaining to shooting mechanics, such as release angle, height, velocity, and position.
The takeaways:
- Hand size is not a statistically significant predictor of free throw success, so you can throw that argument out the window.
- Big men tend to have higher shot trajectories, so their shots have more force behind them. Therefore, if they catch rim, they are less likely to get a friendly bounce.
- Big men are not consistent with their shooting mechanics.
Take this excerpt from the article, for example:
"“An Andre Drummond free throw is like a snowflake: no two attempts are the same — which is a problem. He struggles at releasing from the same spot on the floor each time.For an average shooter, 80 percent of their shots start from within a five-inch zone. For Drummond, that zone is over a foot wide (14 inches). He also struggles with hitting the target.A horizontal angular release of zero means the shot is aimed directly at the hoop. However, 80 percent of Drummond’s shots fall within a range of 5.64 degrees."
Everybody who has ever played basketball at a fifth-grade level knows that one of the main keys to successful shooting is consistent mechanics. You’re supposed to master a motion you can replicate over and over again. But now we know that Drummond fails to do that.
So, why do Stan Van Gundy and others swear that Drummond is much better at the stripe in practice than he is in games? SVG has gone on record to peg his practice free-throw percentage at around 65 percent. Howard and coaches have noticed a similar drop off between practice and games.
Many experts interviewed in the article contend that this is a result of psychology; that the heart of such problems lie in neurological roots. They believe that these guys are thinking too much or too hard about the consequences of failure and essentially get into their own heads. Haberstroh likens it to the “yips” in golf.
I’ll leave you with this passage that stuck out to me in the piece: “When it comes to free throws, it’s better to accept failure and learn to not fear it.”
Drummond is never going to be good at free throws (he did make headlines earlier this summer by stating “we’ve found something that works,” but I’ll believe it when I see it). But maybe it’s possible for him to largely eradicate the mechanical inconsistencies with his shot. He can start by following that advice.
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Then, well, maybe he won’t go down as the worst free throw shooter in NBA history. If he does that, I’ll gladly take it, given everything else he does on the court.