Andre Drummond is one of the best young big men in the NBA, but only has historic numbers in one statistical category — free throw shooting.
The Detroit Pistons have been blessed with an athletic young big man in the form of Andre Drummond. He’s just 22 and about to be signed to a max extension this offseason that will make him a Pistons for years to come. He’s coming off a season in which he set career high numbers in both points and rebounds per game, averaging 16.2 points and an NBA-leading 14.8 rebounds per game.
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There are things to be excited about with Drummond, but there’s a downside. Drummond’s free throws have been a source of constant angst, both for him and the team, and have been since the beginning of his career.
As a rookie in 2012-13, he shot 37.1 percent from the free throw line, 41.8 percent in his second season, 38.9 percent in his third, and this past season hit just 35.5 percent of his free throws. Drummond’s career free throw percentage is just 38 percent, making him the worst free throw shooter in NBA history.
He is known to shoot free throws in practice for hours, hitting a decent number of them, but simply can’t translate that ability to the floor for game action.
As with most extremely poor free throw shooters, Drummond’s issues aren’t simply technical, they’re mental as well. On a recent Vertical With JJ Redick podcast, DeAndre Jordan of the Los Angeles Clippers expressed his own angst at his inability to shoot from the line (a 42.1 percent free throw shooter in his career), describing how often his thoughts at the line simply revolve around the phrase “Just don’t shoot a f—ing airball.”
It’s not easy for these guys to have their most glaring weakness exposed to the world, sometimes as a result of a hacking strategy that exists simply to exploit their inability to hit free throws, and when you’ve exhausted all other avenues, sometimes it might be time to try one last new thing.
Enter “The Granny Shot,” an underhanded shooting motion utilized by Rick Barry throughout his career which might be the last ditch effort to fix what ails Drummond’s free throws. Barry shot 89 percent from the free throw line in his career, and it’s already been adopted by at least a couple of players in the collegiate ranks.
Chinanu Onuaku of Louisville began using it this past offseason, and saw his free throw percentage rise from 46.7 percent in 2014-15 to 58.9 percent in 2015-16. Barry’s own son, Canyon Barry, shoots underhanded as well, and is a 76.5 percent free throw shooter in his three years at the College of Charleston.
At long last, it appears that Andre Drummond might just be coming around to the idea of adopting the shot as his own. It’s not the first time that it’s been mentioned to him, of course, but maybe the stigma of being the worst free throw shooter in NBA history has finally overwhelmed the dismay he feels at firing a silly looking shot from the line.
The topic of free throws came up on Thursday during exit interviews with head coach and president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy.
"“As far as shooting underhand or anything else, it’s fair to say my discussion with Andre yesterday and the discussions Jeff and I have had and staff — everything is on the table,” Van Gundy said Thursday during the season wrap-up at The Palace.“It won’t be a unilateral decision; we’ll do some research on some things and come up with what we think is a good approach, talk to Andre and see what he thinks and develop an approach going forward.“We all know it’s an important thing — Andre more than any of us – he’s pretty open to anything. There’s a lot of ways to attack this problem and we’ll all have a hand in it.”"
Drummond was largely unusable down the stretch for the Pistons in fourth quarters as opponents would frequently and relentlessly foul him to put him on the line and take him out of the game. In one game against the Houston Rockets this season, K.J. McDaniels played just thirty seconds, his entire role in the contest being to foul Drummond and send him to the line.
In that game, a 123-114 Piston win, Drummond shot 13-for-36 from the line in spite of the fact that he only played 23 minutes himself. It’s worth noting that he set an NBA record for most missed free throws in that game, and yet the 36.1 percent he shot over the course of those 36 free throws is still a touch better than his total percentage on the season.
Next: Detroit Pistons still plan to give Drummond a max deal
Drummond knows there is a problem, and it looks like he’s willing to take the steps necessary to address it. Fans and observers have questioned Drummond’s maturity, but his willingness to adapt and try this shot out may be as good a sign as any that he is growing before our eyes.