Repairing Andre Drummond’s missed free throws

By swallowing his pride, Andre Drummond could not only improve his free throw percentage, but he could help the entire Pistons’ defense.

Andre Drummond’s poor free throw shooting has been well published. The fourth-year center just completed the season shooting a futile 35 percent from the free throw line. There were times down the stretch when the Pistons’ best player was not even on the floor because the Hack-a-Dre was so effective.

After this last season, it was easy for Pistons’ fans to sit back and scream at the television about Drummond’s missed free throws. The day after a game, many Pistons fans went to work and complained about how embarrassing it is for a professional athlete to shoot so poorly. Many fans asked the question, “How can a guy make that much money and not make 50 percent from the stripe?”

The frustrations are understandable and it is definitely something Drummond needs to improve if he wants to be in the discussion of upper echelon of players in the league. But until he is able to hit around 55 percent from the three throw line it may be important to teach him how to miss more effectively.

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Learning how to successfully miss a free shoot may sound incredibly senseless, but in today’s game with teams sacrificing size for scoring acumen it is highly critical for the defense to recover on a missed free throw so they are not giving up transition scores. Free throw shots coming hard off the back of the rim instantly puts pressure on the transitioning defense heading back down the floor.

Last year, when Drummond was shooting free throws, the ball came off the rim hard, the defense came up with the rebound, they quickly outlet a pass to half-court, and now it is a transition going the other way. Which resulted in open threes, open lanes, and desperation fouls. No only did the misses put pressure on the Pistons’ defense, but Drummond is the biggest defensive obstacle the Pistons possess, and many times he was unable to get back to cover the paint.

His constant misses put the team in bad positions defensively and made him more of a liability than an asset during the run to the playoffs. The easiest solution to the problem would be to say, “Well, Andre needs to shoot 1,000 free throws a day until he figures it out.” Which sounds good but I would assume, for a guy like him, his hands are so big it would be like the rest of us shooting free throws with a mini-basketball which is not as easy as it sounds.

Also, he is not a shooter regardless of where he is on the floor – he doesn’t have a 10-foot jumper, so there is no foundational shooting success overall to implement into his free throw shooting. He has a growing repertoire of post moves and is getting a better touch both left and right handed around the rim, but he does not present the shooting mechanics of some of the new centers in the league.

So to counter the atrocity that is his free throw shooting, Drummond may need to try the two handed shot, widely known as the “Granny” shot. Sure, it is going to be the lead on ESPN’s Not Top-10 but it would be highly beneficial for the entire team.

The beauty of the Granny shot is that it guarantees arc. There may not be a more important sequence throughout a shot than the release and the arc. If the player is missing hard and flat, most of those shots are coming hard off the backboard which enables defensive rebounds to be grabbed going towards their basket – that momentum leads to chaos for the transitioning defense. Teams like the Warriors and Cavaliers thrive when they are allowed space and open court flexibility.

Arc, for the most part, allows misses to come off the rim softly. Instead of the ball springing back with a high velocity that works to the advantage of the transitioning offense, the ball bounces up in the air and that .5 second to a full second hang time gives the transitioning defensive team time to get back and set their match-ups. The Pistons are a completely different defensive team when stronger defenders like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Marcus Morris, Stanley Johnson, and the presence of Drummond are back on defense.

Also, the underhand shot is easily repeated. There are not as many moving parts. Drummond would not have to concentrate on his form, his elbow placement, leaving a gap between the ball on the palm of his hands, bending his legs up through the shot, consistently releasing at the same point, getting proper rotation, and following through. Instead, he’d have to bend his legs and release both hands as they naturally swing towards the rim. Make or miss, it does guarantee softer misses.

Obviously, making this change may force Drummond to swallow back some of his ego, the same ego that has allowed him to get to the NBA and thrive, but it would have positive effects on the team as a whole. He can continue to work on his regular form until he has a comfortable release point that he can consistently have success with as a shooter. In the meantime, the two-handed shot could provide short-term relief for a team that needs Drummond on the floor, especially closing the first half and the game.

He could realistically shoot the first shot normally and the second shot underhand. Therefore, he would be getting real game feedback on his free-throw practice. After the initial mocking and shock of seeing a modern player of his stature shooting underhand, it would become normalized. If the Pistons can somehow get Drummond to shoot around 50 percent we would see a very dangerous young team in the East because he could be on the court during crunch time.

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Drummond has grown every year for the Pistons, and after his new contract he is clearly looked upon as a cornerstone to their future, the team needs their biggest star to put the overall success of the team first, even if that means he has to shoot a free-throw named after our elders.