We have the greatest foul shooter in the history of the game in our organization. Priority #1 this off season should be to get all of our bigs in a gym with Calvin Murphy. Stock the gym full of water, cans and non-perishable food items; maybe some thin bedding. And then chain the doors shut for about 3 months. seriously, our foul shooting can keep us from true contention; I've been astounded how bad it is. It's a true liability, and it's the kind of thing that can be improved with practice, right? So why aren't we prioritizing it? How did we let it get this bad?
Calvin can stand behind them at the FT line and chirp in their ear all he wants, but its really up to the player to improve. And it won't happen overnight, its about rhythm, muscle memory, and being comfortable in the actual game moments cause for whatever reason players get more nervous at the line in the actual games. For example Chuck Hayes actually had a hitch to his ft form but over time he corrected it and actually became a decent ft shooter.
Chuck Hayes shot 64% as a rookie, and his career average is 62%. He didn't improve. Most guys don't really improve much at the line after their first couple of years.
These guys have shot hundreds of thousands of free throws in their life. They've had hours and hours of instruction. Calvin Murphy wouldn't be much help. They are who they are at this point. The only way they may see improvement is if they completely throw away their current shot, and rebuild from scratch. And that takes a long time. And even then there may only be a minor improvement. Some guys just can't shoot.
Yes he did, because if you look at each of his season, he regressed in his 3rd and 4th season and then slowly climbed up his percentage until he shot .83 last year. This year its dipped again, but maybe that's due to injuries. Anybody who followed him can attest to that hitch which I've heard began when Patrick Ewing started working with him.
He only had one season with over 100 fta, its only going to be small sample sizes with a role player like him. The point is he gradually improved after he bottomed out his 4th year.
Doesn't work for all people. Infact it's down right much more difficult to make a bucket rather than learning to shoot the traditional way.
Rick Barry and some scientist guy suggests shooting it granny style. http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/eye-performance/201411/underhand-free-throw-shooting-george-johnson-rick-barry-deandre-jordan
He didn't gradually improve. He shot about the same his whole career. He shot 63% his first 2 years, then 50% the next 3 seasons, then 66% in his most productive season, then 67% the next 4 seasons. That's the point of small sample size. When you make the sample larger, the outliers start to go away.
The size difference between Calvin Murphy and the bigs might not help in shooting free throws. It might be better to get Yao Ming to help them.
I completely agree with you. I don't care about the size difference between Calvin and the bigs. The stuff he talks about on air is just fundamentals: letting the shot start from your legs instead of just letting it be all arms, having a fluid motion, etc. He could make any one of these guys shoot better. Get Yao in there, too, if necessary. This really is the Achilles Heel of the team, and every team knows it and exploits it. If our threes aren't falling, we SHOULD be able to make up for that by getting to the basket, except that any team is going to foul one of our bigs rather than let them get a shot off. That's one of the reasons our guards have to slash to the basket so much, so we can get our paint points. And, then, of course, there's the Hack-A-Half-Dozen-Players-On-Our-Team approach, which is a totally viable option that often works. If our bigs aren't going to go as strong as possible to the basket Deandre-Jordan-style (which they should), they need to collect those points anyway after they're fouled. I don't care about how many free-throws they shoot in practice or how many they've shot in their lives. People CAN change with the right attitude and tutelage, and it's their damn job to do better than they do now. Practice and shootarounds have no pressure. Put some loud speakers around them jeering at them while they practice. Hire some guys to line up around the key and twitch like they're about to go in for the rebound. Hire some other guys to wave signs in the background. Make it as uncomfortable a practice as possible, so they can a get a taste of shooting in a real game. Our potential future playoff opponents, except for the Clippers, shoot free throws better than us. Portland is #1 in FT%, San Antonio #4, Atlanta #5, Memphis (with two critical BIG guys) is #7, Golden State #9, Dallas #16, New Orleans #17, Cleveland #18, and the Rockets are all the way down at #27, just ahead of the Clippers at #28. Is there a stat for how many more points we'd have per game if we shot a higher percentage? I know we'd have won probably four more games this season at least just based on that. We can't stay like this.
Here is the problem, both Josh and Dwight make free throws when they keep their guide hand (non shooting hand) up, instead of shooting with one hand, bricking free throws.
"cool story, bro" moment -- I was in the Lexus Lounge at half time and Calvin ran through to go to the bathroom. On his way back out I asked him for a picture and he obliged. Unfortunately, dumbass brother doesn't know how to take a picture on a password-protected iphone and Calvin was obviously in a hurry so I told him it was okay get back to the show. He apologized and said maybe after the game, but we didn't go back after the game. I was really disappointed, but happy that I got to shake his hand and talk to him for just a minute. He was very nice and was wearing a tame suit haha. I got a pic OF him next to me, but not with me
Rick Barry often uses teammate George Johnson as his example of teaching a player to shoot underhand. Johnson was 6-11 (but yikes... 205 lbs) If you look at Johnson's FT% over his career: 41%, 55%, 66%, 67%, 81%, then traded to Buffalo.NJN, 69%, 72%, 76%, 71%, then it went up and down as he didn't play much. So, not knowing when Barry convinced him it does show he improved to at least a decent % that would be a huge improvement for Dwight, Smith, Dorsey, and Capella. I guess the mechanics of an underhand shot are easier to learn since there are far fewer possible variance in the stroke. The main downside is that you can't align the ball between your eye and the basket. So its more of a bowling or golf stroke. Tried to find a picture of Johnson shooting a FT... no such luck. Here's a picture of him with Clifford Ray and coach Al Attles:
typical of a guy who shoots bad his first couple years, and then is pretty consistent after that. Of course the "81%" is 25-31. Just noise. Very few guys improve after their first couple years.
