seriously, 47% from the freethrow line?? what part of FREE-throw don't they get?? it's free, free guys!! you just toss the ball from 15 feet with no one on you.. just you and the basket.. you're at home, no one is booing you, the crowds behind the basket aren't waving and going crazy, the arena is closed, winds won't affect your shots, the players aren't allowed to cough/scream loudly to get you to miss, they can't flail their arms wildly either.. depth perception maybe?? no, it's practice.. practice? seriously? not the game, not the game, not the game, but practice? yes, practice, it these physically gifted men who are getting paid millions of dollars are missing free throws, something is wrong.. we're not talking about an unbelievable player like Shaq, who happened to suck at shooting because his hand is tool large for the ball, but yet because he is so great, we can overlook his poor FT shooting, it's freakin' Scola missing FT's.. it's freakin' 2 guards missing FT's .. it's a scoring champion, twice, missing FT's, bad, bricking them.. sad, pathetic, horrible, annoying, painful .. as much as I criticized Yao to the point that I got labeled a hater, he is the only one earning his money.. he is actually taking 15 minutes of his valuable time to shoot freethrows, and he, the 7'6 center, is the best FT shooter on this team.. it's not depth perception, it's practice.. it takes practice.. it takes players WILLING to practice freethrows, the most basic fundamental of the game..
The free throw issues are a regular occurrence and that's just turrable. Seriously, I have no idea why this team has such severe issues with concentration. They have trouble closing games, can't shoot for sh#t at home and regularly shoot free throws as a team at such a horrible clip that even a Jr. high school coach would run his team sick the day after the game for that BS.
I agree 100%. Maybe because I've been watching baskeball since the early 80's that I get annoyed that some players are making excuses (or just not putting in the time and work) and shooting so crappy from the line. I'm here in the bay area and when Don Nelson took over the Warriors last year, he made it a point to improve the team's FT shooting woes. I've included an article and highlighted what he did to try to improve the FT shooting. Maybe the Rockets need to do the something similar. Link: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20061127/ai_n16874886 Warriors clank bid to improve on free throws Oakland Tribune, Nov 27, 2006 by Geoff LepperSTAFF OAKLAND -- So far, the 2006-07 Warriors do not merit prominent reference in any promotional literature for the shooting camps Hal Wissel runs in New Jersey. In fact, if things keep up at this rate, Wissel might want to deny any knowledge of working with this club. Wissel -- a veteran of five other NBA organizations -- was supposed to be the answer to the Warriors' woes at the foul line, where they shot just 71.8 percent last season and finished 26th in the NBA. Coach Don Nelson brought him in as an assistant coach for player development, and the pair worked hard throughout October implementing a free-throw program that included a technical tuneup for many players' form and a commitment to continued practice. The result heading into Monday's game with the San Antonio Spurs? The Warriors are shooting 67.2 percent and rank dead last in the league. "I'm very unhappy with the free-throw shooting," Nelson said. "I don't know where to go from here." Things have only gotten worse of late. The Warriors cracked the 70 percent barrier just once in their last eight games, and Wednesday night, in what might have been the nadir, Nelson selected three different players -- forward Mike Dunleavy, guard Baron Davis and forward Troy Murphy -- to try three technical foul shots in a 115-112 loss to the Denver Nuggets. All three missed. "I try to put more pressure on them here in practice than they (feel) in the games, so it's not pressure," Nelson said. "I call them out in front of everybody, make the whole team run if they miss, do a lot of things like that. I yell at them, curse at them while they're shooting, put money on it, make 'em pay if they miss. "So I think in the game all the pressure should be off of them and let them do their thing. But, clank. We're never going to be as good a team as I want them to (be) if we don't make our free throws. It just can't happen." Nelson feels the team doesn't need more technical discussion, even though multiple players have tweaked with Wissel's changes. "You've got to shoot how you feel comfortable," said Murphy, whose percentage (77.5) is relatively unchanged from last season. "There were changes made to everybody's shot, but people changed their shot to how they feel comfortable." Center Andris Biedrins went to one-handed style at Wissel and Nelson's request, but soon began using his right hand to steady the ball once again after meeting with Dirk Nowitzki's shooting coach during the Warriors' stop in Dallas on Nov. 6. He's shooting 55.8 percent, a jump of 25 points over last year's disasterous mark. Guard Jason Richardson, on the other hand, is 11 of his last 23, including a flat-out air ball during a 1-for-5 performance Saturday against the Utah Jazz. His current mark of 60.8 percent represents a drop of 6.5 points for the NBA's worst free-throw-shooting guard in 2005-06. "I just need to get myfrom Sports 1 confidence back," Richardson said. "I'm trying to get back into my routine." At the beginning of the season, Nelson talked about there being consequences for players missing too many foul shots, but with the Warriors' injury situation being what it is, don't expect that to be implemented any time soon. "There's some guys that, if they don't shoot their free throws, I can replace them," Nelson said. "There's other guys I can't. If they're going to miss, they're going to miss. Like J.R. He hasn't made his free throws. My goodness, he's my captain. He's one of my best players. He's got to make his free throws. TIP-INS: Davis had a long workout after practice Sunday with Mark Grabow, the Warriors' director of athletic development, but said he would "probably not" be available for tonight's game because of his strained rib muscle. "It's one of those things that you don't want to come back, have it irritate you and sit out two more games," Davis said. "I think the best thing is to let it heal, let it rest." ... Elsewhere on the injury front, Mickael Pietrus (stomach flu) is questionable, and Zarko Cabarkapa (strained lower back) and Ike Diogu (sprained ankle) are still slated for duty on the inactive list. c2006 ANG Newspapers. Cannot be used or repurposed without prior written permission. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.
Our team doesn't believe in the basics. We're too advanced for stuff like FTs (almost the whole team is to blame), jump shots (Hayes, do you even have one?) and defense (how many times will we leave Korver open?)
this is something we need to learn from the Mavs. Avery that he believes free-throws are free. look at them, shooting .838 as a team, and their main players all shooting over 85%. how wonderful is that. i mean every point counts, especially in close games in the playoff. Making the fts can be the difference between W and L in many situations. plz rox, every player should stay 1 extra hour after practice just to shoot fts.
the mavs and warriors also have great shooters so it's much easier for them instead of the rockets who have pretty poor shooters.
by improving your fts, you can also improve your shooting in general, in terms of mechanics especially... Ray Allen said like if he started missing shots after shots, he would start shoot ft to get his touch back, our shooting slumps can be somewhat eased by ft practices... btw are you that dumbass who said we should bench Yao while playing jazz??
<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0wQq9YWZ568&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0wQq9YWZ568&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object> This is the bar. If you do better than this, you aren't the worst free throw shooter on the team.
in this game you know, you wonder his mechanic is OBVIOUSLY horribly horribly wrong... yet he still shoots this way as far as i know..... hope our "players' coach" can take notice and pressure chuck and other players (t-mac, bonzi, scola, wink wink) to work harder to improve their fts... it can really make a difference in a tight game.
if i were coach, i'd make everyone on the team shoot 500 freethrows a day for at least a week straight. i can't remember my team ever having such a bad FT %. absolutely fustrating. i don't think i've been to a game yet all season where we've shot more than the supposed team avg of 73%. seeing the jazz last night with 19/20 at one point was a killer.
I'm not sure if forcing everyone to shoot a certain hundred FT's consecutively will help, cus there are just so many other things the team can also practice on during that time. I'm thinking maybe Adelman should fine players if they shoot FT's below a certain %. That'll get them in check and stay a little bit after practice. Oh well, I'm just dreaming.
It really is inexcusable. Scola, TMac, Rafer, Bonzi, even Battier need to spend extra times shooting the damn things. You'll note I've left out Hayes. His, my friends, is a hopeless case.
I am not surprise our guys miss tons of FT. Look at it this way, these are the same guys who has high tendency to miss open shots. Hence, FT is an open shot, with no one blocking or guarding you at all and it is much nearer than most open shots you could have had. So it's actually really an open shot which is nearer and as what most of our guys do with shots, they brick it.
