Not usually a big Bleacher report fan, but this article makes a lot of great observations about Dwight Howard and free throw shooting, including the amount of FT shooting practice he does put in, and the mental aspect of shooting in practice and in games. Cool to note the improvement in his shooting the past few games. I also like the whiteboard shot from the Lakers... all players (I am talking to you Jones, Casspi, Lin) should be shooting better in games. Note that Howard shoots a lot of FTs in practice. So does Nash. I am shoing that whiteboard to my daughter (plays for her HS team)... she needs to shoot more.http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1888641-has-dwight-howard-finally-learned-how-to-shoot-free-throws
I'm loving the fact he has been shooting them well as of recent. The 7-7 he hit last night was amazing.
Last night was something strange, even Drummond hit 6/8 or something like that. And he's like the forst FT's shooter in NBA
Like I said in another thread, I was in Portland for Thursday's game and got there early enough to watch the shootaround. Dwight took 40 free throws; 5 of them were knocked off course by shots from other players, so we'll discard those. Out of the remaining 35 shots, he hit 31 of them -- and at least 20 of them didn't touch the rim. I was stunned at how good he shoots them in practice. His form looked great, and (probably the key to it) he seemed totally relaxed.
People knock on him these past years for having bad free throw shooting form and say he can't improve. If there's any place where he can improve on free throw, it's here in Houston with the plethora of hall of famer big man available to him to help out with it
I can only wonder at how ticked a lot of people from the Lakers and Magic will be if Howard manages to get his FT shooting sorted. 70% FT Shooter? Dare we hope for 80%? If we think they hate him now... just wait.
Good call. I didn't realize it was Friday the 13th until earlier today. Props to Dwight. Hopefully he keeps it up. His post game has improved as well. There's still some horrible TOs, but he has improved.
In my not-expert view, I think Howard would shoot a bit better if he bent his knees a bit more and instead of relying on wrist to get the soft backspin, he used a consistent and single-motion full arm and follow through shot. He seems to shoot too upright, and then flicks his wrist. TBH, he does seem more relaxed (earlier in the season, you could easily see he didn't have any confidence, and would launch his shot with no sense as to where it was going). And getting above a 66% FT shot would eliminate any "Hacka's". btw, there are others on the team that actually look worse up there... amazes me how bad Terrence Jones and Casspi are at the FT line. Jones used to be a guard, so he should have no excuses. And Casspi? Horrible at the line. If I was the oposing coach, I'd start fouling those guys...
It's all mental, and for the 1st time in the last few years he's comfortable. His last year in Orlando, and the year with LA were disasters, and he was taking the brunt of the criticism.After a slow start he's shooting 63% in the last 16 games. Up to 57% for the whole season. He was almost exactly 59% six straight seasons (really one of the greater anomalies I've ever seen to have numbers that consistent given his volume of FT's). Then the two troubled years. I expect him to be around that number again, and while he won't be leading any clinics, it's good enough to eliminate Hack-a-Dwight.
It's not all mental. He has bad form and won't change it. If you look at his rookie year shot form, it's...you know, normal. As NewRoxFan mentioned, he doesn't really use his legs or follow through on his shot. Could he get to 60% with his current form? Maybe. But it'd be nice if he would just fix it.
Chances are he'll get so nervous about his improvement that he'll forget everything he learned and revert back to 50% Dwight.
