Josh Smith being a bad free throw shooter makes no sense...

It's mostly if not all mental for Smith but I say 50/50 mental/bad form in Dwight's case.

 

There is truth to what he says. But Deandre Jordan went college, and he has to be one of the worst ever.

 

and then there is Joey Dorsey.

 

He's just pretending they are 3's...

 

I've watched Josh shoot in game free throws. He makes them when he keeps his guide hand (right hand) up and follows through with his left. Whenever he takes away or drops his guide hand it's a miss automatically.

JOSH KEEP YOUR GUIDE HAND UP NEXT TO YOUR SHOOTING HAND!!!

 

What about Shaq, Deandre, and Rondo? They suck at free throws and went to college.

 

lol @ 'normal people'.

 

Dwight needs to shoot with his left.

Since he is, you know, left-handed.

 

Because a foul shot is not a jump shot. It's easier to shoot off a pass or coming off a dribble because you get more legs, lift, and rhythm in your shot.

It's probably also hard to block out the fact that everything is focused on you at that very moment. Every fan, every announcer, every player is talking about you and watching you. I imagine that has to get into some guys' heads.

 

one thing we need to factor in also is probably their body strength, DH and Josh is very strong athletes, we as normal people may not be able to experience shooting free throw while being so bulked in upper body, it may feel like you are wearing a overcoat when you are shooting, just saying

 

I think slightly bad mechanic. He shot is like a continuous throw from waist up. I think that make it very hard to control distance. If you look at his shots, he is usually on center, but either too strong or too weak. He can starts from waist, but his release should be from about shoulder/neck up, not from waist. That provide more accurate control on distance.

He should try practicing with a quick release free throw which will force him to shoot more from shoulder up. Take at least 100 shots a day and he can improve. Practice until it's 2nd nature and just muscle memory.

 

Speeding up his release will also help his jump shooting.

 

Ah, my favorite, Brick Anderson! Long may you whiff whiff whiff whiff ! ! ! & !

 

this/

 

I think I remember reading somewhere that Dwight broke his hand/wrist in 8th grade and started playing basketball with his right hand as a result. He is naturally left-handed. If you watch him play he usually does much better on the right block where other lefties such as David Robinson and Z-Bo have flourished as opposed the the more natural left block that you see in the 90% Hakeem and Shaq highlights.

He should honestly try shooting left handed and see what the outcome is. It can't be any worse than the 50%

As for Josh... no idea. He's just a head case.

 

If you look at Tim Duncan's free throw shooting years, it is a lot similar to Josh. Out of no where he's a solid 70s guy then falls into dreadful territory, then climbs back to normal.

 

dwight needs to watch Yao shoot if he wants to learn how to be a big man with touch. Dwight does the elbow aim thing and despite having abnormally long levers cocks all the way back to his shoulder, thus creating too much power and no touch which he then compensates for by slowing his release.


Look big fella, it don't take a mountain with shoulders connected to get the ball up there. i think getting him to adopt a smaller, quicker motion is the answer to this prayer.

 

FT shooting is at least 80% mental.

From the mechanical point of view, it is pure muscle memory. You do the same thing with the same amount of force every time. Muscle memory is just a matter of practice. Even if you don't get to practice a lot, you still have tons of practice given the fact that you've been playing basketball for a living your whole life. There is no mechanical reason for being a poor FT shooter. (BTW, the "hands too big" excuse is one of the biggest myths that has been perpetrated.)

So it has to be mental.

 

its weird, his ft% used to be good for a big, around 65-75%. then it went downhill from 50s to 40s. has to be mental, but still how you lose the mental focus when you weren't a bad ft shooter to start with? its so weird to see in nba players