Pistons Want Drummond To Shoot Underhanded FTs

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

What this tells me is the Pistons said enough is enough with the 35% FTs and hacking strategies at the ends of games. It's an interesting idea and experiment:

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/1...derhand-free-throws-coach-stan-van-gundy-says

 

[Dominicfrank]

65% in practice........mental midget.

 

[the Blades]

Here's a good clip on FT's about Wilt Chamberlain who switched to underhanded....couple thing I didn't know about the NBA.... they used to have a rule that you had
3 FT's to make 2 that they changed..... also Wilt used to take off from the FT line and dunk it !!! ....but he forced another rule change with that move.



And here's one that Andre makes The Worst FT Contest Ever ( LOL !) but he's edged by Meka in the first round:

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

For many years Wilt Chamberlain was the poster boy for poor FT shooting by a elite NBA big man. If you look at his career stats, his FT shooting actually got worse as his career went along, and this was probably due to numerous attempts to change his mechanics and form. He did manage to keep his career FT% above 50%, but this was considered to be terrible and a benchmark for the poor shooting elite NBA big man.

Drummond who is also an elite player in all other areas, has operated at a FT% level far below what Wilt was shooting. Like Wilt, his mechanics and form are being played around with and it remains to be seen whether it will work. It doesn't seem like it's possible that he can be worse than the 35.5% he shot this season and since his numbers were going in the wrong direction, the Pistons felt something had to be done.

 

[the Blades]

For many years Wilt Chamberlain was the poster boy for poor FT shooting by a elite NBA big man. If you look at his career stats, his FT shooting actually got worse as his career went along, and this was probably due to numerous attempts to change his mechanics and form. He did manage to keep his career FT% above 50%, but this was considered to be terrible and a benchmark for the poor shooting elite NBA big man.
.

Yeah this mentions how he wasn't bad and it got worse for Wilt and how it becomes a poor mind set for many of these bigs:
"Wilt Chamberlain says he shot 80 percent from the foul line in high school. The stats say he was a 62 percent free throw shooter in college, 58 percent as an NBA rookie and a career-best 61 percent in 1961-62. For his pro career, he was a 51 percent free throw shooter and shot under 50 percent in six different seasons, his worst being 38 percent in 1967-68. In the NBA playoffs, he made only 46 percent. Yet he holds the NBA record for most free throws made in a game (28), which happened the night he scored 100. A Philadelphia Inquirer story of March 18, 1991, listed six reasons given by Chamberlain over the years for his poor free throw shooting: 1. Arthritic Knees. 2. Too much English on his shot. 3. Too tall, which ruins his shooting arch. 4. Lifting weights made him too strong. 5. His hands are too big. 6. It's all in his head." - Tall Tales: The Glory Years of the NBA


Interesting comments by Heinsohn and Rick Barry in the Wilt clip...maybe Drummond should talk to Rick Barry( is he still alive ? )about underhanded

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Rick Barry was a career 90% FT shooter and won 8 FT shooting titles in the 1970s. Apart from that he was the main man player on the 1974-75 Golden State Warriors, which staged the biggest upset in NBA history when they swept the Washington Bullets in the NBA finals using a 10 man rotation and pressure defense.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

What's interesting to me is that if you watch tape on Drummond, his actual FT shooting form is better than Wilt's. Contrast the video below with the tape Blades posted of Wilt. His form suggests he should be better than what he is- Wilt's FT shots were very jerky and his form was obviously horrible:

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Also, regarding Wilt Chamberlain's claim that he was "too tall" and that his height ruined "his shooting arc", there have been plenty of sweet shooting 7 footers who could make FTs. Even Amida Brimah, who is about the same height as Wilt, shot 82.4% on FTs last year, a % Wilt never came close to in his career. Kareem Abdul Jabbar was a 72% career FT shooter, and he was about the same height as well.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

I don't know if he is shooting them underhanded but Drummond is at 47% FTs for the season which represents dramatic improvement over last season's 35.5%- almost a 25% accuracy jump. While 47% is still poor it's at least getting close to Shaq/Wilt territory of around 50%.