Andre Drummond is one of the most physically dominant players in the NBA, but he’s got a gigantic hole in his game. It’s about 15 feet long, or the distance between the rim and the free-throw line.
Drummond just wrapped up a year in which he shot 35 percent from the charity stripe, which is the worst mark in NBA history among players with enough attempts. It’s bad enough that Drummond had to sit for long stretches in the fourth quarter of the Pistons’ first round series against the Cavaliers so he wouldn’t get hacked (like he did earlier in the year). Something’s gotta give, as Stan Van Gundy explained to the Detroit News.
“As far as shooting underhand or anything else, it’s fair to say my discussion with Andre yesterday and the discussions Jeff and I have had and staff — everything is on the table,” Van Gundy said of his star big man’s technique at the line next season.
Did we hear that correctly? Is Drummond finally open to shooting underhand? Honestly, we still doubt that Dre will go full Rick Barry next season, but SVG is right about one thing:
“The one thing we do know is the traditional approach and nothing else, of simply trying to correct mechanics and go in the gym and shoot a lot of free throws has not worked,” Van Gundy said, “so we’ve got to (try something) else. We’ve got to be a little more creative in how we approach it.
That’s a low-key revolutionary thing for Van Gundy to say in this day and age.
We know that Drummond, Dwight Howard and DeAndre Jordan are much better free-throw shooters when the pressure’s off, but publicly all any of them have been willing to say is a platitude about working to get better. Hopefully Drummond is as open-minded as Van Gundy says he is, because he needs to improve drastically to become the complete star he can be.
Now, as far as Drummond’s second-biggest weakness? That’s a little more complicated to fix — he didn’t tally a single assist in the four-game series against the Cavs, which is an inexcusable number for someone who uses 27.7 percent of his team’s possessions.
(Via Detroit News)
