Why Johnny can’t shoot (free throws)
The Hawks can’t make free throws. They are next to last in the NBA at 73 percent, and that is disgusting. First, it will kill them in the playoffs. Second, how can anybody not make free throws? Worse, their shooting consultant is Mark Price, the NBA’s all-time leader in foul-shooting percentage.
This really bothers me.
“Well, it definitely bothers me. No question about it,” said Price, chuckling to keep from sighing.
Price sank 90 percent of his foul shots during his dozen NBA seasons, mostly with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Before that, he was a splendid point guard at Georgia Tech, and speaking of the Yellow Jackets, they can’t make free throws, either. They are last in the ACC at 62 percent, which makes me wonder about the other two men’s programs in the area at the Division I level.
Georgia State is last in the Colonial Athletic Association at 61 percent, and Georgia is 10th out of 12 teams in the SEC at 64 percent.
What’s going on here? “During the past two years, since I’ve gotten into a lot of teaching and training and working with players, this (foul-shooting problem) has been amazing to me,” said Price, in his first season with the Hawks after a one-year stint with the Memphis Grizzlies. “In the broad picture, I don’t think free-throw shooting has gotten as much time as it has needed from a team standpoint.
“It’s difficult when you have two hours to practice and teams are trying to put in schemes for offenses and defenses and everything else. Still, when I look at this in my mind’s eye, it’s just not that difficult to make a free throw.”
That’s because it isn’t. I’m eternally influenced by Coach Hasselbush, a youth coach I had in Cincinnati. I don’t remember his first name, but I do remember he fumed over missed free throws. He said making free throws was as easy as dribbling. To prove his point, he ended practices sinking 15, 20, maybe 30 free throws in a row. He did so after using his crutches to place his brace-dominated legs at the foul line. He suffered from polio.
Many of the Hawks, Jackets, Bulldogs and Panthers suffer from apathy when it comes to foul shooting.
“Since it’s tough to do during the season, a lot of this has to come from individual effort, where you put time into it during the offseason,” said Price, whose father was his Mr. Hasselbush. The older Price coached high school basketball for years in their native Oklahoma, and the younger Price said, “His pet peeve was free-throw shooting as well. For one, I didn’t want my dad griping at me. He also taught me the correct way to shoot.”
Price does the same for the Hawks, with hints of success. “I was with Josh Smith the other day in practice, and he made 91 out of 100,” Price said. “Then he goes into the game, and he misses one, he misses two, and it becomes a mental hurdle. It’s been a work in progress, for sure.”
It shouldn’t be.
It’s a “free” throw.
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30 comments Add your comment
gatorsam
March 6th, 2009
9:07 am
Enter your comments here
gatorsam
March 6th, 2009
9:10 am
It is very simple. The teams roars when a guy practices a dunk, but when he practices free throws, if he does, he is probably by himself. Coaches don’t make the players practice free throws on
their time!!
Mac
March 6th, 2009
9:29 am
For people making millions of dollars, it behooves them to spend hours of their own time practicing shots that routinely make the difference in winning or losing. As you astutely said, Terence, they’re free throws.
Veteran Fan
March 6th, 2009
9:48 am
Terrence, everyone says these players are so talented versus players from the past, BULL! I have been a Hawks fan for 36 years and it just keeps getting worse. It would be interesting to take your research one step further and see if there is a connection between free throw percentage and play off spots over the last ten years. One of the reasons Kobe and Michael and all the stars put up big numbers is free throws and making a high percentage! If you are a true professional, you work on your weaknesses not your strengths(see the aforementioned Jordan and consistent outside shot).
ew11
March 6th, 2009
9:53 am
I definitely agree about the importance of FT shooting and I’m also discouraged by the local teams performance in that area. However, I saw an interesting article the other day about FT percentages:
http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/story/1427978.html
I always assumed that FT percentages used to be much better but this article says they’ve stayed amazingly stagnant. I didn’t do any research to check his number but I know I was very surprised by this.
RedTailHawk
March 6th, 2009
10:02 am
Terrance – Do they practice free throws in game type situations? In other words, can they stop practice in the middle of tiring drills and try to shoot while breathing hard? Do they try to distract the players while they are shooting like in games? Do you think that would help?
Terence Moore
March 6th, 2009
10:07 am
Veteran Fan,
You bring up a good point. Most of the great players were wonderful free-throw shooters. That’s why Wilt Chamberlain was such a celebrated exception to the rule.
And to ew11, that was an interesting article on FT percentages. Thanks for the link.
Terence Moore
March 6th, 2009
10:11 am
RedTailHawk,
You need to pass your suggestions on to the Hawks, Jackets, Bulldogs and Panthers. Great points. We used to do much of that for my basketball teams back in the day.
FJR
March 6th, 2009
12:00 pm
My high school team were generally excellent free-throw shooters, even our big men. What our coach had us do was alternate shooting 10 free-throws and then running suicides for each free throw you missed, it meant extra suicides for the whole team. And we couldn’t end practice until every player had made all ten in at least one trip. His major idea was two-fold:
1) simulate the pressure of in game free throws as much as possible. having to extend practice and do extra suicides is a pretty big amount of pressure, as much as you can probably simulate in practice.
2) A lot of the issue with free-throws in game is leg fatigue. It’s one thing to just walk up to the free throw line and sink 91 out of 100 there by yourself. Its quite another to do that after you’ve been running up and down the court for an hour. This is another reason I believe that running teams have a harder time with free-throws than more half-court oriented teams. They run more, thus their legs get more tired, thus their free-throw shooting suffers. Our coach wanted to simulate in game leg fatigue, so that we could help with muscle memory not just on fresh legs, but tired legs too.
craig miller
March 6th, 2009
2:39 pm
I’m with you. I stink, I mean, STINK at basketball and have never played on a team, and yet I go to the gym now and then and shoot free throws and can hit 6 of 10. How can an NBA player not be able to hit at least 8? I’ve never understood it.
Then again, when was the last time a guy got an extra $10 million tacked onto his contract for good free throw shooting?
Paul Houghton
March 6th, 2009
3:07 pm
Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. It’s all about flash now. Nothing flashy about making free throws – oh, except it’s the difference between winning and losing.
I wonder how many players would rather look cool losing than give up the attention and win. I wonder…
Rick Moore
March 6th, 2009
4:23 pm
After coaching high school boys in Ga for thirty years , I can tell you that poor FT shooting is a direct result of the ESPN/AAU influence on players. You don’t see highlights of clutch made FT’s, and you don’t have many AAU guys who can or will teach shooting fundamentals. Most players are not willing to put in the repititions it takes to groove correct shooting mechanics. The guys you see on TV in the NBA or D1 college were so physically talented that most of them are not forced to learn to shoot. They thrive with the dribbling/driving/dunking game until they get to a level where they are not more talented physically than everyone else. Lebron is much better shooter now because he had to become better. In an article in SI last month, he talks of working on his mechanics at very close range to create muscle memory. Most young guys will not do that. They back out too far (usually the 3 pt line) and their mechanics go to “heck” and they miss. Then, they give up and go back to their old way b/c it feels more comfortable. Voila! They continue to miss. FT shooting reveals the poor shooting mechanics. Great topic TM.
Norm Bonn
March 6th, 2009
11:48 pm
So you think free throws are easy..if that was the case you would not have written on the subject..after all layups are suppose to be easy but they are often missed. but do you write about that?
The answer is simple..free throws are 15 foot shot taken without one being defensed. If a player has a 40-60 shooting percentage from the wing, corner, foul extended etc…then why is he expected to shoot 70-90% from the foul line….. the simple answer is that this person is not a very good shooter….he will perform basicall the same be it free throw or any other 15ft shoot…..
this whole conversation does not make much sense to me…..I played the game and shot around 75% in both areas
BravesFan79
March 7th, 2009
2:59 am
This article should read…. “why Tyrone cant shoot free throws” because im sure Johnny (sitting on the bench never given a shot” can shoot just fine!
Bullseye
March 7th, 2009
8:54 am
Free throws and fouls should be removed from the game. It slows down the pace and takes up too much time. Unless, they allow a player to take his or her free throw as a running start from the foul line and sky down to the rim and jam in with a Tommahawk or a nice 360. That way, it could be a free throw down and there would be standing room only crowds. Or, they could use a little trampoline like the mascots .
gary
March 7th, 2009
10:17 am
It’s all about ME ME ME, and nothing gets more attention than a BIG slam dunk and hanging on the rim. The heck with the team, it’s all about the personal highlights.
ValdostaMike
March 7th, 2009
11:53 am
If only they would show free throws on SportsCenter, then J’Smooth would might have some motivation to practice free throws.
I have been behind Smith since the beginning, but I really believe we let the wrong Josh go last off season. Smooth needs to grow up!
Owl Fanatic
March 7th, 2009
2:32 pm
I thought that TM just conveniently left Kennesaw State out of this story because maybe their percentage was too good to be used to make his point. I did some quick research and found that the Owls are shooting 66 percent for eighth place out of 11 team in the Division 1 Atlantic Sun Conference. So this probably would have worked fine in the article. I think probably what happened was that unbelievably TM doesn’t realize that there is a third Division 1 team in the area.
BravesFan79
March 7th, 2009
3:02 pm
Btw…. good game by GT today… if they play that hard and smart, they can knock off some people in the ACC tourney!
misterwax
March 7th, 2009
4:04 pm
This is mostly a racial phenomenon… Blacks refuse to learn from whites who know what to do…. If they did; their fellow blacks would deride them for being an Oreo….simple as that in 85% of the cases….Paul Hewitt is learning this in spades….(no pun intended). Blacks by and large don’t care about succeeding in a white man’s world…they care about being black, which is quite stupid; since it makes them losers….
Go Jackets!!
Ken Stallings
March 7th, 2009
8:15 pm
Great column! You are very right Terence, and I will say this and perimeter shooting have both suffered. When I watch classic games up to the mid-eighties I am forced to say it was a better played game then. Pop in a video of a Magic-led Lakers team and marvel at how efficiently they played. I only wish players and teams today could match it. They cannot!
Jared
March 8th, 2009
3:57 pm
Mr. Moore,
Excellent thought provoking column, this is astute insight! I have always found it hard to believe that someone who plays basketball for a living, full time, can’t hit at least 70% from the “Charity Stripe.” I sat the bench in high school, but still can shoot 65-70%, so the best athletes we can muster should be able to do better.
It would be interesting to see how many games each of these teams would have won if they could have averaged 72%?
Jeff Grady
March 8th, 2009
4:01 pm
SEC BB is to clogging as ACC is to ballet.
chuck allison
March 8th, 2009
5:20 pm
Terrance, this is by far the best article you have ever written.
Ray Miller
March 8th, 2009
10:54 pm
Thanks for a very interesting article Terrance. It seems to me that too many youngsters never develop a Mark Price shot because they spent most of their shooting practice “launching” shots from beyond the 3 point line. Unfortunately, this practice begins with 7 or 8 year old players. They never learn the basic mechanics of a good jump shot that can be deadly from the 12 – 15 foot range. Parents might consider not letting their children “throw” up shots, but teach them how to shoot a fundamentally sound, mid-range jump shot. I think the free throw percentage would improve drastically. Good luck with that dad!!!!
Chris Broe
March 9th, 2009
1:30 am
Free throws are difficult in your driveway, at the high school gym, and during a pro game. The basket is too small. The ball is too big. The free throw line’s distance is just out of reach for surety. You try making free throws. Practice doesn’t help you at crunch time. People forget about crunch time, yes, crunch time…. free throws. they just don’t mix.
As far as comparing today’s players to yesteryear’s, you cant. Today is more of a wrestling match. They respected the foul in the old days. They mug each other now. It’s unwatchable. I like women’s basketball because they respect the rules. You may not touch the player with the ball at all. Don’t touch him/her. Don’t do it. It’s against the rules. See, there was a movie called “no country for old men” where the theme was that once kids stop saying “sir”, then the whole society goes down hill. I disagree. I think it’s more accurate to say that once basketball players start cheating, then the fans don’t care, and then society goes to pot.
Respect the foul. All I’m sayin’.
RedTailHawk
March 9th, 2009
11:37 am
Amazing how poor dumb rednecks can change even free throw shooting into a racial issue….LMAO
Gregory D Martin
March 9th, 2009
6:09 pm
The problem is that free throw shooting has NOT changed in the NBA or NCAA Division over the last 50 years. Declining free throw skills is a myth or mass misperception. The Charlotte paper had and article about this recently. NCAA 2008 FT% 69.1%. NCAA 1968 FT%- 69.1%. Did you actually research any statistics? Furthermore, basketball at the upper levels involves more running and intense defense than decades ago- thus more fatigue which makes free throw shooting more difficult.
The Flash
March 11th, 2009
5:39 pm
The premise that free-throw shooting can be taught is simply wrong, and insisting that there is a proper technique that fits all players is also wrong. If it were otherwise, we’d all be great putters and scratch golfers.
Shooting is a self-learned art, and requires discovery through play not tied to makes and misses. One way of shooting might work terrifically for someone whose feet are relaxed on a particular day but will need to be tweaked to adjust to the different contact one’s feet are making the next after a hard run the previous day.
The problem with players today is not that they do not practice enough or do not get enough coaching, it is that they are told how to do things and try to do them one way because that is what the experts tell them.
You take young kids who are genuises in their bodies so that, in addition to extraordinary athletic gifts, they perform in ways that get them to stand out. No one “taught” them how to carry themselves, how to move their pelvis and ribs and shoulders and carry their heads so they are so, so in sync that throwing a baseball, hitting a baseball, catching a ball, throwing or shooting it has a special quality to it.
In a different age, that intelligence was given freedom and time to develop without outside intervention. People did not just become better they became smarter at figuring things out. Now, kids don’t get to learn by playing on their own, experimenting in the world of what is possible and what feels good and what looks worth replicating. Rather, from the time that they are tots, EXPERTS are telling them not only what to do and when, but how and what they need to change. EXPERTS WHO DON’T KNOW JACK ABOUT HOW PEOPLE LEARN AND HAVE NEVER BEEN TRAINED IN IT.
Blaming players for the faults of the experts presupposes that learning movement can be taught the way someone is taught to add 2 plus 2. It ain’t.
Now, certain fundamental information can facilitate learning, but the key to being a good foul shooter does not lie in technique nor in blind repetition. It lies in adapability and understanding different modes of how to use your body to accomplish the task at hand given how your body presents in that moment.
Stand on a busy street and watch people walk. Some make you chringe and you ain’t even in their bodies. We learn to do some things poorly for any number of reasons. For someone like Smooth, who is so obviously gifted in having learned to do some incredible things with his body, I have to believe that there are some very fundamental things that he has upside down concepts about when it comes to shooting that get in his way, as opposed to supporting his shot.
As I posted on a recent Sekou thread, Smooth could do worse than practice shooting really little shots righty, using what he understands are core credentials and be committed to producing shots that float with a high arch and lots of backspin, then lesser arch and less backspin. From 3 feet, 5 feet, trying to soften and change how he holds his torso (the tension in various parts of it), his release point, etc. Do that for a while, then shoot some shots from the same distance lefty. Then to different spots righty. Only as long as it is fun. Then come back to it. Then on one foot, then another, noticing how he has to change. He’ll figure it out, as long as the experts stay the heck away.
Yes, I am an expert in this stuff, both in shooting and in how people learn. The shooting was self taught, the how-people learn stuff has come through having completed more than half a 4 year course of study in a highly credible body of work about such matters put together over a 40 year period by an Israeli whose name was Moshe Feldenkrais.
Just a Fan
March 12th, 2009
8:46 am
josh smith.