Can you shoot granny style in the nba

Encouraged by his father when he was in high school in the 70s, Barry was hesitant to shoot that way at first because girls were known to shoot that way. Barry went on to shoot underhand from the free-throw line throughout his professional days, leading the league seven times in free-throw shooting percentage.

Barry said it was the comfort at the line and the fluid motion that made him successful at the foul line. Wilt Chamberlain was also a poor foul shooter, but during the season, he decided to give the underhand approach a shot. Guys like Andre Drummond, DeAndre Jordan and Dwight Howard could really benefit from putting their pride aside and improving their efficiency at the line via the granny shot. Drummond has seen basically no improvement over this span, Jordan has raised his efficiency 10 percentage points and Howard has gone up about four percentage points but all are still wildly inefficient overall.

Drummond is just years-old and likely has another 10—12 years of his career left. Even if he were to improve to 52—60 percent, it would benefit him and his team greatly. Jordan is years-old and in the prime of his career. A change could still be made for him as well. Howard is already years-old. Stan Van Gundy might kiss me on the mouth if this worked. Drummond shooting almost 61 percent from the free throw line would help their team so much.

He would be able to stay on the court in late-game situations with much less fear of hack-a-Drummond, which would ultimately help their club attain more wins. The figures above project impact if all else remained exactly the same, which of course does not happen from year-to-year.

Evidence shows that everyone who has attempted to use the underhand free throw technique saw an improvement in their overall efficiency at the free throw line. Newsletter Sign up for our email newsletter for the latest science news. Sign Up. Already a subscriber? Want more? More From Discover. Recommendations From Our Store. Stay Curious. View our privacy policy. He leaves as many as 2. During the season, free throws are converted If Drummond had shot at even that rate, the league standard, he would have made 1, free throws, more than he actually has, an increase of roughly 1.

Since Drummond became a starter in , the Pistons have lost ten games by one point or in overtime in which Drummond missed at least one free throw. There are only a few examples of players who have employed this technique, but every one of them has seen results.

Rick Barry has become synonymous with the underhand free throw, making Perhaps the most famous example of a player making the switch to an underhand technique was Wilt Chamberlain. He used the technique during his historic point game on March 2, , setting an NBA record which still stands by scoring 28 points from the line.

However, despite the clear improvement he made, Chamberlain eventually switched back to his regular technique. Chamberlain ended up with a career free throw percentage of In modern basketball, there are just as few examples of underhanded free throw shooters.

Chinanu Onuaku brought his underhanded shot to the NBA from Louisville, where it bolstered his shooting percentage from As a rookie with the Houston Rockets, Onuaku has made his only two free throw attempts and is the only NBA player to shoot this way.

Barry made I know I was wrong, I know some of the best foul shooters in history shot that way. Sport is oftentimes pragmatic, perhaps inherently so.