Detroit Pistons All-Star center Andre Drummond shot 35.5% from the free throw line this season, making a mind-boggling 208 out of 586 attempted on the year. Undoubtedly, this percentage is amongst the worst in NBA history from the charity stripe. With a career average of 38% from the line, Drummond is currently slated to finish as the worst free throw shooter in NBA history (next worse: Ben Wallace, 41%).
With that in mind, Andre Drummond will do anything to improve his noticeably poor shooting.
Following from Rod Beard of detroitnews.com:
Pistons center Andre Drummond is no Rick Barry at the free-throw line. But the two may have something in common beginning next year.
Drummond, who had a horrific season at the line — making just 36 percent — potentially could be changing his style to underhand free throws next season.
There’s no guarantee, but Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said the unorthodox style popularized in the 1970s by Barry — who shot 89 percent from the line in his career, including 90 percent or higher in his last eight seasons — could be on the horizon for Drummond. It was a topic of discussion this week in the Pistons’ players exit interviews with Van Gundy.
“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 Thursday during the season wrap-up at The Palace.
“It won’t be a unilateral decision; we’ll do some research on some things and come up with what we think is a good approach, talk to Andre and see what he thinks and develop an approach going forward.
“We all know it’s an important thing — Andre more than any of us – he’s pretty open to anything. There’s a lot of ways to attack this problem and we’ll all have a hand in it.”
Andre Drummond was selected #9 overall in the 2012 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons. Drummond, a UConn product, has gradually cemented himself as the league’s best rebounder, averaging 14.8 rebounds per game this season with Detroit.
While Drummond continues to get better in areas such as scoring, defense, and rebounding, his free throw percentage this season was lower than his rookie year percentage. That is problematic.
As Rod Beard noted, Rick Barry is most famously known for perfecting the underhand free throw many years ago:
Barry finished with a career percentage of 89% from the line using this tactic. At this point, anything is worth a shot for Drummond. Should the NBA opt not to change its Hack-A-Shaq problem, Drummond’s inconsistent free throw shooting may be a serious issue for this Pistons team hoping to contend in the near future.
