Other than making breathtaking plays at the rim, DeAndre Jordan is recognized as one of the poorest free throw shooters in the NBA. Last season he shot 39 percent from the line, second-worst in the league next to Andre Drummond. Jordan became the hot target of Shaq’s infamous “Hack-a” in last year’s playoffs, most frequently by Gregg Popovich and the Spurs in the first round.
Despite that known issue of being a target, Jordan hasn’t been working on changing a thing about his free throw shooting.
From Ben Bolch of the LA Times:
DeAndre Jordan on whether he did anything new with his free throws: “Nothing different. Same.”
— Ben Bolch (@latbbolch) September 26, 2015
I honestly don’t see much of a problem with Jordan’s actual form, it’s probably more so about his natural touch, or lack thereof, which can always be worked on with lots of reps. At this point, though, we shouldn’t be expecting DeAndre Jordan to make drastic improvements to his free throw shooting. He can continue to attack his role to the fullest and have high impact on both sides of the floor.
The Clippers know well that teams will keep looking to expose Jordan’s free throws as a way to take away possessions. Something else Jordan can focus on is taking another page from Shaq, who said he would make them when they counted.
