Andre Drummond could turn to tech to improve his FT shooting
The Detroit Pistons have a problem — center Andre Drummond, their best player and a newly named All-Star, shoots free throws so badly that it’s often impossible to justify keeping him on the court. We saw that dilemma reach its extreme last week when the Houston Rockets fouled him 12 times to open the second half, killing any flow for the Pistons and shifting the momentum in the process. It was the starkest example of the ways in which Drummond’s weaknesses can limit his considerable talents.
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Both player and team would like to improve the situation as soon as possible, which often means employing some outside-the-box techniques. So Drummond is trying some technologically advanced measures to improve his performance. From Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press:
The sleeve has sensors that are able to alert the shooter when he deviates from the proper form that has been programmed into the app on a simple smartphone.
Will it help?
Too early to tell, as it was the initial presentation, and an agreement between the Pistons and the tech start-up is being discussed. […]
“For me, nobody knows what I do on a daily basis,” Drummond said. “Nobody knows how long I sit in the gym and shoot every night shooting free throws, so they just see the outcome, and I’m not shooting well right now so they feel like I don’t take the time to do that. But I probably take more time than they do their jobs shooting free throws. So for somebody to say that, it’s a little bit disrespectful to me. […]
“So now he has the feedback that my elbow is creeping out,” [Stan] Van Gundy said. “That’s why we’re looking at this thing because it can give him more than just keep your elbow in. He can really look and see. So we’ll see if what he’s selling can help.”
The device is from a company called Solidshot, and the Pistons caught word of it because when Van Gundy had a conversation with Rick Barry, whose son Scooter serves as the startup’s director of business development. It’s not clear where negotiations are on an agreement to use the product, but it could very well become an integral part of Drummond’s practices.
The potential difficulty is that, as Drummond says, he already practices free throws a lot. While he may not currently have specific and immediate feedback like the Solidshot device can provide, his shooting is a big enough issue for the Pistons that it’s safe to assume they have specially assigned coaches and video coordinator-types focused on noticing and correcting mechanical flaws in his form. For that matter, poor in-game shooters like Dwight Howard have consistently shot 80 percent in practice, so it’s possible that whatever causes Drummond problems cannot be replicated in this environment.
The point is not that the Solidshot won’t work for Drummond, but that such attention to detail may not be enough to correct what ails him. It’s considerably more likely that Drummond and those who hope to watch him at his best will only be saved by a change to the rules.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
