As a trend, big men have had lot of trouble shooting free-throws in the NBA. There are a number of theories as to why this occurs—some say that taller players tend to be poor shooters because they primarily practice post moves, while others postulate that their hands and arms are too large to use proper form.
What is famously known as the Hack-a-Shaq tactic, fouling the worst shooter on the team, has now been used heavily on the Detroit Pistons’ Andre Drummond. The six-foot-eleven center has the worst free-throw shooting percentage in the NBA, right now coming in at 34.6 percent.
So, Pistons coaches have turned to the latest technology to help solve this long-standing problem in Drummond’s game.
Drummond has begun practicing with SOLIDshot, a smart shooting sleeve that observes the shooter’s form.
Multiple accelerometers and gyroscopes capture the motion of the shooting arm, and feed into a device that puts that data through algorithms to assess a player’s shooting. Players or coaches then receive the information in real time to any number of devices.
CEO Quinn Jacobson and CPO Cynthia Kuo founded SOLIDshot. The two established techies added former 1988 Kansas National Champion Scooter Barry to the team as Director of Business Development.
Barry’s father is NBA great Rick Barry, who suggested the technology to Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy. Van Gundy is hoping to receive any feedback whatsoever that can help Drummond with his mechanics, and give the Pistons a break from the fouling tactics of other teams.
Van Gundy will take anything he can get for a player that spent most of offseason working on his free-throw game, and shoots as many free-throws as possible at practice.
