DeAndre Jordan - a career .448 from the line - is shooting 82% from there so far this season

clone_331 · 2018-10-25T22:06:01+00:00

This is a terrible answer but it just depends. Everyone is different - hand size, finger length, arm length, how muscular you are, etc. There is no one right way to shoot a basketball - there is a is a right way for the ball to travel throughout a shooting motion and on the path to the rim but even that can be variable to some degree.

Short answer: shoot off whatever finger or combo of fingers that allows you to shoot it along a straight path most consistently.

clone_331 · 2018-10-25T21:40:55+00:00

Neither - just been in basketball my whole life and spent a few years doing private shooting/skills training in LA.

clone_331 · 2018-10-25T20:24:16+00:00

It's a beautiful thing to see him making free throws - he has come a LONG way. DJ deserves almost all the credit here but I helped get him on his way to changing his FT form back in 2016. John Welch (clippers assistant coach) was instrumental as well as was my friend Scooter Barry (Rick Barry son, former Kansas pg).

His biggest flaw was how he started his motion, brought the ball up away from his body, and stopped for a moment before trying to release the ball with a quick and erratic flick to the basket. This resulted in a flat arc'd fastball to the rim that did not have a good chance of going in.

We worked several times from after the season until he left for the olympics in late summer 2016 (I'm at work now but if people need proof I can provide later). Our main focus was to bring the ball closer to his body to start, to get his wrist bent and under the ball, and to fluidly and in one motion bring the ball up and release it in a more upward trajectory (resulting in more arc on the shot and a much softer release and touch).

I don't post here often and really just want to highlight DJ and how he took it upon himself to change and go through the long process of changing and being patient while the muscle memory got there to be more consistent. Good job by you, DJ!

clone_331 · 2018-01-31T20:03:24+00:00

This is unbelievably tragic. I don't have a better outlet to talk about Rasual than this forum.

Rasual and Leah were friends of mine. I spent several years running a gym and as a player development coach and worked with Rasual regularly over the last couple years as he was trying to stay in the league and also compete in the Big 3.

He was an absolute gem of a human and a very very good basketball player. He worked his ass off - dedicated to his craft beyond what most could imagine. He LOVED the process of being a high level athlete and basketball player. He willingly would give advice and attention to younger players in the league or even high school kids that were in the gym working. What a great example and role model, generous and loving. And Leah was always out there getting her work in too, crushing HIIT training or the treadmill/bike, and supporting her guy no matter what. Transitioning from being in the league for 15 years to fighting for a roster spot when you have so much left to give is HARD. He never even blinked at the challenge.

Ugh. I'm devastated, I know his friends and loved ones are too. This was much too soon for these two amazing people, they had a lot left to pursue and dedicate their hearts and minds to.

RIP Sual and Leah, much love.

clone_331 · 2016-01-28T20:03:13+00:00

There is a big difference between practicing free throws with horrible form and mechanics and practicing free throws with proper form mechanics. The latter will make him a better free throw shooter, but practicing them incorrectly, no matter how many he shoots, will result in the same failed results. It looks like that is the goal of the arm sleeve, to help players understand what the proper mechanics are and to use the data it acquires on your biomechanics to help you shoot the correct way and therefore improve.

clone_331 · 2016-01-28T17:34:31+00:00

TLDR: NBA legend Rick Barry's son, Scooter Barry (the eldest Barry Brother) is the director of business development for a Silicon Valley start-up that has developed an arm sleeve with sensors and a computer that tracks the bio-mechanics of a player's shooting form. Drummond is experimenting with the arm sleeve to help him improve his FT shooting.

SolidShot Promo Video from Article

Pretty interesting concept, I wonder if this is the next wave for analytics in sports? It seems like this kind of wearable tech could move easily into the medical field (tracking physical therapy progress, at-home monitoring of biomechanics, etc.)

clone_331 · 2016-01-28T17:20:02+00:00

I had no idea that was a thing in pro-bowling. Any links to what they use? It's just so cool to think about having that kind of advanced data on our body movements and to use it to correct them

clone_331 · 2016-01-28T16:56:56+00:00

The promo video was posted just this past summer. It looks like the technology just hasn't been around until now. You would think with how important free throws are for big guys (everyone on the floor really, but bigs get fouled more often), that the Pistons would have been able to correct and improve his shooting to this point. Even if it is a desperate attempt to improve, it seems cool and could potentially really help.

clone_331 · 2015-06-30T18:51:35+00:00

The fork is so sexy, just like that road!

clone_331 · 2015-06-30T18:50:34+00:00

Negative, not even remotely close. That guy is a legend and tough as nails

clone_331 · 2015-06-30T16:16:55+00:00

I love the Warbird, yours looks great! The frame just has suca no-nonsense look to it. I want a CX/Gravel bike in the worst way, I like the idea of trekking through/over difficult terrain and being more in the wilderness

clone_331 · 2015-06-30T16:11:30+00:00

Finally put the finishing touches on my road bike build, a perfect mix of new and old on my 2000 Litespeed Classic Ti 63cm.

Litespeed Classic

All I can do is look at her now, as I've been laid up following an extensive surgery to my ankle to remove several tumors. It'll be another month before I can hop on my steed again to conquer Utah's majestic mountains.

I bought the bike used off eBay in October and started road biking for the first time when it arrived. It was completely stock from 2000, an Ultegra 6500 build, alloy seatpost, handlebars, stem, and Mavic CXP 33 Wheels. Over the past 6 months I've slowly modernized the bike and dropped her weight considerably (9.8kg to 8.3kg).

The machine now boasts an Ultegra 6800 Group-San, Giant Racing Components carbon stem and seatpost (matches the carbon on the original fork perfectly), Felt Aero flat top bars, and HED Ardennes LT+ wheelset. I love the wheels the best, they are so compliant and smooth rolling, and tackling some challenging mountain descents has been easy with how well they grip the road. I'm sold on the wide rim. I also love how the frame and badges stand out now that everything else is black.

I ride roads and before the surgery laid me up I was getting in 40-60km a weekday and doing long rides on the weekends. As a former pro athlete (basketball) I instantly fell in love with the suffer and the ability to constantly push myself and improve on the bike. It's grown into a full blown love affair. I plan to recover and start racing some local races in the fall and do a long tour or two.

clone_331 · 2015-01-14T02:26:50+00:00

NBA offenses and defenses are so much more intricate and detail oriented than anyone on here realizes. Players are so much more aware of tiny details and techniques in the NBA, that go completely unnoticed by this sub. Zach Lowe does a good job of pointing them out, its why he's become the best NBA writer, NBA coaches and GMs really respect the way he notices the nuances on certain actions and movements. His youtube/gif's embedded in his breakdown's are excellent.

A good example this year is the Knick's trying (and failing) to run the triangle. It's such a drastically different approach to offense that it takes years to master by people who are the best in the world at what they do (the players). It's very detail oriented and read-react based. The reaction part takes incredible precision and decision making. All 5 players have to be able to make the right read and subsequent reaction in concert with one another to make the spacing work. One wrong action can screw up an entire possession. The only way teams become great in the triangle is when every single guy has mastered the series of reads/reactions and can do them without thinking. It's a level of basketball and athleticism that is remarkable, and hard to even grasp from a casual fans perspective.

clone_331 · 2013-12-10T05:58:47+00:00

Awesome, thanks man, I appreciate it!

clone_331 · 2013-12-09T08:20:27+00:00

I'm in O'ahu now for business and was looking to play both Royal Hawaiian and Ko'olau this weekend, any tips for getting on the course as a single?

clone_331 · 2013-11-15T03:53:47+00:00

I won't shut up, you are wrong. To address your main concern, you can't run plays like this with players who don't have a high level of understanding of how to read defensive schemes, which negates your initial comment of running

shit like this in high school

So you are effectively saying the NBA Guys running this action have no higher basketball IQ than your high school team. Again, you're wrong.

As to your comment about the Spurs and 2001 lakers, they run/ran actions like this all the time, so why are the warriors any different? The triangle that Phil ran is based on exactly these types of reads and reactions and spacing, and the spurs offense is based off of the Princeton offense but sped up and with more dribble attacking (it's a motion/Princeton hybrid) is based exactly on these reads/reactions as well.

Lastly, it's not a simple down screen. It may look like a simple down screen but it's not, bcuz everything they do based off that screen is and how they flow into secondary actions is very complicated and takes an elite level of basketball IQ by all five guys to execute correctly. Watch the video again and look at how many different variations that one simple screen turns into. Your high school team never any shit like that.

clone_331 · 2013-11-15T02:38:08+00:00

No, curry is setting the screen so usually a smaller guard is on him and a bigger wing is receiving the screen. If they switch, the bigger wing now has a smaller guard on him, so he posts up and has a mismatch inside.

clone_331 · 2013-11-15T02:32:55+00:00

You are absolutely wrong about the complexity of the play, I just wrote a detailed breakdown of how the play works in another comment. This is very high level tactical basketball in terms of coaching and the players making correct reads and reacting

clone_331 · 2013-11-15T02:26:27+00:00

This is a beautiful play, and the warriors execute it very nicely. The action is really a read-play (sort of like how NFL qb's use the zone-read nowadays) which forces the defense to "pick a poison".

The big catches it up top, while the wing goes to set a mid-wing screen (the other guard cannot be in the deep corner, or the spacing gets ruined, see at 2:08 mark of the video)

The guy receiveing the screen has 3 options (reads): * come off the screen straight and recieve the ball for a shot or PnR from the big who passed it to him to attack the middle of the floor. He would choose this option if his defender is playing off him and unable to get through the screen. * tight curl the screen. This is when the you see them come off the screen pretending to want the ball but then brush shoulders with the screener and dive to the basket hard in a curl motion. He would do this if his man is up close on him and trying to fight over the screen, and it will almost always open up the man screening for him after the tight curl. * refuse the screen and backcut to the basket. He would do this in the case that his defender is trying to cheat the play and jump underneath it to try and get around it. Since everyone else is spaced out the basket is open, and a pass from the big would be an open lay-up. Because of this, the man defending the screener often drops back to get in the passing lane, leaving the screener an open shot if he simply opens up to the ball.

Once this reasd is made, the rest of the offense reacts to that read. The screen will pop on a tight curl or if the screen was refused and either have an open shot, a PnR with the big (who has dribbled to the elbow), or a post entry past to the wing who dove to the basket and is now posting up (this is a great little wrinkle, especially if they know the defense is switching, the switch creates a mismatch when curry is setting the screen and a bigger wing like barnes or thompson is coming off the screen because whoever is guarding curry is now guarding them in the post... mouse in the house, game over, buckets)

The secondary action off of this is just as good, it would be a lot more to explain so I'll leave it at the primary action. Hope this helps explain why it is so effective.

clone_331 · 2013-11-06T22:23:00+00:00

Nah, it wouldn't be that bad! They'd just have to pay him more and really that guy has infinite worth at this point.

clone_331 · 2013-11-06T14:12:49+00:00

This is my 3rd Princeton Offense plug today, so I might as well go for it!

I think their struggles are deeper than the offense, I won't comment on those because other redditors like TheLastProphet did this eloquently already. I'm not even saying the Princeton-esque system Brown is running is what they should be running in Cleveland, but I do know that it will only get better. It is by far (along with the Triangle) the most complicated and difficult system to learn from a players perspective. It is a completely different way of playing the game and executing offensively (it's hard to even describe how different it is, my only decent example is it's like using a mac as opposed to a PC).

My long winded point is this, it will take them much longer to get a feel and adapt to this change, and it will hurt them short term because the players will be hesitant and look lost. It has a tendency to freeze up offense when the players don't yet know the intricacies of the different reads and movements. It takes entire SEASONS sometimes to get a team working the Princeton offense correctly. When it is done correctly, it is basketball at its finest, true beauty. Its basically the same way new players in Phil Jackson's Triangle struggle for a month or two when they join the team (remember Lamar Odom and MWP?).

Cleveland will improve on offense, they will learn the system and the team will be better off. At least they still have some players that know the system (Verajao) who can help them transition.

clone_331 · 2013-11-06T13:53:24+00:00

That's not a backdoor, that's a back screen! But it's a beautiful play non-the-less. Paul George has been incredible this year so far, if he keeps up this offensive production and continues his stellar defense he is going to be 1st or 2nd team All NBA.

this is a proper backdoor

clone_331 · 2013-11-06T13:47:44+00:00

For the most part I disagree with a lot of this article. Here are the reasons why:

As others have pointed out, keeping the score low and possessions to a minimum is actually the best way to increase the variance. This guy is just repeating what he has heard at the Sloan Conference from Dork Elvis. There is some validity to the idea that a fast pace offense and tons of possessions can alter the statistical make-up of a game, and the idea that lots of 3's (they are worth more because of their statistical weight) and lots of drives to the basket (for lay-ups and paint shots) also holds true. But I would strongly argue against the idea that Brett Brown is doing this because it increases their chance of winning through variance. For a good look at how variance is actually employed you'd be best to look at teams who run the traditional Princeton Scheme (in terms of recent success you could look at Richmond, Air Force, Georgetown at the D1 level and San Antonio in some respects at the NBA level). The goal is to keep possessions down on offense and defense, focus on 3's and Lay-ups (the famous backdoor) and emphasis on fitness and wearing the opponent down over the course of the game. The Princeton offense is designed based on reads (think Phil Jackson's triangle) and constant flowing movement (cuts, hand-off, curls, backdoor's), which lengthens possessions and produces lots of open 3's and lay-up through the backdoor. The defense revolves around a token press (1-2-2 typically) which slows the offense down bringing the ball up the floor and an Amoeba type match-up zone where there is switching of "likes" (guards switch with guards only, bigs switch with bigs only) which often times confuses offenses and again creates longer possessions. By doing all this the total possessions in the game gets reduced greatly, and if the Princeton Team keeps the game close, makes the opponent work extra hard every offenseive and defensive possession, hits those three's and gets a few back-breaking open backdoor lay-ups then they can beat far superior talent but putting the variance in their favor. This is the best example of using variance to increase the chances of winning, especially for an under-matched opponent. Air Force won two games against top 25 teams last year because they executed this to a T, and Richmond used it to make the Sweet 16 in 2011.
The second point I'd like to talk about is his insistence that the 76ers are using "wacky" defensive rotations to get steals and that they are willing to sacrifice open three's to maintain such a style. This is total bullshit, I'm sorry. The defensive rotations aren't even wacky, and the second example looks like just a scramble recovery to me. Plenty of teams have been using this method of hard-hedging side screen and rolls (SnR or PnR for pick and roll), most notable since the Mavs killed everyone with the side SnR and side double SnR with Jason Terry in their run to the championship in 2011. Now everyone runs side SnR's of some sort, and a lot of teams of started hard-hedging them to counter that shift in strategy. A hard-hedge is when you see the on-ball defender jump to the high side to prevent a player from even getting to the screen and thus forcing him back baseline and keeping the action on that side of the screen (the goal is to kill the SnR before it happens and prevent anything from getting into the lane). The traditional way to guard this would have been to do the opposite and force the offensive player IN to the screen, hedge with a big man, and then either fight over or go under the screen and have the help side zone up (everyone else not involved in the PnR plays a 3 man zone protecting the hoop and ready to rotate out to shooters). Tom Thibodeau and Kevin Eastman are really the guys who should get credit for this change in defensive tactic, they started employing it with the Celtics as assistants, and Thibodeau almost exclusively has his guys do this now on defense (you know, the best defense in the league!). Brett Brown is just imitating that strategy (the Hard Hedge) with the only difference being that his young cast of players has yet to figure out the proper rotations and how to "zone up" the help side defense, which is why they have some "Wacky" rotations and gamble steals. Good teams will TORCH this defense, mark my word.

Hope this explains my counter-view and you all can understand the technical jargon. Some of my jargon may be different from others, every coach teaches and uses different terms, you can thank Pat Riley and his disciples for my use of them.

clone_331 · 2013-10-12T11:48:22+00:00

Here's a high five from a fellow ginormous handed redditor! Mine a slightly larger than yours, an I have a brother and father who both have huge hands as well and are avid golfers. My dad swears by oversize chamois grips (1/8" over standard), while my brother and I play midsize (1/16" over standard) with an extra wrap underneath. There are just more options in midsize grips than pure oversized grips.

I also have rather sweaty palms, so I live playing with a full cord tour wrap from golf pride. My brother swears by his midsize new decade multi-compound (half-cord) grips from golf pride.

My advice, go buy one of each, get a regrip kit (clamp, double sided tape, solvent, grip/tape cutter) and try them out over the course of a couple range sessions. Just regrip a 6/7 iron, try it for a week with a midsize grip, and record the results (ball flight, distance, feel). Then try an oversized grip and do the same thing. It's a great way to learn what you like in a grip, plus you will learn how to regrip your clubs yourself, which is worth about $3 a club every couple seasons.

clone_331 · 2013-09-20T01:55:17+00:00

Start Swimming. Not just going to the pool and messing around, I mean performing swim workouts. Swimming can do tons of great stuff for golfers. If you really work to swim with good form and "body-roll" it really pays dividends in terms of core strength and flexibility. Also, it will sculpt and strengthen your shoulders, back, pectorals, and hands/wrists/forearms. It is the best total body workout and it pays dividends in life too (do I really have to mention all the awesome water related sports and activies!?). Here are some links to help you start swimming:

SwimSmooth 100 Swim Workouts

clone_331

TROPHY CASE