Next time you are watching a basketball game and a top-notch free throw player steps to the line, take note of exactly where the marksman stands.
This might seem like a silly request. The line is there for a reason. It is there to tell you precisely where to position yourself.
The great ones understand this. Heck, even the mediocre ones do.
They realize that in order to maximize the opportunity for the ball to go through the hoop, you’re best served standing as close to the basket as possible.
Watch Chauncey Billups. Or Kyle Korver. Or Dirk Nowitzki. Or Steph Curry.
They are all positioned in the same exact spot. Knees slightly bent, ball nestled softly behind the shooting hand, and most importantly, toes carefully straddling the actual free throw line.
The line does not suggest you stand on it; it demands as much.
Tell that to Josh Smith.
The first-year Piston and tenth-year pro is having one of the worst free throw shooting seasons of his entire career, converting just 53% of his attempts.
And where, you ask, does this brick-tossing forward attempt his freebies from?
About a foot and a half to two feet behind the line. I guess he knows better than everyone else.
Either that, or he just doesn’t care one way or the other.
Hitting Rock Bottom
The Pistons actually competed hard during last Friday night’s close loss in Phoenix. With the Suns battling for a playoff berth in the West, the ‘Stones came to town and fought till the end, managing to lose by just six.
But they should have won the game. And it shouldn’t have been close. For the night, the Pistons attempted 26 free throws and made just ten. If you didn’t know better, you’d think the basket was moving like some tricked-up competition on American Gladiators.
And there was no bigger culprit than Josh Smith.
He went to the line late in the first quarter with the Pistons nursing a one point advantage. He missed both.
He went to the line with the first half winding down, the Pistons trailing by three. He missed both.
He was inexplicably fouled shooting a 3 toward the end of the third, the Pistons now down just two. Miss, miss, and miss.
Finally, the Pistons tied the game halfway through the final quarter on a Smith jumper. He was fouled on the shot, setting up a 3-point play opportunity and a chance for the Pistons to retake the lead. He settled in his familiar spot well behind the line and slung the ball toward the rim. Brick city, Suns rebound, and the Pistons would never lead again.
Eight free throw attempts in one night and not a single make. If that seems like a wildly rare and embarrassing stat line, it’s because it is.
Josh’s 0-for-8 nightmare registered as the 4th-worst free throw display in NBA history. Only Wilt Chamberlain, Truck Robinson, and Shaquille O’Neal had ever attempted more in a single night without a conversion.
The post game commentary from Smith would have been considered comedy gold if he weren’t actually being serious.
“It’s frustrating because you know you’re doing everything right technique-wise and they’re just not falling.”
Therein lies the problem.
Our free throw villain does not think there is an inherent issue with his approach. He believes that turning a reasonable 15-foot shot into a prayer from 17 is sound strategy. That your odds increase the further you stand from the hoop.
That might all be well and good if the player in question wasn’t also having the worst statistical 3-point shooting season in the league’s long history.
At least he wasn’t brought in with some ridiculous multi-year commitment from the organization. Oh, wait...
Go Ask the Boss
Watch an old clip of Joe Dumars at the foul line. He would not only straddle the line during the shot, he’d practically be falling over into the paint as the ball fell through the hoop. He wanted to get as close to the rim as possible while staying within the confines of the rules. Dumars attempted more than 4,000 free throws during his career and cashed in 84% of them.
Now, it might not be fair to criticize every athlete that is struggling during a particular time. Maybe it’s just that annual late-season slump, or a nagging injury that won’t go away. But in Smith’s case, his horror show at the line can directly be linked to attitude and stubbornness.
Over his last eight games, he’s hoisted 30 free throws. Of the 30, eight found the net. That’s about 26.6%. You could put me in a winter coat, tie my shoelaces together, and turn the lights off in the gym; I’m still knocking in better than 26%.
It’d be one thing if you got the sense Smith was doing all he could to correct the issue.
But he doesn’t look all that frustrated. He doesn’t tweak or change his form.
In short, he never actually steps up to the line.
And after the 0-for-8 debacle, he said things were A-OK in the technique department.
To me, that doesn’t sound like someone flipping the pillow over every 20 minutes at night, unable to fall asleep while desperately trying to uncover a solution.
It sounds like a guy in the first year of a guaranteed four-year deal, perfectly satisfied with being an erratic and unproductive player on one of the league’s worst teams.
With Age Comes Wisdom...Or Not
Let’s remember, J-Smoove was not always a train wreck from the charity stripe. During his first four seasons in the league, in trying to prove himself and show his value as a player straight out of high school, he was actually semi-respectable at the line -- a quartet of seasons where he finished with a percentage between 69-72%. He was no Calvin Murphy, but he wasn’t Eric Montross, either.
Today, that percentage sits depressingly in the low-50’s. It’s quite a feat for a player to watch his free throw accuracy drop so drastically from year one to year ten, but Smith manages to make the impossibly bad seem impossibly easy.
As a fan of any player or team, all you can ask is for an honest effort and an unquestioned desire to help the overall cause. Execution will never be flawless, and mistakes will inevitably occur.
But they shouldn’t be self-inflicted. That shows indifference; laziness; a completely unjustified satisfaction in one’s self.
Dumars will likely be ousted at the end of the year. The new GM will inherit a broken roster with no direction, and an over-the-hill 28-year-old forward who seems to have lost his motivation for the game.
I would say it’s time for Josh Smith to step up -- play like a seasoned veteran and be a leader on this team.
But he can’t even step forward 18 inches to properly attempt a free throw.
Never has a player been so close and so far away at the same time.
