Free Throw Shooting

by Blazerhopeful on Jul 17, 2007 4:26 PM PDT

Last year it was great to see good free throw %. Hitting clutch freethrows down teh stretch really helped us clinch some games. it may look like a small thing but sometimes Free Throws are the difference in the game.

So lets look at our current Roster, do you think we have free-throw shooters and will anybody hurt us a lot? this may be off-topic at the moment but sine Jack is most likely traded, do you think that our Freethrow % will decrease substantially?

Your thoughts

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Odens shot

Didn't look good at all in the two summer league games. it didn't seem too have hardly any arc at all. He is probably going to be fouled the most out of our bigs, and then Roy/LA will have second most.

If he can really work on this now and become a decent free throw shooter, it would add a whole nother element to his game that Shaq could never master.

by BlazerBandit on Jul 17, 2007 5:17 PM PDT reply actions

Oden free throws

He shot 63% in college with his injury, and supposedly 80% in high school without them, so I think he'll be alright.

by pualo on Jul 17, 2007 5:35 PM PDT up reply actions

Absolutely agree

Oden will probably need to spend a good deal of time practicing free-throws. I remember bringing this up prior to last season as a really big problem with the year before (05-06) that I thought would continue to lose us games if we didn't improve drastically, fortunately we did in a big way. I think we'll probably see some decrease in % this year but am hopeful that it won't be too big a drop from last year. I also am hoping to see us at the foul line more often than last year, so hopefully free-throw points will go up even if we do drop in % a little bit. In the long haul I really feel like the pieces we have in place can become a very strong free throw shooting team.

by drawingjeremy on Jul 17, 2007 5:35 PM PDT up reply actions

Roy and LA

hopefully the ROY will get some more respect from the refs and get some of those calls he didn't get last year.

Aldridge isn't really a banger like Zach was, but i think he will get to the foul line by grabbing all those offensive rebounds and defenders will be out of position and have to foul him

by BlazerBandit on Jul 17, 2007 6:32 PM PDT up reply actions

we could have had 2 or 3 more wins if..

Roy got some of those late game calls that were clearly fouls. Oh well, karma came back in the form of a 7 foot beast.

by myemic23 on Jul 17, 2007 8:15 PM PDT up reply actions

Roy should

have earned some respect, I think Aldridge will also have his fair share of opportunities.

by drawingjeremy on Jul 17, 2007 8:33 PM PDT up reply actions

Remember that

Greg has never had the quality of coaching he's about to receive. He is also smart and coachable. I have no worries about long term holes in his game.

by ojala on Jul 17, 2007 8:19 PM PDT up reply actions

He's had coaching.

With the AAUs and the summer camps I'm sure Greg has been instructed by legions of qualified applicants. As far as long term coaching I don't know about high school, but last year he had Thad Matta and his staff, certainly respectable. With his wrist switcharoo and the mental stress I don't blame him for shooting 12% in summer league. We've all had streaks of 30 makes and ones of inexplicable misses as well. If he shoots 63% like in college it's ok, but if he can be above 70% then that is great, I don't doubt the Blazer coaches will help him.

by morescrillaigots on Jul 17, 2007 11:30 PM PDT up reply actions

It all relies on Oden

Aside from Oden and Pryzzle, we have a GREAT free throw shooting team. That was one of my favorite bits of last season; it seems like the Blazers have always had free throws as a weakness, even during the good years. I got nothing to back it up aside from a gut feeling in my craw-hole, but I'd venture that our good free throw shooting last season was a big part of our 11 game improvement.

Without Miles and Pryz and Ruben shooting FTs so much, we make a lot of them. I think Oden will get his free throw stroke down, but it did look pretty off during summer league.

He's the only main guy who isn't known to be reliable at the line, so we look to be in pretty good shape. And for the first season or two, I say Roy and Aldridge will look to score more than Oden and will shoot more FTs... so maybe he won't hurt us too much.

I don't think he'll ever be as bad as Shaq or Dudley, so we'll be ah'ite.

Mortimer

by Mortimer on Jul 17, 2007 5:50 PM PDT reply actions

Just asking...

Didn't Oden shoot 63% with his left hand last year? I remember reading he was a good foul shooter in high school and, with the right wrist injury, he ended up shooting his free throws with his off-hand for the majority of the season.

Am I remembering this right?

by tssbro on Jul 17, 2007 6:34 PM PDT up reply actions

By "Unreliable"...

I just mean we don't really know what to expect from Oden at the FT line this year. I heard and saw the same stuff you have, and if he shot 60%+ with the left hand you'd think he'd do at least that well with his right... and that's not bad for a 20 year old 7 footer.

I'm not worried about his long term FT shooting, and his wiggety whack free throw shooting during summer league isn't how he'll really shoot them. He didn't look that bad in college, for sure.

60% left handed, and supposedly 80% in HS... if that's true, we won't have any Hack a' Oden holes in our crunch time execution. EVERYONE being able to hit FTs reliably is a HUGE plus.

Mortimer

by Mortimer on Jul 17, 2007 8:26 PM PDT up reply actions