Dwight Discussion: Dwightmare on Figueroa St. Part Boo

Please make your freethrows, Dwight.

He should just practice banking his free throws. At least they would have a better chance instead of clanking off the back of the rim.

Finwë wrote:

Dave McMenamin ‏@mcten
Dwight had "Phil 4:13" written on the toe of one of his sneakers, standing for: I can do everything through Him who gives me strength

Except make FTs I guess

He Was writing his FT % on his shoes

try a new shooting form or something. easier said than done, but if he wants to improve hes gunna have to. that form is never gunna give him anything better than 50% if that.

banking would be funny and probably more effective than his current form......sadly thats the truth.

Jamison, Morris and Metta making just one each out of 4 FT attempts obviously hurts....but Dwight has a ton of work to do. They are called free throws for a reason. These are essentially free points. Anyways, its disappointing, cause I thought that he could build from that Portland free throw effort (2nd game of season), but instead he has regressed.

Person needs to do something about this asap.

One thing I did like was the Dream shuffle he did on the baseline to get an easy scoring attempt. Granted it was nowhere as pretty as Hakeem's movement, but just as effective. I think those types of moves will come more and more naturally as he gets back to 100% in his conditioning. We're already seeing the effects on defense. But priority number 1 should be FTs....its an inevitable aspect of his game. He knows they will be coming in bunches in each game, so that has to be a priority. Heck, Shaq was terrible too, but he made them when they counted...he really did. Tonight, he steps to the line to take the lead late in the game and bricks both...that just can't happen in the playoffs.

I miss Bynum's FT shooting even though he is bowling.

He almost always misses long too on his fts.

His PPG & our win totals would look so good if Dwight hit his FTs, but I guess that won't happen, the thing is though, at least find a way to minimize the misses, at least a little.

How about using your left hand Dwight since you're a lefty.

Big disappointment.
How come every decent player is not themselves when they come to Lakers.
Howard cant even make a field goal when C Hayes on him.
Or the opponent just needs to hold him...
And No Gasol No Nash No Howard, only Kobe left.

KareemTheGreat33 wrote:How about using your left hand Dwight since you're a lefty.

I'm not trolling you, but I write left-handed, had a left-handed glove when I was a kid, and I hold a fork left-handed. But I play every sport right-handed. I can shoot and dribble left-handed, but I'm simply better right-handed. Why? Thirty years of being taught by right-handers. Just like Dwight.

trodgers wrote:

KareemTheGreat33 wrote:How about using your left hand Dwight since you're a lefty.

I'm not trolling you, but I write left-handed, had a left-handed glove when I was a kid, and I hold a fork left-handed. But I play every sport right-handed. I can shoot and dribble left-handed, but I'm simply better right-handed. Why? Thirty years of being taught by right-handers. Just like Dwight.

Yeah but you know, just maybe get a different result with his "dominant" hand, maybe gaining more control.

I don't see that it would happen, honestly. If I switched to left-handed, there would be an immediate, massive dropoff in shooting. And I don't know that even after a couple of years of working at it that would change. 20 years of training can overcome a natural dominance.

This is who Howard is..... He's not going to become a decent free throw shooter. Is he a 25% shooter? No, but he's not going to shoot over 60% either. I've watched a lot of his games and this one is somewhat typical in a lot of respects. He'll have a 8-11 game in a couple to off set it but it will be followed by another 4-10 and so on....

I'm more disappointed in his rebounding on freaking free throws than anything else. That's one thing he SUPPOSED to be good at and having inside position on a free throw he gave up 3 boards in the last 8 minutes last night.... That's the part of his game that seems to be the biggest difference in LA. He's playing with another 10+ board guy in Gasol and I expected a drop off in rebounding but this isn't what I was expecting.

trodgers wrote:I don't see that it would happen, honestly. If I switched to left-handed, there would be an immediate, massive dropoff in shooting. And I don't know that even after a couple of years of working at it that would change. 20 years of training can overcome a natural dominance.

I wouldn't know about that. Same thing with me, except I mostly go left on sports. I was shooting FT like shots for fun one day in the gym, tried shooting it with my right hand and it felt natural, like it was second nature. I wouldn't remember the results, not having gone near a court in years, but strangely, it felt more natural shooting right-handed even though I had shot left-handed all my life.

Rooscooter wrote:This is who Howard is..... He's not going to become a decent free throw shooter. Is he a 25% shooter? No, but he's not going to shoot over 60% either. I've watched a lot of his games and this one is somewhat typical in a lot of respects. He'll have a 8-11 game in a couple to off set it but it will be followed by another 4-10 and so on....

I'm more disappointed in his rebounding on freaking free throws than anything else. That's one thing he SUPPOSED to be good at and having inside position on a free throw he gave up 3 boards in the last 8 minutes last night.... That's the part of his game that seems to be the biggest difference in LA. He's playing with another 10+ board guy in Gasol and I expected a drop off in rebounding but this isn't what I was expecting.

The loss of part of his crazy athleticism is exposing his lack of fundamentals ... he can't outjump opponents as he used to ... it's always the same mistake with D12 on both ends of the floor ( getting stripped , not boxing out, commiting fouls in the post by going for the suicide steal )...
I'm not impressed by his in game adjustments to say the least

Rooscooter wrote:This is who Howard is..... He's not going to become a decent free throw shooter. Is he a 25% shooter? No, but he's not going to shoot over 60% either. I've watched a lot of his games and this one is somewhat typical in a lot of respects. He'll have a 8-11 game in a couple to off set it but it will be followed by another 4-10 and so on....

I'm more disappointed in his rebounding on freaking free throws than anything else. That's one thing he SUPPOSED to be good at and having inside position on a free throw he gave up 3 boards in the last 8 minutes last night.... That's the part of his game that seems to be the biggest difference in LA. He's playing with another 10+ board guy in Gasol and I expected a drop off in rebounding but this isn't what I was expecting.

Related to his health. Stamina, leg strength and lift are vital to his rebounding. Bynum, hibbert can get rebounds just by putting their arms up. Lopez is an anomaly

Howard needs that strength, lift and stamina. Will he average 15 boards a game here. Doubt it. But I do think at full strength he'll get back to around 11-12

He does need to start getting rebounding fundementals down though. Even now the rebounds he gets are when he has those flashes of previous athleticism

I don't care about the rebounding right now. D12 has gaudy numbers there for the most part and his effort is strong. It's unacceptable to shoot free throws that way, especially in a close game where we are struggling to score. Every miss hurt us considerably. The free throw became a mental issue last night - his body language was "I don't want to be here" at the line. He thought he was going to miss before he even took most of those shots. This guy needs to work on free throws above all else. He's going to go to the line a LOT in important games. If he doesn't get better we are going to have to treat him like Shaq at the end of the games and kind of ignore him offensively.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. He needs to bank the FT's. It will give us a better chance of tipping them in.

granny shot...then bank the second shot


he's gonna miss anyway...at least entertain me

lakerswiz wrote:Bank free throws. So he can miss and we can tip them in. lol no.

He needs to make free throws.

He's been in the league 8 years and currently playing his 9th year. He has yet to become an efficient FT shooter. I doubt he ever will become one despite your ranting and raving. We knew this when we traded for him. What you see is what you get.

Banking the FT's will at least give us a better chance of producing results even if he's fouled.

Cute.

When you have a real answer for me, let me know.

Something I don't get with these pros.

They have shooting coaches that teach proper form. Holding the ball properly, shooting hand and guide hand, feet squared, fluid knee bend throughout the shot until the release, follow through.

It seems all these pros do is "follow through". Time after time I see these guys bend their knees, then stand back straight up then shoot it. THAT'S what's causing their shots to be flat and not arced with the proper trajectory. Shaq did it, Dwight does it...just focus on the bending of the knees and the motion through the shot. His hands and release are fine, it's all in the knees.

I still don't think he's 100%

Unfortunately at 100% he may still shoot free throws like last night

lakerswiz wrote:I did give you a real answer. He needs to make them.

I don't care he's been in the league 9 years.

I don't care he hasn't been able to shoot them well yet.

I don't care if this is what we knew we were getting.

Why settle at that? Why settle at 50%

Because I'm not going to have a heart attack over a player who's never been an efficient FT shooter.

Watching Dwight miss FT's isn't nearly as annoying as watching posters in LD go nuts every single game he has a bad night from the charity stripe. You might as well go nuts every time Billy Mac says "Yes Sir!".