Andre Drummond was one of the most dominant centers in the NBA this season, physically overwhelming his opponents to the tune of 16.2 points and a league-leading 14.8 rebounds per game. He owned the glass night after night.
Like many great centers in the history of the game though, Drummond has one glaringly obvious Achilles heel: his free throw shooting.
In the regular season, Drummond shot an atrocious 35.5 percent from the line. It got worse in Detroit's four playoff games against the Cavs; he was 32.4 percent from the charity stripe in the series, forcing head coach Stan Van Gundy to pull him from the game as Cleveland continually intentionally fouled him.
It's still uncertain if the NBA will modify the current “Hack-a-Shaq” rules, but either way, Drummond needs to do something to improve his stroke at the line.
In a recent q&a with ESPN's Zach Lowe, Van Gundy was asked if he's thought about having Drummond try shooting his free throws underhanded. He went in a much different direction with his answer.
Van Gundy's remarks, from Lowe:
Everything's on the table, whether it's some things we can do with visual imagery, some virtual reality stuff, changing dramatically how you shoot the ball — it's all on the table. Andre would tell you the same thing. Over the next couple of weeks, we're gonna get together as a staff, talk to some outside people, and sit down with Andre to see where his head is. For it to be any good, you have to have buy-in from him.
This wouldn't be the first time virtual reality has been utilized in the NBA. The Washington Wizards work with a company known as Strivr, which builds VR training methods for athletes.
Like Van Gundy said, they'll willing to do anything that works. If Drummond were to dramatically improve his free throw percentage after working with VR devices, the way players train as we know it will never be the same.
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