There are many disadvantages to being left-handed, something both your’s truly and Cleveland Cavaliers big man Tristan Thompson are well aware of. The latter decided to do something about it, though, as he’s apparently decided to make the switch to shooting both jumpers and free-throws with his right hand instead of his left.
The big man showed off his new skillset this week while playing for the Canadian National Team in a friendly scrimmage against Jamaica, but he’d been working on making the switch for awhile according to SportsNet’s Michael Grange.
It’s baffling that he could just decide to shoot with his other hand and get compliments on it -- nobody wants to watch this writer do anything on the basketball court with his right hand -- but Thompson was still uneasy about making the switch to what had previously been considered his off-hand.
The reasons to not make the switch is because that decision is a historic one: Hall of Famer Jerry Colangelo told Grange that he’s never heard of anyone doing it during his time in basketball and Thompson himself says that he thinks “it’s the first time ever in NBA history” for someone to make the switch mid-career.
Thompson made just 40 percent of his attempts away from the rim this past season (according to HoopsData’s information), a disappointing amount when considering that meant he made just 144 of his 360 attempts from the field. It wasn’t much prettier from the free-throw line, either, as he shot below 60 percent on 282 attempts in his second NBA season.
It’ll be interesting to see what sort of impact switching hands will have on Thompson’s game at the NBA level, but he says it’s made him much more confident in his shooting ability. And, as long as that shooting ability doesn’t continue to float around 40 percent from the field, everyone should benefit from Thompson’s decision to leave the lefties.