Insanity has been defined as doing something over and over and expecting a different result. (That’s not an Albert Einstein quote, by the way.)
Enter DeAndre Jordan. He shot 39.7 percent from the free throw line last season, and he is the worst free throw shooter in NBA history through age 26. This leads to some ugly Hack-a-Jordan stretches in Clippers’ games. Beyond that, it has teams willing to foul him every time he gets the ball near the basket, rather than letting him take a shot.
So what’s he going to do about it? From Ben Blotch of the Los Angeles Times:
DeAndre Jordan on whether he did anything new with his free throws: "Nothing different. Same."
— Ben Bolch (@latbbolch) September 26, 2015
Jordan does practice free throws, a lot of them, and his form is not terrible. He just misses them — usually short and to the left. He changed his foot position at the line, but that had no impact. The standard line is the problem is a mental block, that is up for debate without a way to seriously verify it, but it seems to make more sense than anything else.
Fortunately, the Clippers have a lot more depth on the roster this season, so Doc Rivers has options if teams go to Hack-a-Jordan, like bringing in Josh Smith...
Oh wait, maybe not.
