Why does Spurs rookie Jeremy Sochan shoot his free-throws one-handed?
Jeremy Sochan plays with a gritty, aggressive style, wears the number 10 for the Spurs, and paints his hair vibrant colors. One could easily surmise that Sochan is just trying to embrace his persona as the second coming of Dennis Rodman by shooting one-handed free-throws, because Rodman did that, too.
But, no, that’s not why the Polish superstar Sochan is shooting them that way. At least, it’s not the primary reason why.
The main thrust behind switching from a traditional two-handed free-throw to a one-handed shot is simply results.
Why does Jeremy Sochan of the Spurs shoot one-handed free throws?
Sochan told Malika Andrews that the reason he switched is that head coach Gregg Popovich saw him shooting them one-handed in practice, liked the results, and told him he’s doing them that way in games.
“I was like, I asked [Popovich], ‘are you serious?’ And you know me, I don’t really care. If it works, it works.”
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Sochan said.
The results are the end goal, but there are more details than that. It all has to do with the proper shooting form and elbow placement.
"“Sometimes when I put my guide hand, my elbow kind of drifts out, so I think that’s what we’re trying to emphasize,” Sochan told a local Spurs reporter."
Does Jeremy Sochan’s one-handed free-throw form work?
Sochan is sinking 78.1 percent of his free throws from the line (2.6 attempts per game) since switching to his one-handed style. Before that, he was making just 45.8 percent (1.0 attempts per game).
That means since switching, he’s effectively creating 2.03 points per game with free throws vs 0.46 points with a two-handed form, an increase of 1.57 points per game.
So, yeah, it works. It doesn’t look the best, but like Sochan said, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Perhaps some players with poor shooting results could learn from his attitude, setting aesthetics to the side in the sake of raw results. He’s also averaging 12.4 points per game since the switch compared to 7.3 points per game before then in about three additional minutes per game on average.
Next up… The underhand free-throw?