Chinanu Onuaku is revitalizing the underhand free throw
Rick Barry earned many accolades during his career in both the ABA and NBA, but most fans remember him for his underhand free throws. One current player is trying to bring that style back.
Early November games in the NBA D-League rarely create headlines, but in a match up between the Rio Grande Valley Vipers and the Los Angeles D-Fenders (now the South Bay Lakers) this past season, there were some unexpected fireworks.
Not even two minutes had elapsed when Ivica Zubac fouled Chinanu Onuaku — both of whom were on assignment from their NBA affiliates — sending the latter to the free throw line. Free throw attempts don’t usually illicit shock and awe, but after Onuaku released his first one a visibly shook Vander Blue turned to his bench and mouthed, “What the fuck?!”, Blue hadn’t seen Onuaku play before so a wave of shock hit him when he saw his underhand free throws and he couldn’t contain himself.
That’s right — a professional basketball player in the NBA shoots his free throws underhanded. Onuaku splashed both of those free throws and finished with 14 points and 22 rebounds in a 133–120 Vipers win. From then on, it became accepted that Onuaku was going to shoot free throws “granny style” and it was a non-story until he did the same thing a little over a month later, this time for the Rockets. People tend to make fun of things they do not understand and an NBA player shooting underhand free throws, which have been coined granny style, certainly opens the door for finger-pointing and laughs. Onuaku could care less, because the change in style has exponentially increased his efficiency at the free throw stripe. Any negative attention he has received for the shooting motion is short-lived when people see its effectiveness and Onuaku’s laser-focus on perfecting his craft.
A metamorphosis like the one Onuaku chose to make only occurs when a player puts the goals of his team and his individual craft above any backlash he may receive. Of course Onuaku knew he would be made fun of, but after shooting a porous 46.7 percent from the free throw line his freshman season at Louisville, he was willing to put himself out there for improvement. He, and the Louisville coaching staff, spent the entire summer prior to his sophomore season studying old film of Rick Barry and honing his new craft. Just like a standard shooting motion, there’s a process, shot mechanics and a flow he had to learn and develop.
Onuaku finished his sophomore campaign by raising his free throw percentage to 58.9. In just one season his efficiency at the charity stripe jumped 12 percentage points. The sample size was quite small — he made 33-of-56 attempts — but the rapid improvement was there for all to see, and it was enough to keep Onuaku working at making it better.
After his successful sophomore season at Louisville, Onuaku declared for the 2016 NBA Draft and was selected by the Rockets with the 37th overall pick. Though he had promise, it was clear Onuaku would spend most of his rookie season with their D-League affiliate and he ended up playing 46 games of their 50-game schedule. Now on a much bigger stage, Onuaku would get the opportunity to test his underhanded style yet again. His sample size for the Vipers was much larger as he attempted 177 free throws during the regular and postseason. Add the four free throws (he went 4-of-4) he took for the Rockets and he amassed 181 attempts to glean even more knowledge from. Onuaku’s percentage rose yet again to 72.4 percent. That means he’s been able to raise his efficiency almost 26 percentage points in two years of shooting underhand free throws, which is astounding to comprehend.
After reaching out to teammates and opponents of Onuaku this past season in the D-League, it became clear they didn’t really care about his shooting motion. One of his teammates told us, “Yeah it was funny at first. I mean, most of us thought he was messing around, but after he said that’s how he shoots I really just moved on. As long as it goes in the hoop I don’t care what it looks like basically.” I spoke to some opponents of his who confirmed the same but added a new, expected wrinkle: “I mean, we talked shit to him when he stepped to the line because of the granny shot thing, but if it was my teammate I really wouldn’t care.”
Clearly there’s a stigma around shooting underhand. Rick Barry holds the fourth highest career free throw percentage at 89.9 (only Steve Nash, Mark Price and Stephen Curry are better) yet no NBA player has chose to adopt his anatomically correct style. Barry is obviously a proponent of the style telling Sporting News, “It’s a much more efficient shot. It’s so much more efficient than overhand. There’s so many positives to it because it’s a much softer shot. It’s one fluid motion and not a bunch of different motions that you have to do.” Even with Barry being a staunch advocate of the style, only one of his five sons would take on the challenge of shooting underhand, which tells you all you need to know about the difficulty of widespread use of the style.
The biggest name to employ the underhand free throw technique was Wilt Chamberlain who used the granny shot during the 1961–62 season where he shot 61.3 percent — his only season above 60 percent. He used it one year and stopped because, as he wrote in his autobiography, “I felt silly, like a sissy.” This is the problem with underhand free throws — no matter how effective they can be, players will always push back due to the negative perception.
Even still, Onuaku’s recent success forces me to think how this underhand option would help current NBA players who struggle mightily from the line. Guys like Andre Drummond, DeAndre Jordan and Dwight Howard could really benefit from putting their pride aside and improving their efficiency at the line via the granny shot.
While it’s important to note Onuaku was already a better free throw shooter, the pivotal note to pull from this table is the marked improvement Onuaku was able to see after switching styles. Drummond has seen basically no improvement over this span, Jordan has raised his efficiency 10 percentage points and Howard has gone up about four percentage points but all are still wildly inefficient overall. Drummond is just 23-years-old and likely has another 10–12 years of his career left. Even if he were to improve to 52–60 percent, it would benefit him and his team greatly. Jordan is 28-years-old and in the prime of his career. A change could still be made for him as well. Howard is already 31-years-old. Even though a shift could assist him as well, he’s the least likely of the three if we had to rank likelihood.
In all honestly, there’s a one percent chance of any one of these three — or any other struggling free throw shooter (I’m looking at you Andre Roberson) — adopting this style and pride is the culprit. But just for fun, let’s look at the potential impact for these three guys if they were to start shooting underhand free throws, and had the same success rate as Onuaku.
Stan Van Gundy might kiss me on the mouth if this worked. Drummond shooting almost 61 percent from the free throw line would help their team so much. He would be able to stay on the court in late-game situations with much less fear of hack-a-Drummond, which would ultimately help their club attain more wins.
The figures above project impact if all else remained exactly the same, which of course does not happen from year-to-year. Nonetheless, it’s encouraging to see how things could shake out.
Evidence shows that everyone who has attempted to use the underhand free throw technique saw an improvement in their overall efficiency at the free throw line. During my research I could not find a single subject who tried it and got worse, so there’s nothing to lose — besides maybe personal dignity.
The impressive thing for Onuaku is he’s seen this improvement while apparently using bad form. Rick Barry himself told the Washington Post last December, “I admire the fact he [Onuaku] was willing to try something different. Unfortunately, his technique leaves a lot to be desired.”
So, he could improve even more?
Maybe the Rockets should hire Barry to work with Onuaku this summer to keep his development trending the right way and apparently to fix his technique. Or maybe they’re more than pleased with 72.4 percent from the charity stripe for their role player 20-year-old. As for the Pistons, they should have added a clause to Drummond’s contract stating if he could shoot 55 percent or better from the free throw line, he would get a $10 million bonus or something akin to that.
If The Big Dipper himself couldn’t change the course of big men shooting underhand free throws, it’s highly unlikely Onuaku’s bravery moves the needle for others, but it should.
