Last week, Kate Fagan of Philly.com reported that Evan Turner was working with Herb Magee, also known as The Shot Doctor, looking to improve his shooting, and to be completely honest, Turner needs the work.  Turner, who isn’t the quickest wing player, needs that shooting threat to force the defense to respect it and close out/play closer to him.  Once that starts happening, that is when Turner can use that shooting threat to help him get to the rim and become an even better player.  For that to happen, he needs to knock down shots consistently and turn into a threat, something he couldn’t do his rookie season.  According to Synergy Sports, Turner shot just 37.4% on all jump shots (37.1% on shots inside 17 feet, 38.8% on shots outside 17 feet but inside the three point line, and 33.3% behind the three point line).

So what is Turner working on?  Well according to Fagan’s report, he was working on one specific thing having to do with his off-hand:

If you’ve made it this far in the blog post then you’re a Sixers fan and you watched enough games last year to know Turner needed some basic adjustment on his shot. He’s not a bad shooter, not by any stretch, but there were times his confidence seemed to affect his mid-range shot and there are some obvious corrections needed on his mechanics. Yesterday, Turner and Magee worked on the first of those changes: Turner’s placement of his off hand. Turner’s shooting hand is actually quite sound. He holds the ball correctly, keeps his shooting elbow in, and releases the ball off the correct fingers. On occasion, he snaps back instead of holding his follow through, but for the most part his shooting hand is not the issue. That information should relieve Sixers’ fans.

So what is the problem with Turner’s offhand?  The position it is placed on the basketball.  As a shooter, you want to use your off hand to hold the ball in place, but not to have it involved in the shot.  It should be still on the side of the basketball as the strong hand goes through the shooting motion.  What Turner does is he places the basketball right on top of the ball:

With the way Turner’s off-hand is positioned, there is no way that he can keep it from being involved with the shot and Turner is essentially shooting with two hands.  This release effects the shot because it effects the rotation, and any shooter can tell you if your rotation is off, your aren’t going to get those really good bounces.  Here is Turner’s shot live and slowed down so you can really see the effect of his off hand on his shot:

Because Turner’s hand is on top of the basketball, he has to pull it away as he is shooting, and that could create a sidewinding type of ball rotation that could cause the ball to bounce away from the hoop after hitting the rim.  Another indicator that his left hand is too involved is is his follow through.

Turner has both of his wrists flicking out during his shot and his follow through is proof of that.  For an example of where an off hand should be placed and where should it be on a release, look at this video of James Jones (who has a very good shooting form and is a very good shooter) from the three point contest:

Jones keeps his hand on the side of the basketball and as he shoots it, it doesn’t move, allowing him to get perfect rotation on the shot.

So will this work out for Turner?  Well, in my opinion, it all depends on how receptive he is to the training, and according to Fagan, he is willing to listen.  If that hand does slide to the side of the basketball and he gets enough reps during the off season, Turner’s shot could improve.  His strong hand form looks proper, the hand is directly under the middle of the basketball, his elbow is in, and he gets a good flick of the wrist with his right hand, so much so that he could have perfect rotation if he gets that off-hand away from the shot.