Evan Turner’s rookie season was a tough one and his role change offensively played a part in that.  The 2010 National Player of the Year as a junior for Ohio State, Turner went from a ball dominant point guard being used primarily in pick and roll sets for the Buckeyes to a largely spot-up role player for the Philadelphia 76ers, a role that put even more of an emphasis on his set shot.

The results were not pretty.  Turner had a tough time extending his range out to NBA three point territory, making only 14 three pointers in 78 games.  As a whole, his 0.8 points per possession on jump shot attempts were in the bottom third of the league, and he shot only 40.2% on no dribble jump shots, limiting his usefulness as a spot-up player.  Turner struggled to find a comfort zone on the offensive end last year, which caused both his confidence — and his minutes — to fall.

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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:

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The three point contest on All-Star Saturday brings 6 of the best three point shooters in the NBA (and one of the best shooters in the history of the game, depending on who you believe), and I think this contest is the perfect chance to break down some shooting forms.

Despite every shooter in the NBA having a different shooting form, there are four basic things that should be the same (and that are the same among the best shooters in the NBA). They are the hands, the lower body, the follow through, and the landing.  I thought it would be interesting to put these shooters side by side, and break down their shots at these four points.

The Hands

Hand positioning – Hand positioning is key because this is where your rotation comes from (maybe my favorite part of the three point contest is watching the competitors shoot the money ball.  Seeing the almost perfect rotation is fun to watch).  Rotation is important on your shot because this is what helps a shooter get some good bounces.  I am sure everyone has heard of the saying “shooters roll.”  Well if you think about it, this is only said about good shooters, and this is because they put the proper rotation on the ball.

As you can see, all of the players hand positioning is basically the same.  You have the right hand right in the middle of the basketball, and the left on the side, supporting it. Cook’s form is a little funky (he takes his left hand off the ball super-early), but he still has his right hand in the center of the basketball, so it works.   The only shooter who doesn’t have the right hand positioning is Channing Frye.  His left hand is too much on top of the basketball, and his right isn’t in the center of the ball.  The result can be seen in Frye’s rotation.  Instead of the perfect end over end rotation you usually see, Frye’s balls have a side-winding type of rotation, with the ball going end over end, but it also spins from right to left.

Release Point – Now everyone’s release points here are different, but that is ok as long as the hands are in the right spots.  I just thought it was interesting to look at how the taller guys (Danilo Gallinari and Channing Frye) have higher release points.  This helps get their shots off, because if they keep it high, nobody contesting the shot would ever be able to block it.

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Both games yesterday kind of stunk, with neither really being close late.  And now that we are at the All-Star break, there isn’t really much to talk about.  That doesn’t mean there isn’t any great basketball posts out there.  Today, the site Basketball Free For All did a great post on the League’s Best Shooters.  Here is a little taste:

Discussions of great shooters ultimately lead to a few questions. Who is the better shooter now? Who has been the better shooter over the course of their career? And how does the better of the two shooters stack up against some of the other historically great shooters of the three point era? And what can we learn about the players from looking at the numbers?

Ray Allen versus Steve Nash

They are often referred to as natural shooters ostensibly because they have some innate abilities that allow them to shoot the ball at an exceptional clip. But that is only part of the story. Both Ray and Steve are renowned for their work ethic and their practice routines. Allen routinely knocks down 247 out of 250 shots before every game and credits a lot of his practice work ethic to his college coach at UConn, Jim Calhoun. Nash credits his work ethic during practices and the offseason as one of the primary reasons he was even able to be successful in the League, as he wasn’t blessed with extraordinary athleticism or size that is normally a prerequisite for NBA hopefuls.

Check it out.  Real, real good stuff.