Warriors Center Andrew Bogut Is Now Shooting Free Throws Left-Handed

Andrew Bogut used to simply be a poor free throw shooter. Before a gruesome right elbow injury late in the 2010 season that’s left him unable to fully extend his shooting arm, the Aussie center shot a meager but hardly horrible 60.1 percent from the line. In the four seasons since, Bogut has quietly devolved into one of basketball’s most ineffective players from the charity stripe. He’s connected on only 44.2 percent of his free throw attempts since 2010-2011, and his struggles reached a nadir last season with the Golden State Warriors when Bogut made a hideous 34.4 percent of his tries. Finally fed up with his wholesale labors from the line, Bogut is trying to fix them in 2014-2015. How? By shooting free throws left-handed, of course.

Here’s Bogut bricking a pair of freebies last night in the Warriors’ rout of the Los Angeles Lakers. The results aren’t different, but the means behind them certainly are.

https://dailymotion.com/video/x27txos

Yup, that’s a clear left-handed shot.

Those didn’t look pretty, but Bogut has nothing to lose at this point. He became an outright liability at times last season due to his deficient free throw shooting, as teams more frequently intentionally fouled him and sent him to the line to keep the Warriors from playing offense. It didn’t happen as much as it did for Andre Drummond or DeAndre Jordan, but it seems only a matter of time until the league wises up and adjusts.

The fact is that players can’t do much worse than 34 percent. If going lefty gets Bogut back above the .500 mark, it will be a major boon for Steve Kerr’s team. Not only is he by far Golden State’s most impactful interior defender, but he’s been utilized as an offensive playmaking fulcrum in the preseason a la Marc Gasol and Joakim Noah. Health willing, this season seems primed to be Bogut’s best in the Bay.

The former number one pick’s awful inaccuracy means more than just missed free throws, too. Ever since his elbow injury in 2010, Bogut has been increasingly weary of being fouled and sent to the line. Here’s a table charting his free throw attempts per shot within eight-feet of the rim for each season of Bogut’s career:

See the trend? Bogut has made an extra effort to avoid being fouled over the past few seasons, and it’s hurting the Warriors in the paint. Should he become a more viable threat from in-close given new comforts from the stripe, it will be a major boon for Golden State.

More important, obviously, is simply that he improves from the line. Bogut is too good to be so severely limited by a seemingly fixable issue, and clearly agrees by choosing to shoot free throws left-handed this season.

*Statistical support for this post provided by basketball-reference.com

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