RealGM

Noticed a quirk in the mechanics of his shooting hand.

Just before he starts his forward shooting stroke, he straightens out his fingers, causing the ball to come off of his fingertips and rest on the middle parts of his fingers. For that split second, he takes his fingertips off the ball. You can see daylight between the ball and his fingertips. Then right after that, as he continues the forward shooting stroke, his fingertips move forward and again come in contact with the ball, and from that point on his shooting stroke proceeds like a normal shot.

2012-13 (rookie year):









2013-14:




It's similar to the way you might shoot a tennis ball. Since a tennis ball is so small, you might rest it on the palm or the middle part of your fingers, not your fingertips, and then as you shot it, it would roll onto your fingertips then launch. Except Lillard is doing this with a basketball, wtf.

Normally, the ball never comes off of a shooter's fingertips in the middle of their stroke, no? Just thought that it was unusual for such a good shooter to have this particular quirk, which I've never seen before.

It's as if he's cocking back his fingertips, so that when his fingertips move forward, they re-contact the ball with a little bit more momentum, giving him more power/range on his shot (?). Kind of like he's slapping the ball mid-stroke. That's one theory anyway.

I wonder if he even realizes he does it. Is it intentional? Is that one of his secrets? Maybe resting it on the middle sections of his fingers for that split second forces him to better balance the ball in his hand before he strokes it, thereby helping his accuracy?

Or, maybe it's actually hindering his accuracy? If he got rid of that quirk, if he kept his fingertips on the ball for the entire stroke, maybe he'd be an even better shooter?

Sorry, bored + OCD + Lillard fan + way too much free time = this thread.

Pretty cool find. Maybe I'll try it out see if I can get more range.

That's incredible. Good eye, OP.

Amazing find. I'd take one of this thread for every 100 "Kobe is not top 10 all time" or "Most underrated players in the league"

Great find OP, very interesting indeed.

you're going to make every hack sport journalist look like a genius when they steal this off you

Seems like the kind of quirk that would cause alot of his shots to come up short.

Is he getting front rim on alot of his misses or are they left-right misses?

This is actually really interesting. You usually don't think about shooting strokes unless it's somebody like Shawn Marion.

He shoots very palmy.

Take my And1 OP

While on subject, hows MKG's jumper going?

Wow, that is really strange - seems like it would lead to wildly inconsistent results, but Lillard is a damn good shooter. I wouldn't point this out to him, there's a good chance he doesn't even know he's doing it.

How you somehow managed to notice that i have no idea

DynastySS wrote:He shoots very palmy.

This....

I can recall an instructor at a camp telling us something similar when going over mechanics and the reasoning why you want to do this and not do that.

crazy find op, are you an undercover writer or really just that bored? It almost reminds me of Lowe...

Must be working cause his J is wet.

JesusHCoxMd wrote:While on subject, hows MKG's jumper going?

Your profile pic is the perfect gif to answer this question.

Nice find OP.

I shoot a knuckleball and have all my life. It's so hard to change your shot, but I may have to try this.

That looks like it takes more strength, but it works well for Lillard.

JDR720 wrote:How you somehow managed to notice that i have no idea

my thoughts..

Lillard's shots do tend to look more flat than some others. More like line-drives.