When left is right: Mason Plumlee’s new free-throw style is working for hot Hornets
Mason Plumlee’s free-throw shooting this season for the Charlotte Hornets has provoked a number of reactions from the crowd at Spectrum Center, ranging from exasperation to disgust.
But Monday night, in the Hornets’ fifth straight win, the home fans had a new reaction entirely: Surprise and delight.
Plumlee, you see, is a right-hander who has begun shooting his free throws left-handed.
“It’s not like I had anything to lose,” Plumlee said, “based on how I was shooting from the free-throw line.”
And the results, which could hardly have been any worse, have been slightly better.
Plumlee is still shooting a career-worst 38.2 percent from the line for the season, which is also dead last among all NBA players in their teams’ regular playing rotation. He missed his first attempt Monday in Charlotte’s 106-103 win over New Orleans, but then made his next three, drawing a standing ovation after the last one.
Three makes in a row for Plumlee is about as close as he’s going to get to Steph Curry from the line. Plumlee can do a lot of things well on the basketball court — he rebounds, hustles and occasionally does a passable imitation of a seven-foot point guard. But from the line, he often has looked like he’s holding a basketball for the first time. He has shot several righty airballs from the free-throw line this season, and some of his other attempts have had the trajectory of an arrow.
But in a limited sample size, Plumlee is now 8 for 15 on foul shots (53.3 percent) since he began shooting them as a southpaw five games ago.
“He’s shooting lefty better than me,” joked Miles Bridges.
Why did Plumlee switch?
In Plumlee’s case, necessity was the mother of invention.
In Charlotte’s March 9 loss to Boston, Plumlee jammed a finger on his right hand. X-rays were negative, but the finger swelled, and Plumlee’s free-throw motion felt even worse than usual. That night he was 1 for 4 from the line, and the only one that went in he unintentionally banked into the basket. At one point, a Boston player stepped into the lane early to give Plumlee another attempt, and the crowd actually groaned, because they knew what was coming. They were right — Plumlee missed that one, too.
So with his finger hurting and his pride perhaps stung a little, Plumlee decided to do something different. He didn’t mention it at first. That night after Charlotte’s loss to Boston, coach James Borrego seemed almost resigned to what was going on with Plumlee (then at 36 percent from the line).
“There’s not a whole lot of mechanical, technical things we can do at this point in the season,” Borrego said. “But he’s proven he can make free throws (previously). We just need his head in the right space.”
It turned out there was something mechanical the Hornets could do, but it was radical: Switch hands entirely.
“I didn’t see that one coming,” Borrego admitted after Charlotte’s win Monday, which pushed the Hornets to 37-35 as they fight for playoff seeding (they are in ninth place in the Eastern Conference). Their next game is Wednesday night at home against the New York Knicks. The Hornets have won all five games since Plumlee began shooting free throws left-handed. Coincidence? You be the judge.
Plumlee first started shooting the free throws lefty the next day in practice, then debuted the new style at New Orleans on March 11.
“It felt good,” he said. “So I just stuck with it.”
Monday night, Plumlee did a lot more right than just the free throws. He had two massive dunks in the game’s final 60 seconds, as Charlotte shot 68 percent from the field in the fourth quarter to win a choppy game that the Hornets trailed nearly all the way. Plumlee finished with 11 points, 10 rebounds and three assists, and he fought off New Orleans big man Jonas Valanciunas on several key plays down the stretch.
“It’s really his energy and his defense that got us home tonight,” Borrego said of Plumlee. “He deserves a lot of credit for this one.”
Shaq, Wilt and Plumlee
Of course, few NBA fans can go up and throw down a two-handed dunk anytime they want like Plumlee can. But free throws are one of the most relatable parts of basketball. Almost anyone can heave one up from 15 feet and watch it go in, and even youth-league players often shoot at least 50 percent from the line.
Plumlee once did, too. In his final season at Duke, in 2012-13, he shot 68.1 percent from the free-throw line. No one ever thought then about the “Hack-a-Plumlee” strategy that opposing coaches have employed occasionally this season against the Hornets.
In the NBA, Plumlee’s numbers dropped, but his career percentage is still 55.8. That’s above legendary free-throw clankers like Ben Wallace (41.4 percent), Shaquille O’Neal (52.7) or Wilt Chamberlain (51.1). Chamberlain, in particular, was a free-throw experimenter, even going so far as to occasionally shoot them underhanded as Rick Barry (89.3) regularly did.
The Hornets don’t seem to want to talk too much about Plumlee’s lefty free throws, perhaps worried they’ll jinx it.
Said Borrego: “It was sparked a little bit by a tweak to his right finger, which forced him to shoot that thing with his left. And I don’t want to speak any more than that. What I see is we’re going to leave it alone.”
Plumlee won’t be shooting technical fouls for the Hornets anytime soon (although wouldn’t it be cool if he did, just once?) But he also doesn’t appear to be thinking about going back to his right-handed free throws, even after his finger heals. “I’m sticking with it,” Plumlee repeated. Which make sense. Because, for now, left is right.
This story was originally published March 22, 2022 at 9:37 AM.
