Indiana Basketball: Romeo Langford, ping pong paddle, and improvements on his shot
A Deep Dive
Although his jumpshot has become a hot topic recently among Indiana fans, fixing Romeo’s shooting form is not as black and white an issue as some would lead you to believe. I myself have experience with coaching several players (even DI college basketball players) and tweaking their shooting form.
Coaching a change in shooting form is a difficult task. The shooting coach must find the balance of incorporating the ideal mechanics in a pure shot with what feels comfortable for the player. It’s all about the age old saying: “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Reggie Miller, for example, had an unorthodox shooting form (I’d even call it ugly), but he is one of the five best three point shooters of all time. Letting a player continue to shoot with poor mechanics can mean bad results on the court, but altering the player’s shot to the point of complete discomfort can produce the same poor performance as well.
Related Story. Three NBA Comparisons For Romeo Langford. light
There’s a mix of good and bad in Langford’s form. He possesses many mechanics that great shooters also possess. He is consistently on-balance, the ball comes out of his hand cleanly, his hips are properly aligned with the basket, and his feet placement is usually ideal.
Romeo is an elite midrange scorer and shot creator, and his form often looks fluid and effortless when shooting off of stepbacks, pullbacks, and a multitude of other off-the-dribble moves. He ranked in the 65th percentile in all off-the-dribble scoring efficiency according to Synergy Sports.
His spot up shots, however, look clunky, and it was displayed in his numbers. According to Synergy Sports, Langford was only in the 21st percentile among spot up shooters in college basketball, and an atrocious 4th percentile when heavily contested. For a 6-foot-6 guard with as much natural scoring ability as Romeo, those numbers are confusing. Most players find spot up shooting far easier than shooting off the dribble, so why is this trend reversed for Langford?
It’s all boils down to two words: fluidity and consistency.