Posted on Thu, Oct. 05, 2006

Warriors get some 'free' advice
Team hires a specialist to help correct its woes at the foul line

By Geoff Lepper
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

OAKLAND - Troy Murphy knows how strange it must look to see a
scruffy-haired, 6-foot-11 man walking down the sidewalk while
pantomiming shooting a basketball and repeating the same three words
over and over again: Down and up. Down and up.

"When I'm walking around the city, I practice, and people look at me
like I've lost my mind," Murphy said. "But if it makes me a better
free-throw shooter, I don't care."

Neither does the Warriors organization. The repetition of that phrase is
just one part of a comprehensive free-throw shooting plan put together
by Hal Wissel, a shooting savant whom Golden State has brought in to try
to rectify the team's wretched performance at the line.

Last season, the Warriors finished 26th out of 30 in the NBA in
free-throw shooting, at 71.8 percent. More critically, they often wilted
down the stretch.

As Murphy bluntly put it, "It's very important to us, because we choked
so many times at the end of games last season."

Wissel, who was hired as an assistant coach for player development last
month, has honed his precepts over a four-decade career that includes
stints at Fordham and Lafayette and NBA jobs in Atlanta, Dallas,
Memphis, Milwaukee and New Jersey.

He began working with select Warriors in mid-September but knows their
foibles from much earlier than that, something Jason Richardson found
out this week. When Wissel met with the Warriors' top scorer for the
first time, the coach pointed out flaws in Richardson's foul-line form
dating as far back as 2001-02, his rookie season in the NBA.

"I knew right away what he was talking about," Richardson said. "He
nailed it. ... He can do a lot for us. He knows what he's talking about,
that's for sure. He picked up the little things that were ruining my
free-throw shooting just like that."

Step one in Wissel's plan is to make any necessary corrections to a
player's shot. Richardson and Baron Davis -- who ranked last and
next-to-last out of 64 guards who qualified for last season's free-throw
shooting title, with marks of 67.3 and 67.5 percent, respectively --
were both guilty of using too much arms and not enough legs. Murphy, on
the other hand, has had a persistent hitch he's trying to quell.

"We worked for about a week leading up to the season, and now I'm
feeling confident that it's going to be gone," Murphy said.

Once the correct form is in place, Wissel has his players use three-word
phrases to keep themselves focused. At the line, players are required to
"look like a shooter." And losing your composure after a miss no longer
is allowed.

"Even Tiger Woods, as good as he is, if he misses a shot, he'll slam the
club down," Wissel said. "You never saw Michael Jordan do that. You
never saw Magic do that. You never saw Larry Bird do that."

Of course, those three guys were infamous workaholics in the gym, and
Wissel and the Warriors don't skimp there. Instead of breaking up into
informal free-throw shooting at the end of practices, Golden State's
time at the line is now a mandatory exercise.

"Honestly, we haven't had a coach that's stressed that," forward Mike
Dunleavy said. "I think we've all realized it; it's a pretty obvious
thing. For it not to have been addressed to this point is, quite
frankly, amazing."

In case that's not enough, Wissel and coach Don Nelson are also grabbing
the Warriors' attention by using the NBA's universal language: money.
Players who don't better their percentage from the previous day's
shooting have to pay a penalty.

"So there's definitely incentive," Murphy said.

Enough incentive to risk embarrassment on a public street rather than in
front of 17,000 fans.

Notes: Assistant coach Russell Turner and Dunleavy cracked heads during
a drill in the morning practice, leaving Turner with a thick bandage
over his left eye. Quipped Nelson: "Actually, I did that in the coaches'
meeting. (Turner) forgot a couple of plays." ... Rookie center Patrick
O'Bryant (broken right foot) was cleared to participate in noncontact
practices and hit the floor Wednesday. He said he hopes to be
scrimmaging within a few days.