Brian Shaw Lets Nuggets Hit Him in the Head to Improve their Free Throw Shooting

Head coach Brian Shaw is coming up with inventive ways to improve the Denver Nuggets’ woeful free-throw shooting (and overall performance). If he’s not careful, however, it may result in some brain damage. Per NBA.com (via Sulia): “Frustrated by more bricks than he can stand from his team at the free throw line, an idea popped into the head of Nuggets coach Brian Shaw at the end of the team’s Monday morning shootaround in Dallas. ‘What I did was I joked with the guys that the safest place in the building to stand when we’re at the free throw line is right underneath the net,’ Shaw said. ‘So I gave everybody on the team basically a chance to shoot a free throw with myself standing under the net with my hands down, where if they made it the ball would hit me on top of the head.’ As a team the Nuggets are shooting an abysmal 69.9 percent from the stripe, 28th in the NBA. Four of the team’s starters shoot below 70 percent with J.J. Hickson below 60 percent. Denver was coming off a 102-100 win against Dallas on Saturday in which they were 21-for-30 from the free throw line. A better showing at the line and the game might not have been such a nail-biter down the stretch. ‘At this point I’m trying by any means necessary to get us shooting free throws better,’ Shaw said. ‘The guys who hit me the most — well, Kenneth Faried actually got two hits on me — but the guys that haven’t really had an opportunity to play as much were the ones that were really, really aiming for me.’ […] Shaw said he’s game, but with one adjustment. ‘I would have to put some kind of head gear on,’ Shaw said. ‘Whatever it takes.'”