A theory with Devan Cambridge's shot

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,650]

It was posed in this Auburn twitter space about 15 minutes ago, but the guy said he sees a different shot rotation when the ball leaves Cambridge's hands (assuming he means this season as a whole). Idk how much personal stock I have in that, but I do know the one thing DC could do, it's give you a corner three one out of every 3-4 attempts. That's the shot he still clearly mentally feels comfortable with, but it very very rarely goes in. 

Either way, it would make sense if he attempted to change it after his freshman year, guys with funny looking shots do get badgered to try to clean up their form wherever possible. He had a pretty drastic drop last season, although the quality of those looks definitely wasn't as good as he's had to date in 2021-22. 

[Dunndone414 469]

Somehow he’s still shooting better from 3pt than Allen, Jaylin and Kessler. 

Edited February 9, 2022 by Dunndone414

[LPTiger 5,153]

Al.com had several still shots of various jump shots from Devan and Jabari last week.   In each one, Jabari has one hand directly under the basketball and the other hand exactly 90 degrees away from that hand on the side of the basketball.   Devan had one hand on each side of the basketball, they were literally 180 degrees from one another. 

[Viper 3,129]

Tries too hard to shoot like his idol.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,650]

1 hour ago, Viper said:

Tries too hard to shoot like his idol.

Michael Kidd Gilchrist?

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,650]

1 hour ago, Dunndone414 said:

Somehow he’s still shooting better from 3pt than Allen, Jaylin and Kessler. 

I honestly got the two confused a couple times their freshman year because of how poor their jumpshots were lol. Jaylin’s is pretty bad and he gets it up slow. But he made it work last season 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,650]

Honestly, if the now auxiliary guys were as good at shooting as they were last season (and some of that is helped by SHARIFE at point guard), Aub is prob undefeated 

[AUBwins 10,072]

We could use Berman. We need a bench guy rifleman from 3 that can catch and shoot and typically make it.  

That's where Powell could have been useful this year.  Still wish we had gotten Desi. Geez.  

Speaking of Powell, the whole Berman situation feels similar.  Day to day but never cleared to play throughout the middle of the season. 

[jj3jordan 2,049]

Devan seems to have gotten slower in his release. Kind of slings it from behind his head but it takes too long and the defense can react and contest. I think this has lowered his confidence level. Didn’t this happen last year also and he made an adjustment and was better?

[Viper 3,129]

9 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

Michael Kidd Gilchrist?

#35 (Devin’s #) who won 2 rings with a pass-first team, then bolted to play with two ball heros.

[Dunndone414 469]

14 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

Honestly, if the now auxiliary guys were as good at shooting as they were last season (and some of that is helped by SHARIFE at point guard), Aub is prob undefeated 

By percentage, Auburn would easily be the worst 3pt shooting NCAA champion in the last decade.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,650]

7 hours ago, AUBwins said:

We could use Berman. We need a bench guy rifleman from 3 that can catch and shoot and typically make it.  

That's where Powell could have been useful this year.  Still wish we had gotten Desi. Geez.  

Speaking of Powell, the whole Berman situation feels similar.  Day to day but never cleared to play throughout the middle of the season. 

I think a big difference is that we’ve seen Berman at all; a minor one is that it didn’t take a month to get updates on Berman. A decent concussion and an ankle injury can be similar in terms of not having concrete timelines. Generally in the NBA, a severe ankle injury is gonna have a baseline of about a month. Has Berman been out for more than 2 weeks?

Edited February 9, 2022 by Dual-Threat Rigby

[AUBwins 10,072]

1 minute ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

I think a big difference is that we’ve seen Berman at all; a minor one is that it didn’t take a month to get updates on Berman. A decent concussion and an ankle injury can be similar in terms of not having concrete timelines. Generally in the NBA, a severe ankle injury is gonna have a baseline of about a month. Has Berman been out for more than 2 weeks?

Not exactly sure but it feels that way

[MaxCohen216 514]

21 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

It was posed in this Auburn twitter space about 15 minutes ago, but the guy said he sees a different shot rotation when the ball leaves Cambridge's hands (assuming he means this season as a whole). Idk how much personal stock I have in that, but I do know the one thing DC could do, it's give you a corner three one out of every 3-4 attempts. That's the shot he still clearly mentally feels comfortable with, but it very very rarely goes in. 

Either way, it would make sense if he attempted to change it after his freshman year, guys with funny looking shots do get badgered to try to clean up their form wherever possible. He had a pretty drastic drop last season, although the quality of those looks definitely wasn't as good as he's had to date in 2021-22. 

I love the guy.  He's a force on the offensive rebounding glass.  A blue-collar guy.  Who doesn't love that attitude?

OTOH, I wish he would not shoot anything except layups.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,650]

10 minutes ago, MaxCohen216 said:

I love the guy.  He's a force on the offensive rebounding glass.  A blue-collar guy.  Who doesn't love that attitude?

OTOH, I wish he would not shoot anything except layups.

He deserves to have all the respect and the minutes he gets, but it is tough when your mindstate your whole career and even your first couple years is "this program needs you to be a shooter". It's rare that you regress into a non-shooter, instead of the vice versa

And like was posed earlier, if you can get him into a rhythm akin to his first year, that changes the dynamic of the team dramatically. I think it's worth that "risk" to keep pushing instead of completely closing the door going into the time when the games really matter

Edited February 10, 2022 by Dual-Threat Rigby

[steeleagle 2,945]

Had Devan ever been told it’s ok to get a little closer and shoot a 2 pt shot? 

[cole256 17,042]

8 hours ago, steeleagle said:

Had Devan ever been told it’s ok to get a little closer and shoot a 2 pt shot? 

I think because how the game is guys practice so much at finishing and three's that mid range stuff is foreign and feels actually more difficult. 

We're too deep now, whatever it is he can't change up, he wouldn't be prepared for it. 

[tigeraddikt 1,598]

Here’s my theory on Cambridge’s shot: he has terrible mechanics and therefore misses the vast majority of them. No one has taken time to focus on helping him with it bc he can jump 13’ and his true value is playing D, hustling for rebounds, and playing above the rim.

He drained a bunch of 3’s as a freshman against USCe a couple years back and ever since then, he’s christened himself as the second coming of Steph Curry (I exaggerate).

Or maybe it's just the headband.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,650]

10 hours ago, tigeraddikt said:

Here’s my theory on Cambridge’s shot: he has terrible mechanics and therefore misses the vast majority of them. No one has taken time to focus on helping him with it bc he can jump 13’ and his true value is playing D, hustling for rebounds, and playing above the rim.

He drained a bunch of 3’s as a freshman against USCe a couple years back and ever since then, he’s christened himself as the second coming of Steph Curry (I exaggerate).

Or maybe it's just the headband.

Well for being a true freshman, coming into an already established rotation that had title aspirations, he was a ~33% guy that seemed like a capable corner three point shooter. That should’ve been a baseline for him to build off, both mechanically and mentally

Like someone else posed, maybe he did get some help and it was the wrong help

[steeleagle 2,945]

1 hour ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

Well for being a true freshman, coming into an already established rotation that had title aspirations, he was a ~33% guy that seemed like a capable corner three point shooter. That should’ve been a baseline for him to build off, both mechanically and mentally

Like someone else posed, maybe he did get some help and it was the wrong help

If you noticed he did change the way he gets ready to shoot a FT, and the side ball hold, is the same technique Wiley was taught by one of the assistants and worked very well. DEvan is much better shooting FTs now, even though he didn't in Ark when none of our guys could hit a FT.

Now on his jump shot, I would have to look at his form from his FR year till now to see if they tried to change him. He has gotten worse and I bet it is bc he changed his form.

His unorthodox shooting form is going to be prone to inconsistency in form, and that's his biggest problem is his mechanics are not the same every time he shoots it. 

Remember the Laker who would put the ball behind his head as part of his shooting form? Can't remember his name but he was very good.

So there is nothing wrong with having an unorthodox style but you better make sure your mechanics are always the same for it to work.

Edited February 14, 2022 by steeleagle

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,650]

3 hours ago, steeleagle said:

Remember the Laker who would put the ball behind his head as part of his shooting form? Can't remember his name but he was very good.

Are you talking about Lonzo Ball? He was a great shooter in college and I think his wind-up, lack of upper body strength (problem for most guys just getting into the NBA), and the fact that NBA guys are bigger and longer really forced him to tweak it a bit 

but there’s more similarities to UCLA/rookie year Lonzo’s three point form to Devan’s than not. Hopefully he’s able to adjust in a similar way at some point 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,650]

Lonzo did have really consistent mechanics though, they just weren’t good mechanics 😂 

[WarEagle1983 2,185]

1 hour ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

Lonzo did have really consistent mechanics though, they just weren’t good mechanics 😂 

The Bulls are my NBA team. Zo certainly has better form on his 3. The change has helped his shot. I think Devin should do the same. Zo did have a chance to work on it a lot during the offseason and the fact he was often out with the Pelicans due to injury. The middle Ball brother has the best shot out of the 3 of them. Still amazes me that no NBA team will put him on a roster or at least a 10 day contract b/c he is an assassin. 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,650]

14 minutes ago, WarEagle1983 said:

The Bulls are my NBA team. Zo certainly has better form on his 3. The change has helped his shot. I think Devin should do the same. Zo did have a chance to work on it a lot during the offseason and the fact he was often out with the Pelicans due to injury. The middle Ball brother has the best shot out of the 3 of them. Still amazes me that no NBA team will put him on a roster or at least a 10 day contract b/c he is an assassin. 

Gelo really got gipped in the height department. If he’s Lonzo’s or Lamelo’s height, dudes probably a starter somewhere. 
It does go to show you how much talent is in the league to where someone who’s as rock solid as him with scoring can’t be more than a G-Leaguer. I have to convey the same thing to my gma who’s not a NBA person, a Jared Harper or Bryce Brown is really good but there’s so many really good dudes there 

[AuburnNTexas 7,134]

4 hours ago, steeleagle said:

If you noticed he did change the way he gets ready to shoot a FT, and the side ball hold, is the same technique Wiley was taught by one of the assistants and worked very well. DEvan is much better shooting FTs now, even though he didn't in Ark when none of our guys could hit a FT.

Now on his jump shot, I would have to look at his form from his FR year till now to see if they tried to change him. He has gotten worse and I bet it is bc he changed his form.

His unorthodox shooting form is going to be prone to inconsistency in form, and that's his biggest problem is his mechanics are not the same every time he shoots it. 

Remember the Laker who would put the ball behind his head as part of his shooting form? Can't remember his name but he was very good.

So there is nothing wrong with having an unorthodox style but you better make sure your mechanics are always the same for it to work.

If you are talking about unorthodox shooting style I was thinking of Shawn Marion played for Phoenix Suns, Miami Heat, Toronto,  and Dallas Mavericks. It was an ugly shot but same form on every shot and he shot for a very good percentage.  You are correct the shot does not have to be pretty to be effective if the mechanics are the same on every shot. The problem is Cambridge shot is not the same on every shot. That said he is great complementary player by playing tough Defense, works hard on the boards, can jump out of the arena leading to some spectacular dunks that get the fans and his team hyped up.  He has to improve his mechanics on the 3 or just shoot fewer 3's. I have noticed when he gets a clean open look his 3 is better, it is when defender is closing that his shot goes down hill. I think some of his shooter woes are how they get the ball to him where he is rushed. We are very inconsistent in our ball movement at times we look like we are great at it then others we dribble to much and then passes are late and we don't get quality looks. We are better as a team shooting 3's when Zep is on the floor, or at least it appears to me that way but I can't back that with statistics.   

Edited February 14, 2022 by AuburnNTexas