[philwelch]

I'm really skeptical about the granny shot. The legend of the granny shot mostly comes from the free throw record of Rick Barry, who is admittedly an all-time great from the line, but he's also the only all-time great to shoot that way, and he doesn't even have the best career free throw percentage in NBA history. Complicating matters even further, the WNBA player with the best career free throw percentage, Elena Delle Donne, has a free throw percentage a couple points higher than any NBA player (making her perhaps the most proficient free throw shooter in the history of professional basketball) and even she shoots overhand: http://www.basketball-reference.com/wnba/players/d/delleel01...

It doesn't make a lot of sense to have two completely different shot mechanics that you have to practice and train. Aside from Rick Barry, every good free throw shooter seems to use a variation on their normal shooting mechanic, sometimes starting with a consistent dribbling ritual to get them into rhythm (e.g. Rip Hamilton or Klay Thompson). Poor free throw shooters tend to be people who either don't have great shot mechanics in the first place or people who struggle with the unique mental pressure of free throw shooting. In the flow of a game it's hard to overthink yourself and get psyched out, so even guys like Bruce Bowen who could nail catch-and-shoot corner threes sometimes struggled when the game slowed down enough for the pressure to sink in.

Bunting to me seems more akin to the kind of "dirty work" that great players master and good players think they're above doing, like setting hard screens and making an effort on defense. If you're a really good bunter, you're not gonna have the kinds of numbers and highlight plays that lead to fame or fortune. Similarly, if you set hard screens or close off passing lanes or do a lot of the hard work that leads to wins but don't really lead to great individual stats, people are going to ignore you and assume a stat-chasing ball hog like Russell Westbrook is better than you.