Raps’ Hollis-jefferson hustling to improve his outside shooting

The Hustle King is on the hustle again, only this time for himself.

Well, for himself now but also eventually for his team, as well.

Toronto’s Rondae Hollis-jefferson has always been valued for his hustle and versatility.

You need an offensive rebound, a putback off a teammate’s miss, some lockdown defence, Hollis-jefferson can answer all those calls.

But there is a fundamental skill set to the game of basketball that has not been so automatic for Hollis-jefferson through his five years in the NBA, and that would be the shooting part of the game.

Hollis-jefferson has always been of the belief he could fix it himself. And don’t think he hasn’t put time in trying to do just that. But the results? Suffice to say, they are not acceptable to him.

He has hired a personal shooting coach maybe to fine-tune his shot, maybe to break it down and rebuild it from scratch.

Teams clearly invite Hollis-jefferson to shoot the ball from the outside.

He wants to change that.

“Yeah, I think it’s about time I added that to my game,” Hollis-jefferson said following a recent game. “It’s been a long time.”

Through 43 games this season, three as a starter, and averaging just under 20 minutes a game, Hollis-jefferson is shooting a very respectable 47.6 per cent from the field.

His issues begin as soon as you take him away from the basket. At or near the rim he shoots 68.9 per cent. Between three and 10 feet out that percentage plummets to 16.5 per cent. Any shot beyond that has less than a seven per cent success rate.

“I have always been a guy with a lot of pride, and I feel like that’s where a lot of athletes and people in general go wrong,” he said. “Holding that pride like you can do it (alone). You can fix it. Be self-independent. I feel like I’m at that point where I need help, and I know I need help whether it’s mental or the actual shot and I’m seeking it.”

Hollis-jefferson knows this is going to be neither a short process nor an inexpensive one. He’s prepared and committed to both.

“You see guys investing in shopping and fashion,” Hollis-jefferson said. “We invest in property. How many of us really invest in our games. The Lebrons (James), the Stephs (Curry) the James’ (Harden) — guys like that. I want to be there one day.”

The process is in its infancy stage. When first approached about doing this story, Hollis Jefferson requested we hold off until some results could be shown.

Following a career-high scoring night against Minnesota, even if the vast majority of those points came from the paint, Hollis Jefferson agreed to talk about this next step.

Hollis-jefferson himself isn’t sure which way this will go for him. He’s been told so many times his inability to make shots is as much mental as it is mechanical, he’s not sure there will even have to be a rebuild of his shooting mechanics.

For now, the decision has been made to just take his free-throw shooting form — he’s a career 74 per cent free-throw shooter — and take that out beyond the arc. The real work on altering his shooting mechanics will come this summer.

“We’re just doing minor adjustments for now,” Hollis-jefferson said. “(The shooting coach’s) whole thing is he didn’t want to make that big change right now during the season.”

If his shooting woes is something mechanical in his form, the reasons are rather obvious. Hollis-jefferson has an enormous wing span of 7-foot-2 for a man of his height, even if you accept the 6-foot-7 that accompanies his bio in just about every possible NBA date base. For the record, Hollis Jefferson laughs at the 6-foot-7 declaration.

That kind of wing span makes for a lot of moving parts in a shot. It stands to reason the longer the parts in any release, the more chance there is for something to go awry.

But until his shooting guru told him such, Hollis Jefferson had never really considered that.

“No, but I always could feel it,” he said. “From catching the ball to where it feels comfortable to going up to where it feels comfortable is a lot because my arms are just so long.”

Raptors coach Nick Nurse said regardless of the outcome, Hollis-jefferson will always have a place in the NBA just because of the things he does at a high level.

“I think he does what he does really well,” Nurse said. “He’s, I mean I hate to say it, but he’s a 6-foot-5, 6-foot-6 centre. He’s great around the basket. He’s great in the dunker position.

He’s a great screener and roller. He passes out of the high post. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that because he plays like he’s 6-foot-10 out there.”

But there’s another part to playing as an undersized centre that Nurse doesn’t mention and it may be at least part of the reason Hollis-jefferson is so keen to go to work on his shot.

“I want to get back to not getting beat up by 7-foot, 260,” he said.