I seem to recall that Ryan had a reputation of being a good shooter coming out of high school. Is that incorrect or has he just lost his touch and/or form since coming to UVA? He seems to have a bit of a throwing motion over his head rather than shooting with his arms and hands in front of his head. Others have said they see the ball coming off his palm rather than his fingers. This makes sense if he does have a throwing type motion. Seems like it should be an easy fix except once you’ve established bad form it’s hard to break that muscle memory. Thoughts on what might help him?
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Don’t remember if it was here or another Hoo site, but I believe it was mentioned that he was a good shooter his SO & JR years of HS, then after growth spurt between his JR & SR year, he didn’t shoot it as well his SR year.
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I also think his HS career was messed up by Covid.
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Totally mucked up. Also, he didnt really play HS hoops prior to Perk. His LuHi team played like 5 games in 20-21, so any of his stats from that year are mostly useless. And he didn’t play in 19-20, I didn’t think. So his solid 3pt numbers were mostly from several AAU games in the summer of ‘21
Also I remember you or someone mentioned he maybe didnt play much for Pokemon when he was healthy. Theory was maybe their coach wanted to showcase other players who werent yet signed as RD was at that point
Therefore pokemon is to blame for the FT problem
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I remember that line of thinking and I remember disagreeing slightly, but I can’t recall why
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Yea I had no real insight. Just proud of myself for remembering is all haha
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@DFresh11 - Ryan Dunn I choose you!
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Problem is if Ryan Dunn threw that ball it would land on the 3rd row
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… but that’s @DFresh chucking it… Ryan Dunn is the Pokemon… sheesh, you got little kids @BDragon… Ryan Dunn is IN the Pokeball… thats his home! 
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My kids are 3 and 2. They know as much about Pokemon as me a 40 yr old man
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Shooting was a strength in HS. That was basically his thing…long developing athlete (his growth spurt made him awkward at the time) who shoots really well from 3. He was over 40% on high volume his final summer. Rest of his game was rough, on both sides. We thought we were getting something closer to Trey Murphy than Braxton Key.
The growth spurt probably screwed some things up. As others said, his shooting dipped during his prep year. We recruited him that summer at 6’6, was 6’8 on arrival. I assume his shot has since been tinkered with in the meantime for the worse. But the bigger problem is he’s just a total head case now. When he shoots on the move without thinking, he’s fine, otherwise awful.
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I think it wouldn’t be crazy to expect that his shot will get better in the pros, when he won’t be expected to contribute for winning for 1-2 years. Right now all his in-game 3s are coming in high-leverage minutes. In the pros he’s got some developmental environments to try stuff out, like Summer League and the G-League.
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Yeah, earlier in the season, I was all about having him just keep chucking. At this point though, agree with HGN - it’s just total yips.
His passing has actually be really good as of late. And seems to excel in the mid range and obviously at the rim.
But I think even against Pitt he had some layups he seemed hesitant or to pass up on. Got me thinking of Ben Simmons.
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Remember Markelle Fultz? He had the yips for the first few years of his NBA career…
EDIT: I just looked it up… it appears his yips were caused by some non-traceable shoulder injury per several articles.
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So basically Ryan Dunn is going to end up in Philly and be some combination of Markelle Fultz, Ben Simmons or Matisse Thybulle.
(All guys that were drafted by the Sixers. Thybulle most frequent Dunn comp)
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Wow… I can actually see this… weird.
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I don’t think growing 2 inches has anything to do with his shooting…. Do you? I’m genuinely curious if this is in relation to the system. They are told and practice to only shoot the best shot (or something to that effect), right? And the action they run really only creates shots for the guards, and then the big men in pick n roll. Just seems we’ve created a system where the players feel like if they shoot it, it’s a bad shot, in return killing their confidence.
I’m probably way off here, thoughts?
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I don’t know…have never gone through that haha Just that the drop off started to show up during his prep year. But yeah there’s plenty to what you’re saying. A lot, maybe most, players shoot poorly early on in college because they’re sped up and spending energy in areas they didn’t in HS. Shots aren’t as comfortable. Just with Dunn there’s clearly an extra mental layer to it. He’s not nearly this bad.
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I could be tripping here but I weirdly think there’s more day to day pressure in college ball. In the NBA the pressure is more long term and big picture, so it just seems like the day to day grind has an impact on these players some times.
I’m definitely getting more theoretical, there’s no facts to back up what Im saying.
I’m curious to see how Dunn performs at the combine, his athletic ability is off the charts tho.
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