Developed by three Silicon Valley scientists, Noah measures the degree angle of a player's shot. One could say that Noah measures a shot's arc. Noah's Ark. I'm so sorry. Don't shoot the messenger.
Ideally, players want to keep their arc somewhere around 45 degrees, which is the most optimal angle for a shot to make it through the basket unobstructed. They'll get there by building muscle memory through constant repetition as they try to replicate the physical feeling of a numerically perfect shot. By the time the ball touches the bottom of the net, Noah's almost-human voice shouts out the angle of the arc from its built-in speakers. "Forty-one! Forty-six! Forty-three! Forty-five!"
Dwayne Wade's career free-throw shooting percentage was 77 percent. Eventually, the number dropped to 71 percent. After using Noah, he found out he was shooting free-throws at 39-degree angles. Within weeks, he was shooting at 45 degrees, and his free-throw percentage jumped from 71 percent to 82 percent.
As of the 2015-2016 season, only four teams use Noah -- the Dallas Mavericks, the Golden State Warriors, the Utah Jazz, and the Miami Heat. Since 2006, the Mavericks, Warriors, and Heat have made it to the NBA finals a total of nine times and have won five championships between them. The Jazz, not so much. Get your shit together, Jazz.
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