But Onuaku, who began shooting underhanded last season at the University of Louisville, has appeared in only two games with the Rockets.

And while he is shooting 71.6 percent on free throws during his more frequent appearances with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the N.B.A. Development League, Rick Barry — ever the perfectionist — argues that Onuaku has flaws in his shot that he could help fix.

“The way he does it, it would be virtually impossible for him to be able to perfect it to the point where he can become a great free-throw shooter,” Barry said. “But I admire tremendously the fact that he wasn’t worried about somebody making fun of him. He wanted to try something to get better.”

The technique has long inspired mockery. Barry said that when he began shooting free throws underhanded in the late 1950s, opposing fans made fun of him. Many female players used to shoot underhanded, he said, so fans would ridicule male players if they also shot that way.

What Barry does not understand is why players today who shoot under 60 percent on their free throws do not at least try the technique. When his father introduced him to the underhand shot as a child, Barry initially balked at the idea. He finally switched during his high school years in New Jersey, and he hasn’t stopped preaching the positives of the shot since then.