Sunday Skills - The Free Throw

by RaptorsHQ - Franchise on Sep 27, 2009 10:01 AM EDT Comment 5 comments

Over the past three season, the Toronto Raptors as a team shot on average, 80.8 per cent from the free throw line.

This was one of the areas that the Dinos consistently topped the rest of the league in fact.

However much to fans' chagrin, the team never seemed to be able to take advantage of this effectiveness at the line because outside of Chris Bosh, no one got to the foul line with any regularity.

This year, players like DeMar DeRozan and Hedo Turkoglu might help in this area, however with the subtraction of foul line aces like Anthony Parker and Jason Kapono, and the addition of less-than-stellar chuckers like Amir Johnson and Reggie Evans, I don't expect the team to be able to replicate its recent 80 per cent average.

Evans in particular is a concern in this area considering that he's a 53 per cent career free-throw shooter whose success at the line replicates a certain Mr. Wallace.

If Evans is going to play major minutes this season due to his rebounding abilities and grit, he can't be a complete offensive liability out there otherwise it's going to be like Jamario Moon Part II; teams will gang up on the other four Raptors on the court and dare Reggie to hoist it up.

Even worse, if Toronto needs help on the glass late in close games, it's going to be tough to validate having Evans on the court because opposing teams may take to the "hack-an-Evans" technique considering his foul shooting woes.

My hope therefore is that Mr. Evans has been watching videos like the following this off-season and working on his free-throw technique:

He doesn't need to become Steve Nash in this capacity overnight, but it would be nice if he could get things up into the high 60's or low 70's at least. And considering that in college he actually averaged about 62 per cent from the line, you have to think it's possible.

However I'm not going to go as far as say that Reggie should be practicing his free-throw shooting with his eyes closed just yet...

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Still loving these skills segments ...

I didn’t really consider this at all, but it will be interesting to see how the Raptors team free throw shooting changes this season. We gained some good shooters though as well like Marco and Jarrett, two guys that might have more of a penchant to get to the line as well.

Also, if a purist saw that instructional vid he’d slap the kid upside the head for his arm placement.

Great read!

by N C on Sep 27, 2009 10:10 AM EDT reply actions

Yeah, this Sunday’s instructional video was a bit less “rigid” let’s just say ha ha.

It is going to be interesting though to see how the free-throw shooting situation shakes out as while Amir, Reggie and a few others aren’t crack shots, like you mentioned, Marco and even Hedo and Rasho are solid in that area. A lot of it depends on who’s going to get minutes when I think.

by RaptorsHQ - Franchise on Sep 27, 2009 10:24 AM EDT up reply actions

re: Reggie Evans FT shooting

At this point in his career, his FT shooting it is what is.

He also gives the impression of being a hardworker, so his ineptness with FT is likely despite his best efforts. His shooting is a significant issue, especially considering the amount of time he spends under the basket. However, I’m sure there will be matchups during the year when his rebounding will help us more then his FT shooting will hurt us.

I recall a game against the Bobcats when they just kept getting extra possessions via solid park. By the end fo the game, it rendered our superior shooting percentages a meaningless stat, since they so many more cracks at the basket. Perhaps Reggie can help us be that team in certain matchups, and help bail us out on a cold shooting day.

by Yardly on Sep 27, 2009 1:02 PM EDT reply actions

I don’t think Reggie would be quite the offensive liability that Jamario was, simply because he’s a big and not a wing. While Jamario had a bit more offensive polish, he was basically just hanging out around the three point line; as long as Reggie can flash into the key every now and then to look for layups, that should be fine.

Plus, Reggie has a better understanding of his own limitations and won’t pull the old pump-fake-until-it’s-obvious-my-man-isn’t-biting-at-which-point-I-jack-up-an-ugly-shot move that Moon has perfected.

by Thomas Anderson on Sep 27, 2009 2:51 PM EDT reply actions

Career Free Throw Shooting Percentages

Here are the career pecentages for the Raptors Roster. DeRozan’s number is from his one and done season at USC

Player %
Calderon, Jose 89.40%
Douby, Quincy 88.40%
Jack, Jarrett 85.30%
Bargnani, Andrea 83.20%
Turkoglu, Hedo 80.10%
Bosh, Chris 79.50%
Belinelli, Marco 77.10%
Banks, Marcus 76.50%
Johnson, Amir 69.40%
Wright, Antoine 66.90%
DeRozan, DeMar 64.60%
O’Bryant, Patrick 59.50%
Nesterovic, Rasho 58.80%
Evans, Reggie 52.50%
Weems, Sonny 37.50%

When Johnson actually got enough court time and possessions to shoot more than 2 free throws a week he wasn’t that bad for a big guy. He shot 74.5% from the FT line in the D-League. Tim Duncan is a career 69% FT shooter so it is not unusally for a big man to shot around 70% from the FT line. If Johnson could get his number up to around 75% I think it would be more than adequate.

http://www.nba.com/dleague/playerfile/amir_johnson/index.html

by Buddahfan on Sep 28, 2009 11:26 AM EDT reply actions