Free throw shooting and the x factor.

The 2 below links of players are for players with at least 7500 career minutes played and 6'9" or taller.
The 1st link is for players with free throw shooting percentages of .600 or lower. (group A )
  Their average field goal shooting percentages by distance.
  10' - 16' ==.301
  16' - <3 == .270
  3p  == .092

Only .158 percent of there field goal attempts came from 10' or further from the basket.

http://bkref.com/tiny/Z7eJf
 
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http://bkref.com/tiny/ea5OW
 

 This 2nd link is for players with free throw shooting percentages of .800 or higher. ( group B )

Their average field goal shooting percentages by distance.
10' -16' == .396
16' - <3 == .415
3p - == .315

For this group, .591 percent of their shots come from 10' or further from the basket.


  Since shooting from a minimum distance of 10' is likely to be a jump shot it is overwhelmingly obvious that jump shooting skills correlate very closely with free throw shooting skills. There are huge differences between the number of jump shots taken and the relative success at making them, between the 2 groups. Perhaps for some of those lousy GROUP-A  free throw shooting big men it has a lot to do with where they chose to shoot from or were required to shoot from during their early development years. Maybe its a TOUCH- FEEL skill that has eluded them through the years as they played with their back to the basket and never took the time to hone jump shooting skills as a face up shooter. Group-B with their accurate high volume outside shooting skills have certainly been a lot more successful from the free throw line.  Just some thoughts to kill some time.


swish

Gotta disagree with this part. No way a jump shot equates to a free throw. I only recall one player that actually shot a jumper there and that was Hal Greer.

beat

Did a quick google search and found this..........

This is a good question, since conventional wisdom says that the shot mechanic should be exactly the same for all of your shots, thus ingrained in your muscle memory. First let's analyze the benefits of jumping. As I see it, there's more than one benefit to jumping during regular play:
The most obvious is to get the ball above your defender. The higher the release point, the less likely the shot will be blocked. Being able to jump backwards for a fade-away is another tool to create even more space.
When running into a jumper, abruptly pit-stopping with the inside foot and jumping helps restore balance. It seems like it would be more awkward and off-balance to run into a pivoted flat shot.
For those who jump high and release high (two-motion shooters like Kobe Bryant), hanging in the air gives them a split second longer to lock onto the rim. Shooting starts at the eyes. This is why many two-motion shooters have a very steady and deadly mid-range jumper.
For those who jump low and release low (one-motion shooters like Steph Curry), the jump propels them into a faster release, and gives them more power for a high-arc 3-pointer from deep.
Now let's examine each of these advantages in the free-throw situation.
There's nobody defending you during free throws, so this advantage is nullified.
You don't have to pit stop and pull up to regain balance, nullified.
You have as long as you like to aim at the basket, nullified.
The free-throw is relatively close to the basket, nullified.
You could still argue that always using the same form leads to consistency, so players should jump. However, there's three pitfalls to the jump shot:
As Rich Rodgers mentioned, jumping adds another motion to the equation, and one more place it can go wrong.
Players are often winded or near-exhaustion when shooting free-throws as the game goes on. The added jump could be just enough of a physical chore to detract from their shot. Our legs are affected by running exhaustion moreso than our arms and shoulders, so your level of fatigue will introduce more variance into your jump than your upper body release.
In the career of nearly all basketball players, the stationary shot is mastered far before the jump shot. Marginal benefit is maximized when you train top-down from the upper body release. Proper shooting training starts with flat-footed form-shooting 3 feet from the basket. Thus asking people to shoot flat-footed free throws is asking them to perform a fundamental motion they mastered long before their jump shot. If the old adage says you should crawl before you walk, then the free-throw is asking people to crawl instead of walk.

beat wrote:Gotta disagree with this part. No way a jump shot equates to a free throw. I only recall one player that actually shot a jumper there and that was Hal Greer.

beat

beat

Poorly worded on my part. I didn't intend to imply that free throw shooters should jump when shooting. My point was to simply compare the similarity of the touch involved between free throw shooting and the jump shot.

swish

Here's a comparison between 3 lousy free throw shooters and 3 very good free throw shooters.
First the lousy free throw shooters. group (A)
Percentage of their shots taken from 10' and out.
Drummond -- .030
Jordan -- .017
Howard -- .060

Very good free throw shooters. group (B)
Percentage of their shots taken from 10' and out.
Nowitizki -- .766
Durant -- .649
George -- .688

swish

Despite arguments and perhaps even opinions back up by some stats I think large hands and size mean zippo. Connie Hawkins had some of the largest hands ever and was well over 70% for his career. I believe it simply is a matter of now where near enough practice at the line in the early years. I never played beyond HS and didn't play much there but even today in good weather I'll go out and shoot foul shots and once warmed up I can make 75%. Some rather large players have a nice touch.........some don't.

Just don't believe these poor shooters practice near enough and by now when they are in the NBA even less.

beat

bobheckler wrote:Joachim Noah, 49% career fg%, 71% ft%.  Very good fg%, so-so ft%.  And he has, by far, the ugliest shot mechanics I have ever seen. Ever.

Robin Lopez, 31% from 10-14' this year, 39% from 15-19' this year.  Shooting a respectable 76.4% ft%.

Brook Lopez, a MUCH better shooter than his brother, 49% from 5-9' this year, 46% from 10-14' this year.  Shooting 78% from the line this year.  That's a little better than his brother Robin but not much despite his MUCH better jump shooting in general and specifically this year.

Karl-Anthony Towns.  Not a great jump shooter, does most of his damage low, 85% from the line.

In short, I'm not sure it's as simple as saying "good jump shooters are good frito shooters".  


bob


.

bob.

  I believe that players that shoot jump shots well also excel at shooting free throws.
Regarding the 4 players you mentioned above.
   Their numbers for field goal percentages follow
10'-16'  -  Noah - .391          16'-<3 - .372        3p - none taken
10'-16' -  R lopez - .359        16' - <3  - .433      3p - none taken
10'-16' -  B Lopez - .419        16' - <3 - .395      3p - .042
10'-16' -  Towns - .449          16 '- <3 - .478      3p - 358

Here's  the field goal shooting percentage averages at the the 3 distances for the lousy free throw shooters

    10'-16' - .301
    16'-<3 - .270
      3p     - .092

And here are the field goal shooting percentage averages for the high percentage free throw shooters.

    10'-16' - .396
    16'-<3 - .415
       3p    - .315

It is very clear that players 6'9" and taller that shoot frequent and accurate jump shots are also superior free throw shooters. Which of coarse raises the question as to why this is true. Without knowing the past history of each player I can only offer a personal GUESS.  I wonder if it is simply a case of some players gravitating to the outside jump shot early in their basketball life ,while others were inclined to stay close to the basket where they excelled or perhaps were only allowed to play as back to the basket players. If the latter is the case it simply may be a case of never being able to make up for the countless hours NOT SPENT developing that shooters TOUCH.

  swish