Camden wrote:Significant changes in free throw shooting percentage from year to year always baffles me. How does a player suddenly forget how to make a shot that he's put thousands upon thousand of reps into? I'm not old enough to remember Gerald Glass, but I'm well aware of Andrew Wiggins who after sinking 76-percent of his free throws through his first three seasons suddenly turned in a paltry 64-percent after signing his max contract extension. Absolutely absurd. Since that year he's shot 71-percent over the last couple of seasons, but like... what happened there guy?
It happens to even some of the best guys, only it can be even more pronounced. Gerald Glass only took 241 free throws over a few seasons. And he was only about 9% points lower than in the 600+ attempts in college.
Consider the Curious Case of Tim Duncan:
2001: Shot 61.8% from the line on 662 free throws.
2002: Shot 79.9% from the line... and led the league in free throw makes. Took 701 total free throws.
2004: Shot only 59.9% from the line on 588 attempts only two years later.
It didn't end there. Later in his career, he rebounded to 81.7% at one point... a year after shooting 69.5%.
Tim Duncan is one of the league's most consistently good players... ever. His year-to-year stats are ridiculously consistent... sans free throws.