You can’t watch a basketball game with my father without hearing his diatribe after a player misses a foul shot.
“That (expletive deleted) should never miss a free throw,” he says every time. “If I was the coach, I would have him shoot 100 foul shots for each one he misses in a game.”
I would not wish this on most people, but as the Kings return home from their six-game road trip, they need to listen to my dad.
This isn’t a new problem. Last season, they ranked 28th in the NBA by making, .726 percent of their foul shots.
You would think with so many new players this season that there would be big improvement in that category. Wrong! They’re worse this season, making .716 percent of their free throws and still rank 28th.
This was never so evident than on this six-game road trip when the Kings went 1-5:
In a 118-112 loss at Toronto, they made 27 of 34 foul shots.
In a 136-133 overtime loss at Washington, they made 20 of 25.
In a 119-95 loss at Boston they victory at they were 21 of 28.
In a 93-83 victory at New York, they made 10 of 13.
In a 110-106 loss at Detroit, they made 14 of 27.
And in a 100-98 loss at Atlanta, they made 15 of 22.
In all but the Boston loss, better free-throw shooting might have given them a victory. There’s a lot of talk about the Kings’ second-half collapses. But maybe there should more talk about their foul-shooting, which certainly can stem a third- or fourth-quarter slump.
It truly makes me wonder if the Kings coaching staff doesn’t take free-throw shooting seriously. The irony is head coach Paul Westphal made 82 percent of his foul shots as a player and assistant coach Mario Elie made 85 percent.
It is disheartening when you see Tyreke Evans making 74 percent of his free throws, DeMarcus Cousins 66 percent and Carl Landry at 71 percent. And those are the Kings who get to the free throw line most frequently. Evans alone missed 33 free throws in the three games he played that road trip.
I can hear my dad talking again: “He missed 33 free throws? That’s 3,300 foul shots for him at the next practice!”
Copyright 2011/Bill Bradley
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Totally agree. I have supported Westphal since the beginning, but bad free throw shooting is inexcusable. Also, wasn’t Elie brought on as a “defensive specialist”? The D is terrible!