A couple of days ago, someone posted that Tony Parker was an offensive liability, because of his missed free throws. Tony Parker an offensive liability? Please. Parker's free throw percentage dropped by .052 (5.2%) this year. That's not nearly as important as the fact that his field goal percentage increased by .035 (3.5%) over last year. Field goals count for 2 (or 3) points, and he shot a lot more of them.
In fact, in the regular season Tony scored 232 more points than he did last year. Suppose his free throw percentage had stayed exactly the same as last year: he would have scored an additional 17 points at the line. So he overcame that 17 point "deficit" and still scored 232 more points than last year. (In total, he went to the line 51 more times this year, and scored 11 more points off free throws, even though his percentage was lower.)
Don't like that statistic? How about this one? In 18 of the Spurs' 23 losses this year, Parker was a combined 44-59 from the line - a FT% of .746. In 26 of the Spurs' 59 wins this season, Parker was a combined 20-61 from the line - a FT% of .328. It's pretty obvious that the Spurs don't live or die by Tony's free throw shooting.
Tony put up 215 more 2-point shots this year than he did last year. And he makes almost 52% of his 2-point shots. (It's hard to imagine a guy who makes 52% of his 2-pointers being a liability. By contrast, Dwayne Wade makes 48%, and Ray Allen makes 46%) Tony is creating more good looks for himself, and for the rest of the team. And even though he missed 113 free throws during the season, it would be interesting to know how many of those were "and-1" opportunities, where he had already scored 2 points.
Since I'm going crazy on stats - here's one more. In the only playoff game the Spurs lost to Denver, Parker was 0-0 from the line. In the four wins, he was 4-6, 4-6, 6-7, and 2-7. The fact that he went to the line 7 times in the last game is probably more important than the missed attempts.
I know it sucks to see guys miss free throws down the stretch. But it's a 48-minute game, and the ones at the end count the same 1 point as the ones at the beginning. The Spurs win by being solid and consistent throughout the game. And if there is a team in basketball that can miss a free throw at one end and make up for it by getting a stop on the other end, it is the Spurs.
Tony and Manu are going to destroy this Sonics team...the Sonics biggest defensive weakness all year is the inability to impede or stop fast slashers to the rack...And that is exactly where I expect Pop and PJ to attack them...their bigs are physical, but not nimble or particularly sound fundamentally...I expect the Seattle bigs to fight foul trouble the whole series...
I like the new guy (GSH) !He's had some very interesting threads and takes on the Spurs. Welcome to the board!
tp made 95 out of 100 in practice that morning
"same as last year: he would have scored an additional 17 points at the line"
Compare anything with (Tony last year's FTs, Tony career FTs), and it smells pretty good.
For 04/05, Tony's FTs: 210-323 for .650
This is horrendous, unless you compare with FT ties like Shaq, Tim, or typically other big men, esp for a PG who tends to score as much as he play-makes.
I prefer to have high standard fors Tony, not standards.
So let's see, I'd like Tony to be 25th in the league in FTs, shoot .850, another 65 pts for the Tony/Spurs last season. Is that expecting too much? 25th?
How much is +65 pts?
It's 4 x Tony's season PPG, equals +4 entire games of Tony scoring, from the FT line alone.
You can list all the stats you want. Parker should shoot 80% from the line. It drives me crazy when he gets to the line, shoots too fast and then has that ty grin on his face. Horrible. Just because you do something else well, it does not excuse mediocrity in another area.
Agreed, it does not excuse mediocrity in other area. the thing with parker is he kept improving different part season after season. I wait for him to keep increase his PPG thanks to his FT next year. But the first argument was he improved his shot percentage which is in itself a good point.
So yes we should complain until he shoots 80%FT consitently.
So NO we should not forget how tony became a lot more consistent and improved this year
you know what is crazy even with poor free throw shooting we still find a way to win. I think when we shoot better from the line it is a bonus for us. I think every spurs fan in here gets nervous anytime anyone but Brown, Gino, and Barry go to the line.
Parker has improved his FT% in the playoffs as has Duncan. I've been impressed that they have taken their concentration to a new level this far.
Yes, I think he is playing very well and I sure am glad he is a Spur. Maybe FT improvement next year.
do you excel in every area of your life?
Well in dealing with TP and his free throw shooting, sometimes he shoots them well and sometimes he doesn't. That doesn't effect anything really and he can still produce a good amount of offense.
he may be the worst guard at shooting free throws ever.
currently at 61% for the playoffs JESUS MOTHER F'N CHRIST!!
Another stupid take from Ducks. Tp is a pro fool, and he doesn't have to excel in every aspect of his life, just excel in basketball.
Doesn't everyone?
Nerves?!?
While crappy FT% are certainly frustrating, what are we going to do?
Hire a free throw coach like the Mavs? (oh, wait, that's actually a good idea...)
maybe we can just hire theirs part time for the playoffs after the Mavs get eliminated tomorrow...
Excellent stats, and I agree that TP is not an offensive liability. However, imagine how much more valuable an asset he would be if he did shoot freethrows in the top 25 (to use Boutons yardstick). While Tony has matured really quickly in his four seasons, I'd love to see him work on his free throws like Malik did in the off-season a couple of years ago.
Stats can prove or hide anything (see Robert McNamara and the Vietnam War). One thing the above stats seem to confirm to me is something that someone pointed out in the game blog the other night--the problem is one of concentration, not mechanics. What is not debateable is that Tony Parker would be all the more dangerous if he were a better free throw shooter. He can do it and he should.
Tony just needs to change his stance at the line and use more wrist and less elbow, tongue, and hand.
Damn, Boutons... you set your sights way too low. I'd like to see the refs call a foul every time Tim gets hammered in the blocks. I'd like to see Shaq get whistled every time he backs his ass over a stationary defender on the way to the basket. I'd like to see Rasho hit that 15-footer 8 times out of 10, like he does in the shoot-arounds. I'd like to see us get David Robinson back on the team - a 27 year old David Robinson. As long as we're wishing, why wish for Tony Parker to be 25th in the league in FTs? I'd like to see ME be 25th in the league, and playing for the Spurs.
First of all, I never said it was good for Parker to be shooting .650 from the line. I responded to the comment that Tony is an offensive liability. You don't like my stats? How about this one? Who are the four best teams in the playoffs this year? Most people would say the Spurs, Suns, Pistons, and Heat. Everybody knows the Spurs can't shoot free throws. If they don't win the championship this year, they are probably going to lose it at the free throw line, right? Just how much better are the other three teams at shooting free throws? This is how the "big four" shot FT's in the regular season, and how they ranked in the league:
Team FT% Rank (out of 30 teams)
Heat .672 30
Spurs .724 26
Pistons .739 23
Suns .748 22
Yeah, but things change in the post-season don't they? I mean, the Spurs are probably a lot worse than those other "good" teams, now that the playoffs are here, right? So how do the "big four" stack up on FT% in the playoffs so far?
Team FT% Rank (out of 16 teams)
Heat .655 16
Suns .742 11
Spurs .755 8
Pistons .813 2
Kinda hard to believe, huh? A piss-poor, mentally-weak group like the Spurs, and still shooting free throws better than half the teams in the playoffs. I guess if it wasn't that raggedy-assed Tony Parker holding down their percentage, it would be somebody else, huh?
Fortunately for poor Tony, the standard that matters is winning games. He's pretty good at that one.
Ahhh . I wasn't going to do this, but...
It's true that a big part of shooting free throws is mental. But that doesn't mean that you can instantly say that Parker doesn't have the mental toughness he needs. When you are surrounded by a bunch of guys who are tossing up bricks, it becomes a lot harder to keep a mental picture of a free throw cutting the cords. Constantly being around bad free throw shooters will cause most players to begin shooting them worse. Don't believe me? Talk to any good golfer you know, and ask him or her how difficult it is to play with someone who shoots 110, and still turn in a good score. Some days you can block it out, but a lot of the time you can't keep it from dragging you down.
And free throws aren't all mental. You see a lot of bricks thrown up in the 4th quarters of games because of the pressure, but a lot of them are also caused by tired legs. Tim Duncan spends 100% of his time in the blocks with some huge guy leaning on him. Besides all of the normal running in a basketball game he is, in effect, doing 20+ minutes of leg presses every night. Does that have an effect on his legs, and do legs have an effect on shooting free throws? You bet. Here's a little experiment you can try at home: go and do a really heavy leg workout. Not the wimpy kind, like you usually do, but one that really fatigues your legs - makes them feel a little shaky. Afterwards, squat down and jump; you can probably do okay with that. Then squat down and try to stand up really slowly. That's a totally different story. Try shooting a few free throws while your legs feel like that. Then come back and talk about the mental aspect.
What makes it worse is that things begin to feed on themselves. Miss a few free throws, and it becomes harder to make the next one. A lot of the mental part of shooting free throws, just like making 4-foot putts on the golf course, is about visualing. Being able to see yourself make a good stroke, being able to see the ball go in the hole, before you let go. Miss a few, and it becomes harder to visualize anything but the ball bouncing off the rim. Miss a few free throws at the end of the game because your legs are tired, and you remember it next game. Golfers call it "the yips", and any sports psychologist will tell you that it is incredibly difficult to get past.
It seems kind of funny that the other 3 "premier" teams in the league shoot almost as bad, or even worse than the Spurs do from the line. Consider that maybe... just maybe... there may be reasons why the Spurs shoot FT's so poorly as a team. (I mean besides them being mentally weak and never working on them at practice.) I've always believed that the Spurs' brand of defense contributes, at least a little bit, to their lower free throw percentages.
There is some good news for the Spurs, too. Most of them are getting to the line more and/or shooting a higher percentage than last year. Bowen's FT% increased 55 points (5.5%) over last year, Duncan's increased 71 points, Nazr's increased 101 points, and Horry's increased 144 points. And, while Manu's percentage stayed the same (.803), and his minutes played decreased, he went to the line 442 times this season vs. 298 trips last season. However bad they are, the charity stripe is contributing a lot more for them this year than last year. And I thought they were about .4 seconds from having a really good team last year.
wow...totally awesome post top to bottom...the point about playing hard defense for the entire shot clock contributing to tired legs/reduced free throw efficiency was something I had never connected...and it makes perfect sense...
Good post GSH.
Tony will be just fine...time is on his side. He might not be a 90%er like a Peja or Reggie Miller, but with a little work he'll get better.
Oh geez, where to begin...
FIRST
Here's what's important: it doesn't matter if Tony was shooting 80% from the field. If a team's gonna get beat for a bucket by Tony late in the game, they're going to start just fouling him. All the field goal percentage increases in the world don't mean a damn thing if you don't get to shoot them.That's not nearly as important as the fact that his field goal percentage increased by .035 (3.5%) over last year. Field goals count for 2 (or 3) points, and he shot a lot more of them.
You're crystallizing this thing like if we play any of these four teams, we're just going to line up and shoot FTs to see who win, and hope we get lucky.Just how much better are the other three teams at shooting free throws? This is how the "big four" shot FT's in the regular season, and how they ranked in the league:
Here's what you need to be thinking about... the four teams you mentioned are all relatively even WRT to just about every facet of their game.
In a situation like that, the little things are what makes the difference. And in tight games, that's often free throws.
I hate this stupid "well, look what other people are doing" argument. that. It doesn't make me feel any better or make our chances of winning any better just because another team might suck at FTs like us.
The object is to WIN. Now it's not an absolute thing (luck has some to do with it) but generally speaking in pro sports if you do more things better than the other guy, you win.
Free throws are another thing, should we aspire to win it all (which I think it's safe saying we do), that we should be trying to be as good as possible at to give us one more thing we're better at than everyone else.
DOES EVERY BASKETBALL PLAYER EXCEL IN EVERY AREA OF BASKETBALL
SHAQ MISSES ALOT OF FREE THROWS DOES THAT MAKE HIM SUCK AND NOT A GOOD PLAYER?
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