The Thunder are a young team with several problems, but one of the more glaring ones has become their free throw shooting. They have gone from historically good to one of the worst in The Association.
In the 2012-13 season the Thunder led the NBA in free throw percentage at 82.8%. This was the third best free throw shooting season of all time behind the the 02-03 Dallas Mavericks and the 89-90 Boston Celtics.
Since the record setting season four years ago the thunder have had seasons of shooting 80.6%, 75.4% and 78.2%. The 75.4% season was with Kevin Durant injured most of the season, but the downward trajectory has become a trend.
This season the Thunder are shooting 71.2% good enough for third worst in the league. This even after their usual hack-a-Shaq candidate, Steven Adams, improved his free throw shooting from 58.2% last season to 74.4% this season.
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With the Thunder being a team with very little margin for error and a team that often finds themselves in close games, good free throw shooting is an easy way to move the margins in your favor. After all, they are called FREE throws.
For the Thunder to improve it will have to be a collective effort. Victor Oladipo who is a career 89.8% free throw shooter is shooting just 62.0% from the line this year. Joffrey Lauvergne who made 62 of 69 free throws last year (89.9%) is just 10 of 21 this season (47.6%). Jerami Grant, who is averaging two free throws, a game is only shooting 51.0%.
Then there is Domantas Sabonis, who has only taken two free throws in 538 minutes this year. He was a 76.9% foul shooter last year at Gonzaga. If he could find a way to get to the line more often that could also help.
One of the biggest culprits in the Thunder’s poor free throw shooting is Andre Roberson, who is now shooting 28.1% from the line. Worse than his 3 point percentage of 30.1%.
Roberson’s shooting has been an issue since he came into the league, but he was able to shoot 61.1% from the line last year. Not very good for a wing player, but would at least take away the option of hacking him to get the Thunder’s best defender off the court. His free throws have gotten so bad it is time to consider switching to underhand.
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Underhand free throws have long been a topic of discussion in the league. The greatest free throw shooter in NBA history, Rick Barry shot his free throws underhand. Wilt Chamberlain shot underhand for one season and shot a career best 61% from the line and made 28 of 32 in his infamous 100 point game. He quit the next season, saying he felt “like a sissy.” His percentage dropped and he shot under 50% from the free throw line 7 of his next 12 seasons.
On his podcast “Revisionist History” Malcolm Gladwell talked about the phenomenon of players not wanting to try this despite the ample evidence that this could help a lot of players. He discussed at length the stigma attached to doing it.
There has been one player to recently forgo the stigma and give it a shot. Chinanu Onuaku, the 37th overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft did this for 1 season at Louisville and saw his free throw percentage go from 46.7% to 58.9%. When asked about it Onuaka said;
“I came to the notion that I don’t care what anybody thinks,” Onuaku told The Vertical. “As long as I get the bucket, the point, I’m fine. It’s up to other people to ask themselves why they don’t shoot underhand, but for me I needed to put pride to the side and make shots. I can’t worry about why other people aren’t doing it. It’s just a different form.”
The Thunder have a lot of areas to improve as a very young team. This is one area where they could see an immediate benefit from even just a small improvement.
