Congrats Brad Wanamaker

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

The Brad Stevens era has been notable by just how unfamiliar most of it's players have been with the FT line.   Outside of Isaiah Thomas, for much of his tenure I think most of his players viewed the FT line as some sort of abstract artwork painted on the floor, whose meaning and purpose they could not grok.

If not for IT4's two season averaging 6.6 & 8.5 FTA/gm, bringing the team totals to 23.5 & 23.2 FTA/gm in those years, in all other years the team barely managed to take just 20 FTA/gm, including a Stevens-era low of juts 19.5 per game last season (2nd last in the NBA).

This year, though, with Kemba, Gordon & the Two Jays, the team bounced back to average 23.2 per game.  Still well behind the 25-28 per game we used to see when Paul Pierce was in his prime, but a huge improvement and good enough to rank 15th in the NBA.  And what I like the most is that it was a team effort.   Multiple guys getting 'a few' trips to the line each game (or a different guy getting a lot in any given game).

I personally think both Jaylen & Jayson are capable of averaging even more FTAs/gm, even within the shared USG model they are working in.  They just need more experience (and reputation) at drawing fouls.

I really don't understand why some coaches and teams don't do more with free throws and free-throw strategy. Like try to get opponents into early foul trouble in order to get more free throws AND send key opponents to the bench. I know that Brad like the 3pt shot, but whenever the Cs go cold from deep, it would be nice to have him switch to a Plan B of going to the rim a lot and getting to the line a lot.

[ImShakHeIsShaq]

The Brad Stevens era has been notable by just how unfamiliar most of it's players have been with the FT line.   Outside of Isaiah Thomas, for much of his tenure I think most of his players viewed the FT line as some sort of abstract artwork painted on the floor, whose meaning and purpose they could not grok.

If not for IT4's two season averaging 6.6 & 8.5 FTA/gm, bringing the team totals to 23.5 & 23.2 FTA/gm in those years, in all other years the team barely managed to take just 20 FTA/gm, including a Stevens-era low of juts 19.5 per game last season (2nd last in the NBA).

This year, though, with Kemba, Gordon & the Two Jays, the team bounced back to average 23.2 per game.  Still well behind the 25-28 per game we used to see when Paul Pierce was in his prime, but a huge improvement and good enough to rank 15th in the NBA.  And what I like the most is that it was a team effort.   Multiple guys getting 'a few' trips to the line each game (or a different guy getting a lot in any given game).

I personally think both Jaylen & Jayson are capable of averaging even more FTAs/gm, even within the shared USG model they are working in.  They just need more experience (and reputation) at drawing fouls.

The Jays are already attacking more, give it a season or two and they'll consistently get to the line like other stars (not harden/giannis level of course)! CBS runs a finesse system, that's why his teams don't get to the line, didn't really have the type of players for it until the Jays (outside of IT4)!  I can't think of any of the players we have had in CBS' tenure that would be the type you'd say would get more ft if they were on another team. Outside of Kyrie, IT4, Kemba and the Jays we don't usually have banger type of players. I don't even think Kemba was that type in Charlotte either IIRC. Hard to get to the line when you're just shooting threes or only going inside when there is an open path to the basket (great spacing)!

[ozgod]

Well done and well deserved. He's definitely money from the free throw line. I'm glad he's gotten his opportunity this season after turning down more money to go back to Europe.

[Somebody]

The Brad Stevens era has been notable by just how unfamiliar most of it's players have been with the FT line.   Outside of Isaiah Thomas, for much of his tenure I think most of his players viewed the FT line as some sort of abstract artwork painted on the floor, whose meaning and purpose they could not grok.

If not for IT4's two season averaging 6.6 & 8.5 FTA/gm, bringing the team totals to 23.5 & 23.2 FTA/gm in those years, in all other years the team barely managed to take just 20 FTA/gm, including a Stevens-era low of juts 19.5 per game last season (2nd last in the NBA).

This year, though, with Kemba, Gordon & the Two Jays, the team bounced back to average 23.2 per game.  Still well behind the 25-28 per game we used to see when Paul Pierce was in his prime, but a huge improvement and good enough to rank 15th in the NBA.  And what I like the most is that it was a team effort.   Multiple guys getting 'a few' trips to the line each game (or a different guy getting a lot in any given game).

I personally think both Jaylen & Jayson are capable of averaging even more FTAs/gm, even within the shared USG model they are working in.  They just need more experience (and reputation) at drawing fouls.

I think part of the issue is our personnel prior to this season - we never really had an FT machine besides IT (Kryknee would go out of his way to avoid contact in the lane) as one of our offensive centrepieces. But yeah I like our current approach now that stuff seems stabilised in the bubble, a "global" offence like what we're doing now will make up for our "shortcoming" of not having an All-NBA/MVP level attacker against stingier defences in the playoffs.