The Free Throw Shooting Is A Problem

[Big333223]

Through the first 15 games, Isaiah Thomas has made 124 free throws. The entire rest of the team has made 120. That's not good.

Stat geeks love FT's because they're the most efficient way of scoring. I love FT's because I think it's a great show of hot much pressure you're putting on an opposing team's defense. We need guys besides IT who can get to the line. Outside of him, no one on the roster is averaging even 2 FT's per game.

[ThePaintedArea]

A really useful stat for looking at FT effectiveness is: FT makes per FG attempt. 

Comparing last season to this…

2016:  .208 - 14th in the league.
2017:  .189 - 22nd in the league.

So, big decline.  But the silver lining is that the Celtics have a couple of players who have underperformed their performance of 2016 and can be expected to revert to their mean (for example, Horford and especially Marcus).  Jaylen Brown should be regularly feasting on FT trips as early as the post-All-Star Break when he’ll be getting a steady diet of rotation minutes.

Anyway, good point, giving a TP for looking at this.

[Chris22]

Marcus is shooting below 50% from the line.
He shoots his free throws too quickly.
The guy who takes the longest at the line is IT, and he is our best free throw shooter. Not a coincidence, in my humble opinion.