Rockets Free Throw Struggles

tracy will always be a poor free throw shooter relative to his skills because of his shooting form. the way he jumps and kicks his feet out for balance is crucial for his shot, he cant do that at the free throw line, the same goes for luther.

juwan missing both fts, and 3 for the game tonight was out of character rafer missing both (he usually misses one) was an anamoly as well.

do keep in mind though that the player who shoots the most fts on this team, yao also shoots the best percentage on the team. come playoff time he will be having the ball a lot.

 

Did TMAC change his form? I was just thinking about it today and I realize he use to stand pretty far from the line. Now he is right up to that line with his toes pointed to the side.

 

good analysis, i was always wondering about why t-mac miss FT a lot. I mean t-mac can shoot from 3 point line in front of anybody just like others shoot FT, but he can't shoot FT. T-mac needs to improve it, it's important.

 

Yeah, it killed me to see all of those misses. I remember earlier in the game I was sitting there and looked up at the scoreboard. I couldn't help but notice that we were 11-12 from the line and Dallas was (a rough estimate) about 4-9. I was thinking about how proud I was because if you're going to beat a team as good as Dallas. From that point on we went downhill and the Mavs went up.

If only there had been some wood to knock on. That Mavs fans head was just a little out of my reach!

Pugs

 

He's not going to improve very much on his FT%. He's an average FT shooter, he shoots right around 75% for his career, but he does step it up in the playoffs (usually to over 80%).

I would be happy if he shot it right around his career average, but I think generally speaking he is not comfortable shooting the ball while standing still...it doesn't come naturally to him I guess,

But seriously, it isn't too big a deal because with FTs you always 'average out' over a span of games. This seasno, he's shot roughly 5% below what he normally shoots for his career, he's still good for making 7 out of every ten FTs he takes.

And for those who say he's a great shooter, I disagree. He has more range than anyone in the league, and he's clutch as hell, but he's never been a great shooter from anywhere on the court. He's not a Ray Allen or a Dirk or a Nash in terms of just having a pure shot that goes in with consistency.

He's more similar to Pippen in terms of FTs I guess with those long arms, Pippen was never a great FT shooter and I am not one who believes that you can significantly improve your FT shooting over time; you can try but more likely than not you will find a happy -- or unhappy -- medium.

That being said, McGrady has made a LOT more 4th quarter FTs than he has missed, and a couple of his FTs that he missed last night were after being poked in the eye by Jerk Howard, so that might have been a factor. But to say that he isn't "clutch" from the FT line is silly as hell because he makes them a lot more than he misses them late in the game, and one game won't change that.

Overall McGrady is as clutch as it gets. If you don't trust him down the stretch then it's likely that you won't be pleased with anyone's "clutchness" in this entire league.