The entire front line sucks at FTs and we expect them to magically fix it in the playoffs? Keep dreaming. IMO, Carlisle has been pretty mild about it. Wait till Popvich gets a hold of this Rockets team.
Glad we hit a few key free throws down the stretch. I was pulling my hair out on some of those bricks that were being heaved up from the line. Seriously though I find it sad how bad free throw shooting is on this team. These guys are pros and if they want to be champions doing the off season they should be working on free throw shooting. You always hear about great players improving aspects of their game each off season yet rarely does that seem to be free throw shooting when that is a very important part of the game.
Dwight with the clutch frees! But if we could've hit just 10 more out of the 60 we would be blowing them out.
If Smith and Howard didn't shoot about 10 percentage points worse than they did during the season this series we'd be a lot better off.
FT% is becoming troubling We are now the worst at .665! This game should never have been this close and a respectable team should not be this bad at FT shooting. It could cost a game or even the series, think about that for second...We are lucky the Clippers are just above us at .673. That's as a team so it's not just DJ and Josh / Dwight. If we advance and face the Warriors, they are 12th but the Grizzlies are #1!
I don't think it is a matter of if but a matter of when bad free throw shooting will cost us a game. It very easily could've cost us last night.
I feel like the Rockets should watch tape of OTHER teams instead of themselves to see what works for those guys. For example, Griffin's a big guy and he has a weird free throw shot, but one of the sensible things about it is that he gets hands in the same position every time before he flicks the ball in. He gets his hands high, also, to take advantage of him being closer to the basket as a tall guy, so the ball doesn't have to fly as far. Some of the free throws Dwight was taking last night were shot from his chest. Of course, he's going to struggle. We need SOMEBODY solely to work with these guys on free throws. We need a free throw coach and a guards coach, because these guys are young and quite capable of learning or relearning things.. Personally, I think unless their FT% isn't at least 70%, they should be forbidden from taking threes. It's absurd to practice long shots like that and still suck at the most fundamental shot in the game.
Indeed, very very very very frustrating. You see Jordan step up making the FTs. We are missing the chippies left and right. Com'on, more than anything else, I am really frustrated with our missing FTs.
I'm reviving this thread because free throw shooting is one of those things that is going to give me a heart attack. We've got Onuaku who has raised his free throw % by shooting underhanded and people are arguing he shouldn't do it because it doesn't look good. You know what else doesn't look good? Watching guys paid millions clanking free throws repeatedly when the game is on he line. I wish Onuaku had been on the team two years ago and gotten Dwight and Josh Smith to do this and we might've gone to the championship.
