If Dwight Howard drastically improved his free throw shooting, how many more games a season do we wi

I found six games over the last two years where it looks like the difference between a win and a loss:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201311200DAL.html
http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201412280SAS.html
http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201312310HOU.html
http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201311070HOU.html
http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201504100HOU.html
http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201402200GSW.html

 

Howard through his career if he got above 65% - 70% would of averaged 25/13/2

 

The reason he has a mental issue is because he sucks at it . FT's should be practiced to the point that it's second nature/muscle memory . He lacks confidence because he hasn't put in real work .. whatever he is doing isn't enough .

 

Dwight was actually doing good for a while during the season. Turrble in the playoffs though.

 

We still wouldn't have beaten Golden State.

Moo point.

 

0, other teams wouldn't foul him

 

6 games in 2 years.

If we look further, how many of these can actually be pinpointed on the FTs?

1 point Spurs loss when Dwight shot 6-9 on FTs? No. The minutes restriction was a bigger reason.

1 point LA loss when Dwight shot 5-17 on FTs? Yes, almost guaranteed high factor.

3 point Dallas loss when Dwight shot 9-13 on FTs? No.

4 point Spurs loss when Dwight shot 2-7 on FTs?

4 point Kings loss when Dwight shot 5-11 on FTs?

3 point GSW loss when Dwight shot 3-8 on FTs?

For these last three games, would Dwight, shooting at 60-65%, really have changed the outcome of the game? It is not a definite yes or no.

So no, we would not have an extra 5-8 wins, nor would we become NBA champs.

 

A lot. A dozen. Maybe more. It's not just about the extra points, though, that's a big deal in many close losses. It's not just about the Hack-a-Dwight strategy that's very successful at deflating the Rocket's momentum. Dwight gets to 75% or so, and they'll have to stop mauling him when he goes to score and actually try to defend him. And teams are going to lose that battle.

People tend to think making free throws is just one piece of the basketball pie, but I'd argue that the difference between how you play a good and bad free-throw-shooting team is so drastic that free throws are basically the crust of the pie. It holds everything together (or it doesn't.)

 

3-4 point losses a lot of time were 1-2 deficits that they had to foul on. Even a single free throw turns the 2nd last possession from two free throws for the leading team to forcing them to perform an actual play.

 

he would have multiple mvp's and his teams would have multiple titles with ease.

 

I'm not sure it would be all that many more, primarily because it would mean people would try harder not to foul him, and there would be no hack-a-Howard strategy, which would actually work against us.

This would all mean he'd [obviously] get to the line less (and every trip he makes to the line is still an average of over one point per possession), he'd get defenses into less foul trouble, and our defense would have fewer guaranteed opportunities to be set on the next possession (since free throws slow the game down.

 

If dwight could hit freethrows he would be top 5 centers of all time. One of the reason dwight cant be a consistent post player is because the defense is always messing his rythme up by hacking. If defense start to respect his ft then he scores like 50% more.

 

From what's been written, my understanding is he has no problem making FTs in practice. It's mainly an issue in games. Therefore, I don't think any amount of practice is going to help...because it's mental. But, it would be nice if a story came out about how he's in the gym daily working on his free throws with Lucas or somebody. Instead, it's Dwight at Comic Con or running red lights on his bike. He could be practicing FTs daily on his home basketball goal for all I know and it's just not in the media like DJ working on his FTs in Houston with Lucas was.

 

Most I the elite big men that have played in the nba have gotten better at free throws throughout their career. Howard seems to have gotten worse. We honestly don't know if it's a lack of work, but based on the reports that free throws are no problem in practice points to it being a mental block.

 

If Dwight made his FTs we would have won 17 more games, Beverley and DMo would never have gotten injured and ESPN would show nothing but Rockets highlights. Plus Parsons would have stayed here in Houston and my girlfriend wouldn't have left me for a dead end job in Dallas. Thanks a lot Dwight.

 

You might as well ask what would happen to the Rockets if I suddenly grew to be 7 feet tall.

Dwight will never shoot more than 60% from the line.

 

Of course he would be a better player and the team would be better if he hit more of his freethrows. Same as if Harden had less turnovers. DMo had more rebounds. Ariza hit more of his threes. Terry could keep up with his man offensively. McHale called better offensive sets. I could go on all day. Every player has weaknesses. Even Michael Jordan.

 

not trying to be biased but 98

 

And they could also be from a gimme layup or 3 at the end of regulation, from a 5-7 point deficit. There is not just one situation.

Point is, are we really blaming three games of the 6 on 2 or 3 missed fts from Dwight? This is assuming people want Dwight to hit 65% fts. Is this the correct assumption? Please correct me if I am wrong.

The data illustrates that there is, for certain, 1 playoff game (Blazers game 1) and 1 regular season game (Lakers) in Dwight's Rockets career that was significantly altered by the inability to hit fts. Please correct me if I am wrong.

And quite frankly, the bigger storyline of game 1 in Portland was Aldridge abusing Jones, Harden sucking, and the lack of defense. Ft's in general do not make or break a game. This is a different argument however, and I do not believe that we should get into this.

Fact: A player increasing 3 pt %, improving defense, rebounding, or A:TO ratio is MORE IMPORTANT than the ft% increase to the numbers y'all are talking about.

 

IMY Yao

Yao and Harden combo would have been beautiful to watch...sigh.