How Can A Player Be A Good Three Point Shooter & A Bad Free Throw Shooter
Doing a little college basketball stuff, I came across Obi Muonelo, who plays for Oklahoma State. Looking at his stats, I was amazed to see that Muonelo was only a 58.9% free throw shooter, despite being a 42.6% three point shooter. I took my amazement to Twitter, and the great Tom Haberstroh let me know that this happens in the NBA too:
Happens in NBA too… http://3.ly/5GCg RT @SebastianPruiti How can someone who shots 42.6% from the 3 only shoot 58.9 FT%? http://3.ly/Q5mS
Tom’s list is an all-time single season list (and Bruce Bowen is featured a ton there), and it got me thinking. I decided to use this past season and take a look at above average three point shooters with at least 100 attempts (35.6%) and try to figure out why they are below average free throw shooters (76.2%). Looking at these guys (you can find the full list here) three point attempts and their foul shots, I came to the conclusion that there are three main reasons why this happens. They include not getting to the line enough and jump shooters struggling with a set shot from the line.
