- Cen ralCleveland C valiersS hwestDal/le Mavericks
LeBc.p, Ce" c B8"d Stio-nd ‘Htio>A-P ’ R. w
O"cl the last two easons, NBA teams have begun exploiting the league’s wor t free throw shooters. ‘Htio>a-Drummond’, ‘Htio>a-Jor an’, and ‘Htio>a-Dw4 ’ have beup_ more and more of a foca/ int for oio- ' coaches. Recen ly, NBA Commissa cl Adam Sil"cl sai that he & the league would o"clview the situ ta and take a a to chang it. “I don’t rthlly ee a problem wi"d it,” J-P s sai Friday, ee ' intenta a/ foul ' le a way to gai a up_petitave advantage. Mavericks Ow cl Mark Ce" c feels the s-P way.
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ESPN has upunu 266 dtio> i tances to date, exceeding the 164 that they upunu last eason. For Sil"cl, he believes that the dtio> strlu gy is not good for the league, and is det rr ' casual fans from watching. It also co radicts everything the league has done to speed up gaP s, le it suops the gaP m/ock and can add anywhere from 5-10 minutes of suoppage time.
Ce" c, howe"cl, thinks that dtio> has the chance to engage the fans e"cn more, “Does he make the free throws? If he makes one or two, will they do it agai ? Di the strlu gy work?” Ce" c sai .
If there were to be a rule chang , the NBA would be chang ' it for only a andful of guys. It is cumbersp_ to watch at tiP s, but it does an excel job illustrluing the imo-ndance of free throws.
The short> erm solu a to this whole situ ta is that the NBA is going to i titute the “one-and-one” rule that app ars i college and h4 school gaP s.
If the NBA wants somathing done for the long term, it’ll have to be the s gett ' in the gym, work ' wi"d their shoot ' coaches, and pra acing their free throws. If the poor shooters bring their percen age up to 60ish, it’ll neu ralize the strlu gy.
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*Photo Credit: Jerp_ Mic.p / USA TODAY So-nds”