Having the the ball in the hands of a >90% FT shooter with the game on the line is such an incredible luxury that I think is sometimes overlooked or taken for granted. When you have the lead in a close game, and your opponent starts fouling for possession you can close out any hopes of a comeback by knocking down your FTs. When you are trailing, aggressively attacking the basket and drawing fouls can allow you to claw back in the game by scoring with the clock stopped. Not all teams have this luxury. I think it would be cool if Dame won the FT% title this year, after C.J. won it last year. In addition to Curry at .920 and Dame at .918, Marco Belinelli is also at .918 and Chris Paul is at .917, Jamaal Murray is at .911 and J.J. Redick is at .905. The difference is volume. Dame is 3rd in the league in made FTs, trailing only James Harden and Giannis Antetokounmpo. With 460 made FTs, Dame is the only >90% FT in the top 20 in made FTs. Here is a list of all >90% FTs shooters sorted by the number of made FTs. Damian Lillard = 460 made FTs at .918 FT% Steph Curry = 278 made FTs at .920 FT% Jamaal Murray = 215 made FTs at .911 FT% Chris Paul = 198 made FTs at .917 FT% J.J. Redick = 181 made FTs at .905 FT% Marco Belinelli = 134 made FTs at .918 FT% When it comes to made FTs among >90% FT shooters, Dame isn't just blowing the field away, he's practically lapping them all. BNM
Anyone here thinks the Rockets just gave the game to the Spurs yesterday so they can move up to 3rd? They just don’t want to meet them in the 2nd round if both teams advances.
After reading this, I had to research and follow up--this is only the second season in NBA history (per Bkref) in which a player has made over 450 FT with a FT% above .915. Only 10 times has anyone even been over 91% with 400 made FTs. Interesting that a guy I've seen Dame compared to several times--Chauncey Billups--did it 3 separate times.
I was about to ask... Have any teammates led the league in FT% back to back years? Seems pretty unlikely.
Prior to that Calvin Murphy and Rick Barry in 80 & 81, although Barry wasn't still there when Murphy did it. And then there was Larry Costello and Dolph Schayes for Syracuse back in the 60's. How could anyone forget about that duo?!
My thoughts exactly. It reminds me of the time back in the day when we had court side seats under the basket at the Memorial Coliseum and we were playing the Pacers. Duck was our starting center and Rik Smits was the Indiana starter. I was used to standing next to Duck, and he made me feel small. In the first quarter, Smits lit up Duck by simply posting him up, turning and shooting over him like he wasn't even there. I told to my wife is must suck to be 7' tall and feel like you're too short to do your job. BNM
I've never been whooped in a 1 on 1 (been jumped) and I've fought some big guys. One was well over 280 at the time and he thought he should try to wrestle me. He didn't realize how quick the lightning was.
Regardless of what you think of him as a basketball player, it really is impossible to not like Boban Marjanovic. BNM
