INDIANAPOLIS – Despite all the Midwestern toughness, defensive grit and underdog status the Pacers have embraced over the past decade, Indiana has rarely taken advantage of the game’s easiest avenue for points.
The Pacers are trending toward the wrong kind of history at the free throw line this year. The bright side: Only eight teams have ever shot better than their current clip of 82.1% since the Pacers joined the NBA in 1976-77, including Golden State and Toronto this season.
The downside: The Pacers are on pace to shoot fewer free throws than just three teams in NBA history over an 82-game season.
Through 14 games, the Pacers are averaging just 17.6 free throw attempts per game – 1.6 fewer than the 29th-ranked Wizards. The Pacers are on track to shoot 1,441 free throws this year; only the 2012-13 Magic (1,359, record of 20-62), the 2017-18 Kings (1,371, 27-55) and the 2012-13 76ers (1,377, 34-48) have attempted fewer.
When free throws are, well, free, why hasn’t a team in need of any possible boost to top a.500 record -- a team that has lost by single-digits four times in six losses – failed so drastically at getting up the highest of high-percentage shots?
“They’re a reflection of us not being aggressive enough to attack the basket,” said Malcolm Brogdon, the Pacers' free throw attempts leader at 49. “That has to change.”
Entering Tuesday, only 10 times this season had a team shot fewer than 10 free throws in a game. The Pacers own three of those, shooting just seven in a two-point overtime loss to Charlotte (where the Hornets shot 42) and nine in Saturday’s blowout loss to the Bucks. Somehow, they managed just five in a seven-point win over Orlando.
Coach Nate McMillan is aware of the problem, but he's in the midst of a season with numerous injuries and is trying to teach a new offensive system to more than a half-dozen players. Failing to get to the free throw line is not an immediate concern.
“I don’t want to be going in forcing it,” he said. “Part of the game is being aggressive and attacking the basket, and a lot of that comes from shot selection, and when teams are really giving you that mid-range pull-up floater, I think our guys at times will take those shots.
“But you don’t have to. I think you can take another dribble or two and get to the rim.”
After that tight loss to Charlotte when the Pacers blocked as many shots as they earned free throw attempts, McMillan said he spoke to his team and emphasized that in an Eastern Conference that projects to be tightly-packed, tiny details like an ounce more aggression could pay huge dividends.
Indiana bounced back with 26 and 25 free throws, respectively, the following two games – wins against Washington and Detroit – but then put up just five at Orlando.
“It’s a reminder to not settle,” McMillan said. “We want to get to the rim and have rim attempts and not settle for floaters or the mid-range. But at the same time, if you have it, I’m telling our guys, ‘We want the bucket. We’ll take the bucket.’ So it’s a read they have to make.”
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With players such as JaKarr Sampson and Aaron Holiday seeing their roles spike over the last couple of weeks as the team battles injuries to starters, the trend at the line has become more glaring. On the bench, in particular, this year’s squad seems flush with players who are ready to shoot the ball when given the chance, but aren’t quite as quick to create close to the rim.
In fact, when normalized to adjust for varying minutes per game, this year’s group of five players who have the most starts at their given positions – Brogdon, Jeremy Lamb, T.J. Warren, Sampson and Domantas Sabonis – have averaged more free throw attempts per 36 minutes (17.5) than the similar group of Pacers from a year ago – Darren Collison, Victor Oladipo, Bojan Bogdanovic, Thad Young and Myles Turner (17.3).
That 2018-19 Pacers squad, though still in the bottom half of the league, ranked 23rd in the NBA in attempts per game at the line (21.1), nearly two shots a game clear of the league’s last-place Magic (19.2 per game). You have to go back to the 2012-13 campaign to find the last Pacers squad that finished in the upper half of the league in attempts per game at the charity stripe. But by the numbers, this year’s crew, though disjointed in its playing time, has been slightly more aggressive and successful at trying to pile up the easy points at the top.
The bench is a much different story. According to total minutes played, the Pacers’ next unit – Justin Holiday, Doug McDermott, Aaron Holiday, T.J. McConnell and Myles Turner – together have averaged just 7.7 free throw attempts per 36 minutes this season. That’s barely above half of last year’s group – Cory Joseph, Sabonis, Tyreke Evans, McDermott and Wesley Matthews (15.1).
That second group of five from this year, combined, is taking 41.8% of its shots from beyond the arc, compared to just 29.1% from the second unit a year ago and 20.5% from this year’s starters. This year’s reserves have taken just 24.2% of their shots from inside three feet, where so many fouls come from either on drives to the bucket or bigs muscling in the post, compared to last year’s group at 32.3%.
As a whole, this year’s second rotation guys have taken just 35.5% of their shots from inside 10 feet against 48.9% from a year ago and 50.9% from this year’s starters. Altogether, it paints the picture of a crew of rotation players which has carried the team’s efforts from beyond the arc for a team that ranks second-to-last in the league in 3-point attempts, but has struggled at getting to the rim -- despite having elevated roles during an injury-plagued start to the year from most of that first unit.
And with so many mid-range jumpers and catch-and-shoot 3s, the pool of opportunities to get to the line from that group has free-fallen.
McMillan knew, even without the injuries, that the start of this season would have growing pains. It’s clear his multitude of roster combinations forced by the shuffling of players into and out of rehab, has made it difficult for players to settle into aggressive roles, outside of Brogdon.
“Our guys are like this. They like to play inside the 3-point line, and I think they can shoot the 3,” McMillan said. “The goal is to put the ball in the basket, not to be a team that takes the most 3-point attempts.”
And when his team begins to get guys back from injuries, such as Lamb, Brogdon and, eventually, Oladipo, McMillan said he expects a better understanding of roles to fall into place. He also expects to be able to mix playmaking starters in with the second unit full of 3-point shooters that should, in the end, cultivate a much more balanced rotation.
A player such as Oladipo, he said, who does plenty in creating his own shot, will in turn open up the arc for the rest of the players on the floor, as well as teammates in the post. That should lead to a more aggressive playing style and more trips to line – where as a team Indiana has been historically successful, and which could come in handy down the stretch late in games in the future.
“With so many injuries this early in the season, guys just haven’t been able to get into a rhythm,” Brogdon said, “With all these constant moving pieces, we have to figure it out. But right now, we’re filled with guys who are low maintenance and with low egos. It’s just a team that wants to win and wants to do it together.”
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November 22, 2019 at 04:36AM
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A breakdown of the Pacers' historic struggle to get to the free throw line this season - IndyStar
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