Author Topic: Possibility of reducing freethrow shots to only 1 shot to decrease game duration  (Read 11387 times)

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Offline 317

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how about raising the team foul limit? make it the 6th foul that goes to free throws and you cut a few trips to the line a game out and speed things up.

Offline bdm860

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Getting back to the initial idea presented in this post, I like the idea of a single 2-point free throw, because I've always thought it unfair to make a guy hit two shots to get the same number of points as the one regular shot would've gotten him had he made it. This is especially true in the case of easy shots such as layups; as a player, I'd be thinking, "Wait, I just had a chance at an easy shot that would've gotten me 2 points, but now I have to hit two shots—from 15 feet away—to get those same 2 points?!"

Having one 2-point foul shot might also cut down on the hack-a-Shaq stuff, too.

But don't you think those 2 free throws are a lot easier to hit than a regular field goal?

Last year the league as a whole shot 48.8% from inside the 3 point line, but shot 75.6% from the free throw line.   Even just looking at the closest shots, the league average was 63.6% from 0-3 feet.  So I'm okay with making players take 2 free throws because they are usually so much easier to make than any other shot.

But with that being said, I'm not actually opposed to the one free throw being worth either 1, 2, or 3 points.  Take a terrible free throw shooter like Shaq at 50% and a great one like Ray Allen at 90%.  It doesn't really matter if they take 200 two point free throws or 400 one point free throws.  Shaq will still hit 50% and get 200 points over a season, and Ray Allen will hit 90% and get 360 points over a season.  Sure it will change certain individual, late game scenarios slightly, but on the the whole I don't think it's a terrible idea.  It's something I'm at least open to.

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Offline Fafnir

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But with that being said, I'm not actually opposed to the one free throw being worth either 1, 2, or 3 points.  Take a terrible free throw shooter like Shaq at 50% and a great one like Ray Allen at 90%.  It doesn't really matter if they take 200 two point free throws or 400 one point free throws.  Shaq will still hit 50% and get 200 points over a season, and Ray Allen will hit 90% and get 360 points over a season.  Sure it will change certain individual, late game scenarios slightly, but on the the whole I don't think it's a terrible idea.  It's something I'm at least open to.
Some players have very different free throw splits on the first, second, and third free throws.

Offline LooseCannon

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Offline bdm860

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Some players have very different free throw splits on the first, second, and third free throws.

I was actually thinking about this as I was typing up my previous post, but have no clue where I could get that stat breakdown, other than manually going through game logs.  Any good sources?

Though I don't know if "some players" having different splits should matter as much as the league wide, or even team splits. If a handful of players shoot X% better or worse on the 2nd free throw, I don't think it would matter to me for this discussion, but if the league as a whole or certain teams shoots X% better or worse on the 2nd free throw, now I'm interested.
« Last Edit: October 02, 2014, 02:29:57 PM by bdm860 »

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Offline Fafnir

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Quote
It is also worth noting (estimates not reported) that players perform substantially (3-4%) better on the second shot than the first even when the first was missed, indicating that even seasoned professionals benefit from a warm-up shot.
That's a quote from a post on Reddit citing a paper by Zheng Cao. (same paper is referenced below in Kevin's article)

Also you can look here for an example of this:
http://www.celticsblog.com/2014/4/3/5575820/analyzing-rajon-rondos-struggles-from-the-free-throw-line-how-can-he-nba-improve-percentage-advanced

Given that the play by play data is out there I'm sure someone has written the script to scrape the data together, but I don't know if its publically available.

Offline Eja117

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Take away a full timeout from each team. There are just too many timeouts. Granted that's less commercials and less revenue.

Stop calling all the stupid fouls they call.

Offline CFAN38

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terrible idea, just call less fouls.
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Offline LooseCannon

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Give each team one more time out each half but get rid of half time.
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Offline mgent

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how about raising the team foul limit? make it the 6th foul that goes to free throws and you cut a few trips to the line a game out and speed things up.

That would be punishing good defense.
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Offline rondohondo

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it would be really unfair

If a team is down by 3 at the end of the game, the defending team can simply foul a 3 point shooter , and only give up 1 free throw.

Offline hwangjini_1

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it would be really unfair

If a team is down by 3 at the end of the game, the defending team can simply foul a 3 point shooter , and only give up 1 free throw.
But a free throw worth 3 points. 
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Offline AidaCelt

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I read the 1st page here and couldn't be bothered after that because it seemed everybody hated the proposal (which I do too).

How about they go back to the old international system. In the act of shooting is still 2 shots (or 3 depending on the shot being taken); however, when it is a foul not in the act of shooting but over the quarter foul limit, it's a 1 on 1 free throw. So they get 1 free throw, if they make it, they then get a 2nd. If not, play continues. With the poor free throw shooting in basketball these days, this would reduce 3-4 free throws per game I would think.
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