Stat of The Day: Free Throw Attempt Efficiency

by Wes Cox on Nov 24, 2008 5:37 PM CST in News

The idea for this one came to me when I noticed that San Antonio are by far dead last in the league, attempting just 17.8 free throws per game. I knew some of that had to do with the Spurs historically playing at the slowest pace in the NBA, but I wasn't sure how much.

For those not familiar with efficiency statistics, this table is sorted by the number of free throws a team attempts per 100 possessions. It's hardly perfect since it includes free throws taken from technicals etc... but after being adjusted for pace I think it's a slightly better indicator of how much a team "attacks the basket" then just standard FTA.

RNK	Team	Pace	FTA PG	FTA EFF
1	Denver	97.5	31.9	32.72
2	Boston	94.5	29.7	31.43
3	Golden State	99.3	30.4	30.61
4	Cleveland	91.7	27.7	30.21
5	New Jersey	93.4	27.8	29.76
6	Phoenix	93.7	27.4	29.24
7	Orlando	96.1	28	29.14
8	Charlotte	89.5	25.5	28.49
9	Detroit	92.1	26	28.23
10	Milwaukee	93.7	26.4	28.18
11	Washington	94.2	26.2	27.81
12	Utah	92.8	25.7	27.69
13	Toronto	93.4	25.7	27.52
14	L.A. Lakers	98.7	26.6	26.95
15	Atlanta	93.2	25.1	26.93
16	Chicago	98.7	26.4	26.75
17	Memphis	95.5	25.4	26.60
18	Miami	93.5	24.5	26.20
19	Houston	91.5	23.6	25.79
20	Portland	89.3	22.7	25.42
21	New Orleans	89.9	22.8	25.36
22	Dallas	96.1 (10th)	24.2 (19th)	25.18
23	Oklahoma City	97.8	23.7	24.23
24	Minnesota	93.9	22.6	24.07
25	Indiana	97.8	22.9	23.42
26	Philadelphia	96.1	22.5	23.41
27	Sacramento	94.1	21.5	22.85
28	New York	100.5	22.2	22.09
29	L.A. Clippers	95	20.8	21.89
30	San Antonio	88.6	17.8	20.09