1. The Los Angeles Lakers free-throw discrepancy
The Los Angeles Lakers have a free-throw problem. The team has had a free-throw problem the last two seasons and the front office did not do much to really address it. The team can get by being a bad free-throw team in the regular season but it absolutely will come back to bite in the playoffs if it continues.
And quite frankly, this is the one weakness where it is hard to believe that it will improve. Guys don’t suddenly figure it out at the charity stripe. They can mitigate the problem, but it still will be a problem.
The Lakers currently rank 24th in the league in free-throw attempts and 24th in free-throw percentage, making only 71.3% of their free throws. Making matters worse, the team’s most prominent free-throw shooters all shoot poorly.
Anthony Davis, LeBron James and Russell Westbrook are unsurprisingly the three players who attempt the most free throws on the Lakers. The trio attempts 13.2 free throws per game and is shooting a combined 68.9%. Ouch.
Not only do the Lakers shoot free throws poorly but they allow other teams to get to the line far too often. The Lakers have allowed the 29th most free throws in the league this season, allowing an average of 25.4 attempts per game. That is a seven-attempt disparity between the Lakers’ attempted free throws and the allowed free throws.
This has not really burned the Lakers yet as opponents are shooting 70.2% from the charity stripe against LA. That will regress back towards the mean and will hurt the Lakers.