On Wednesday night, the Indiana Pacers beat the Washington Wizards by a final score of 114-101. While the box score has plenty of good news for Pacers fans who have not been enjoying the recent stretch of poor play and bad effort – notably that Ivica Zubac absolutely dominated – there's one little cell in the free-throw column that stands out.
Pascal Siakam, who has failed to shoot over 75% from the free-throw line since arriving in Indiana, went 12 of 12 from the line. He finished the game with 28 points, eight rebounds, and five assists.
Indiana, as a team, should be generating the most trips to the line of any team in the NBA. Between their playstyle forcing transition attempts and easy layups that a defense has to catch up to, and their pair of frontcourt stars, there's no reason that Indiana should not be getting a bunch of easy points on the most uncontested shot in all of basketball.
However, the Pacers are 18th in free-throw attempts per game and 26th in free-throw percentage when they do draw fouls.
The Pacers should be living at the line
While teams will never shoot 100% from the line, even just jumping from the 26th spot in efficiency to the 5th would add nearly a full possession's worth of points per game back to the Pacers' total.
Even if the percentage doesn't increase, getting the volume up would be massive. Indiana averages just 24 shots from the line per game. To this point in the season, the New Orleans Pelicans are the top team in free-throw attempts per game, with Zion Williamson's eight attempts per game.
While Kelly Oubre Jr. is by no means Zion Williamson, he was expected to add more in the slashing department. As of Thursday, November 12th, he is averaging under three attempts per game.
This problem doesn't only fall on Oubre, as the Pacers' best player, Pascal Siakam, could be adding more as well. Between Siakam and newcomer center Ivica Zubac, Indiana's sheer rim volume (which we haven't seen yet due to injury) should get them a ton of foul shots at the charity stripe.
As with all problems with this Indiana Pacers roster, it's easy to point to the much-anticipated return of Tyrese Haliburton as the addition that will smooth away all problems, but it's not just that easy.
Yes, Haliburton will certainly make it easier for players to attack the rim in more advantageous situations and likely more often as well. What he won't be able to help with, however, is players making more of their free throws and players being more willing to absorb contact.
The Pacers are not soft, but they could be playing so much more physically than they are. If Pascal Siakam's performance against the Wizards is any sign of things to come, both the volume and efficiency of Indiana's free-throw shooting are about to go way up.
Add us as a preferred source on Google