Oklahoma City Thunder: 3 signs Russell Westbrook is changing his game
2. Free throw rate
More analytics? Don’t worry, this won’t be too painful. I will even do you a favor and leave Dion Waiters out of this discussion because getting to the line is not a big part of his game (2.7 career free throw attempts per game).
Free throw rate is the ratio of foul shots to total field goal attempts, and it can be useful when determining a player’s style of play. As you can guess, Westbrook typically has a high free throw rate for his position. Last year, he posted a free throw rate of 33.6 percent. But what did he post the previous season?
While playing alongside Oladipo, Westbrook had a free throw rate of 43.3 percent. Compare that to someone who is prolific at getting to the stripe, like James Harden, who had a 2017-18 rate of 50.2 percent. Oladipo saw his free throw rate jump nine percentage points once he got traded from the Thunder to the Pacers. How can we interpret this information?
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Of course, in order to get to the line players usually have the ball in their hands. We often see Harden and Westbrook sacrifice their bodies and get rewarded for it. Carmelo Anthony made a career off of this strategy, and it helped him maintain efficiency. Speaking of the former New York Knick, what was Anthony’s free throw rate as a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder?
Not only did Anthony post the lowest free throw rate of his career last year, it was his lowest by 10 percentage points. If you were wondering why Anthony was largely inefficient last year, now you have a glimpse as to why. George’s free throw rate, however, tells a different story.
During his first season with Westbrook, George put up a free throw rate of 30.8 percent, which was slightly above his career average of 30.2 percent. Furthermore, this was the third-highest free throw rate of George’s career. In another area where Westbrook’s teammates often suffer statistical damage, PG-13 kept pace with his norm.
Remembering that Rome was not built in a day, it is easy to understand why George was able to maintain this aspect of his game while Anthony could not. Players do not change their entire games overnight. It is just speculation, but maybe Westbrook was comfortable ceding touches to the younger, more effective George instead of the older Anthony.
Regardless, allowing George to keep this part of his game intact is another sign that Westbrook is willing to surrender some touches. Westbrook allowed PG-13 to keep his usage rate high, which resulted in easy points from the stripe. Can this trend continue?