NBA

As someone who likes to read articles, holy @#$% was that clickbait-y and a lot of time (11 min) invested to get a couple minutes of content - no description anywhere of the 'must-watch' talking points. Okay, rant over. Mired in all the fluff were two good points: Lakers' free throw attempt (FTA) disparity over the last 2 years, and play-by-play data to show that based on the shots the Lakers take one wouldn't expect them to be top of the charts in FTAs. I dug into the FTA disparity a little more.

In the 2022 championship season, the Lakers didn't make the playoffs, and they ranked 16th in FTA difference in the regular season. Did Silver call for a change after this?

In the 2023 regular season, the Lakers averaged 5.8 more FTAs a game than their opponent (476 more FTAs total), for 1st place in the league. 2nd place was the Kings (2.1 a game, 173 overall).

In the 2023 postseason, the Lakers averaged 7.6 more FTAs a game than their opponent, for 1st place among playoff teams. 2nd place was the Knicks at 5.4.

So far in the 2024 regular season, the Lakers averaged 6.0 more FTAs a game than their opponent (471 more FTAs total), for 1st place in the league. 2nd place was the Celtics (2.9 a game, 226 overall).

Prediction: Lakers leading the league in FTAs will continue the rest of this season and in the postseason.