KD’s potentially historic season at the free throw line

For a third-year player at the age of 21, Kevin Durant is having quite the season, as we all know. But one underrated facet of his game is his free throw shooting. It’s phenomenal. And it could be potentially historic. In the comments, reader Justin said it extremely well:

I can’t get over how good Durant’s been from the line.  He’s now shooting .894 from the line after tonight’s game, and is one pace for 820 free throw attempts. If Kevin Durant manages to shoot 93.3% the rest of the way, assuming his FTA stay the same (possible, he’s shooting almost 95% in march) he’ll be at exactly 90% for the year.  Reggie Miller shot 91.8% on 600 attempts in 1991 for the modern (post 1960) record for attempts while making 90%+.  Durant will blow that out of the water if he keeps this up.

Barring a collapse at the line, I think it’s likely we’re witnessing arguably the best season ever from the foul line, certainly the best in the last 20 years. It may not be an exciting thing to keep track of, but it’s pretty amazing.

Indeed it is. EXTREMELY amazing. And an underrated accomplishment, I say. And as we all know, KD is entrenched in the scoring title battle with LeBron. LeBron is averaging 29.8 ppg and KD is at 29.7. Durant averages 10 free throws a game and LeBron takes 10.1. So they’re similar. But Durant is at 89.4 percent while LeBron is at 77.4 percent. Durant has made 78 more free throws than LeBron. That’s 78 more points. Subtract those and Durant is averaging just 28.5 ppg. Add 78 more makes for LeBron and he’s at 30.9 ppg. I find this interesting. KD takes full advantage of his freebies.

The most free throws KD has missed in one game this year is four. And he’s only missed more than two eight times. That blows me away for a guy that’s attempted 700 free throws this year.