How Can Rondo (and you!) Improve His Free Throw Shooting?

Rondo is only shooting 41% on free throws this season and 62.1% for his career. You might think he is just a poor natural free throw shooter, but a closer look at his career splits reveals something:


October: 15 made, 29 attempted = 51.7%
November: 73 made, 145 attempted = 50.3%
December: 105 made, 156 attempted = 67.3%
January: 111 made, 176 attempted = 62.5%
February: 101 made, 170 attempted = 59.4%
March: 110 made, 156 attempted= 70.5%
April: 74 made, 116 attempted= 63.7%


This trend to warm up by mid December holds steady in every one of his seasons. While he still is not a great free throw shooter, if he was putting more effort into free throws during the off-season, he probably would be around 64.7% for his career (the average of free throws not in October or November, not a huge difference, but a pretty modest bump.) And it is likely that the extra work he put in would compound over the years.


Now let's take a look at his shot:

How Rondo has Improved and How Likely is He to Break 14 Assists Per Game

(This article was originally posted on a different URL. All statistical analysis is prior to Delonte's injury and the night before Rondo's first return from injury. I do think Rondo will end up with about the same amount of assists I predicted here.)


Rajon Rondo is now in position to pursue the single season assists per game record.

Rondo is Improving his Team with Better Decisionmaking and more Precise Passing

He marches toward the record book while improving his team's chances at winning. In his pursuit of the assists record (14.54 a game by John Stockton in 1989-90, Rondo is now at 14.3 a game). While in the past he was able to find open teammates on the floor with ease, he has gained a much better understanding of where to place the ball and which players can handle certain kinds of passes.