In Today’s Era Shaquille O’Neal Would Average 30 Free Throws A Game?

[OrangeBlueSkies]

Fact or fiction?


I feel like you can’t even breathe near a player in today’s game. Ofcourse very memorably, O’Neal is the player who had gotten the most UNFAIR treatment from referees throughout his career.

[BenoUdrihFTL]

And make 50% of them. I think the 30 FTA number is fiction but even if it were fact then Shaq's team would have to scheme away from it lol

[Sixersftw]

He'd probably average a similar number to Embiid. Whistles are softer now but he doesn't have all the foul drawing tricks that many of the players of this era have. Also, Shaq would get a ton of offensive fouls in this era.

[The_Hater]

Fact or fiction?


I feel like you can’t even breathe near a player in today’s game. Ofcourse very memorably, O’Neal is the player who had gotten the most UNFAIR treatment from referees throughout his career.

The ironic part of all this is the NBA is on pace to set the lowest FTA rate in league history. They’re also on pace to set the lowest foul rate in league history with 19.5 per team. That would be the lowest in 75 years on both foul stats. That kinda defeats your ‘breath’ theory right out of the gate since the exact opposite is actually true.

As for 30 FTA’s per game for Shaq? There are currently zero NBA teams averaging that many FTA’s per game. The Sixers lead the league with 26.3 FTA’s per game. Considering the change in the continuation rule a couple of years back which has lead to this decrease, I doubt Shaq would average as many FTA’s in 2021 as he did in his prime.

[Sabas11]

Of course he would, and he would also defeat Covid and end world hunger with his big muscles. The NBA today is so soft.

[cupcakesnake]

It's well established that refs call less fouls for post-up bigs. You can complain about the ridiculous calls protecting 3-point shooters, but this doesn't apply to big men. It's one reason (of many) that there's less post up offense. It's really hard to post-up because refs will let people foul the **** out of bigs in post up situations.

I remember Mozgov's career basically ending in the finals, when the Warriors dared the refs to send Mozgov to the line 30x per game. They barely gave him a whistle, Mozgov was played off the court because every catch was a foul and a no-call (so... a turnover for mozgov).

For Shaq it would be the same as it was when he played. Everyone would foul the **** out of him all the time.

[bamheat]

He will be reffed like Lebron. Lebron should realistically average 20-25 free throws a game but refs have been swallowing their whistle since 2010. Shaq would be no different.

I would love to see Lebron and Shaq officiated like Jordan and Kobe were.

[Marrrcuss]

LeBron averages less than 6 FTs a game and is like 15th in the NBA. Depends on the player.

Will the refs treat him like Zion or LBJ.

[MambaVenom24]

Lebron should realistically average 20-25 free throws a game but refs have been swallowing their whistle since 2010.

Am I being punk'd ? come on guys bring on the cameras, good one, almost had me there.

I would love to see Lebron and Shaq officiated like Jordan and Kobe were

[Soulyss]

Fiction, he's so massive he'll not get the calls. It's not like he's harden or trae flopping all over the place.

[Lockdown504090]

Shaq in todays era would be interesting. They could absolutely teach him how to shoot free throws at a 65+% rate, so it would be worthwhile. The guys coming over to double him would be smaller. there would be more possessions. but he would probably weigh less and be more fit and healthy. You would still have to foul him or get dunked on. The biggest guy guarding him would be embiid, and he dealt with guys embiid size like children in shaq's day.

Im going to say he could get to 15. his career high is 13 per game, but he played 39.5 mpg which isnt happening in todays nba. Thats still a shed load of ftas.

if you look at 1:25 shaqs release isnt that bad.Todays shooting coaches can work with that, as opposed to what he was doing later in his career.

Watch on YouTube

;t=264s&ab_channel=domcarter

[homecourtloss]

Fact or fiction?


I feel like you can’t even breathe near a player in today’s game. Ofcourse very memorably, O’Neal is the player who had gotten the most UNFAIR treatment from referees throughout his career.

Fewer free throws are being taken now than ever before.

1980 Free throws per FG attempt: .235
1980 Free Throw rate: .307
Median team FTs per 100 possessions: 26.8

1986 Free throws per FG attempt: .258
1986 Free Throw rate: .341
Median team FTs per 100 possessions: 28.8

1991 Free throws per FG attempt: .245
1991 Free Throw rate: .320
Median team FTs per 100 possessions: 28.2

1996 Free throws per FG attempt: .243
1996 Free Throw rate: .329
Median team FTs per 100 possessions: 29.1

2001 Free throws per FG attempt: .231
2001 Free Throw rate: .309
Median team FTs per 100 possessions: 26.7

2019-2020 Free throws per FG attempt: .199
2019-2020 Free Throw rate : .259
Median team FTs per 100 possessions: 23.0

2020-2021 Free throws per FG attempt: .192
2020-2021 Free Throw rate: .247
Median team FTs per 100 possessions: 21.9

[Trey24]

In today's era, Shaq would be called for an offensive foul for things that in his day were considered "bully ball". He would just be a victim of ref baiting non-stop these days.

[2Mas]

I'd have him around 12 fta's.

[hoosierdaddy34]

Especially if they gave him the same “freedom of movement” calls they would give other players. So often in the 90s you saw Shaq going from one side of the key to the other to get position, while dudes hung all over him trying to wrestle him away from getting to the block.

[hoosierdaddy34]

In today's era, Shaq would be called for an offensive foul for things that in his day were considered "bully ball". He would just be a victim of ref baiting non-stop these days.

Are you sure? Because I see Zion doing a lot of similar things with no whistle.

[Duffman100]

It's a weird phenomenon. If you go back in time, guys from that era are believe to absolute crush this era. Those same players would crush old timey basketball.

But you go back too far and those guys are unathletic stiffs who would get exposed in the modern day.

If you were to do a graph, it would have the peak being somewhere between 93-03 with every one else on either ends being not athletic or soft.

[Lost Angel]

y'all not remembering that Shaq makes them when it counts....


to be real though, Shaq would force teams to play the game differently, and he'd average relatively the same as he did when he was playing. He's that good, he changes the game. It would definitely not be a 3pt shooting league if the best player was Shaq.

[MisterHibachi]

He'd probably average a similar number to Embiid. Whistles are softer now but he doesn't have all the foul drawing tricks that many of the players of this era have. Also, Shaq would get a ton of offensive fouls in this era.

Doubt he would get a similar whistle as Embiid. Embiid is similar to Harden in his foul drawing habits, and flops a lot. Shaq didn't do that.

[GYK]

Fact or fiction?


I feel like you can’t even breathe near a player in today’s game. Ofcourse very memorably, O’Neal is the player who had gotten the most UNFAIR treatment from referees throughout his career.

The ironic part of all this is the NBA is on pace to set the lowest FTA rate in league history. They’re also on pace to set the lowest foul rate in league history with 19.5 per team. That would be the lowest in 75 years on both foul stats. That kinda defeats your ‘breath’ theory right out of the gate since the exact opposite is actually true.

As for 30 FTA’s per game for Shaq? There are currently zero NBA teams averaging that many FTA’s per game. The Sixers lead the league with 26.3 FTA’s per game. Considering the change in the continuation rule a couple of years back which has lead to this decrease, I doubt Shaq would average as many FTA’s in 2021 as he did in his prime.

Great post.

Edit: I think Shaq would average just as many FT’s as his prime. His physicality has nothing to do with mandates or style of play change. Too big too strong too explosive to not foul and it be obvious.