Question Here for Doc and others.

[34Dayz]

Hey.. I am curious Shaq always shot in the high 50's from the Field throughout his career and yet was a terrible FT shooter. Lets say Shaq stole Yao's stroke from the line and put up a season with 60%FG and 85% from the line what would his TS% be?

I know I could probably caculate this myself but i'm lazy.

[Doctor MJ]

Okay, the first thing to understand is that TS% is dependent on how many FG's were taken relative to FT's.

The formula is TS = Pts / (FGA + .44 * FTA) / 2

If someone takes no FTA, and takes only 2's, then this result will be identical to FG%. The .44 factor for FTs approximates about how many actual "shots" a guy takes that aren't counted because he missed the shot and got fouled.

Okay, so at Shaq's peak, he was typically at about 20 FGA & 10 FTA per game. 20 FGA, shooting a 60% FG with no 3's, means 24 points. 10 FTA at 85% FT means 8.5 points. Add them up, that gives you 32.5 points.

Plug that into the formula, that gives him a TS% of 66.6. By comparison,

Shaq's prime peak TS% was 60.5.
Jordan's was 61.4.
Kareem's was 60.6.
Wilt's peak as a volume scorer was 55.0.

[penbeast0]

Ah, but now try Wilt's peak with 85% ft shooting

[34Dayz]

Ah, but now try Wilt's peak with 85% ft shooting

I am not sure if Wilt's peak would surpass Shaq's in this regard I know he had a season where he shot something like 70% from the floor but I don't think he took that many shots that season and according to Doc that would lower his %.

[Doctor MJ]

Ah, but now try Wilt's peak with 85% ft shooting

Absolutely.

Also of note, if Wilt adds 4 PPG with free throw shooting, he probably more than doubles his offensive impact in a lot of years.

[AussieBuck]

Dwight Howard 69.7TS% this season with Yao's stroke. Of course if both guys could shoot FT's like that they'd obviously be defended differently so the numbers would shake out different but they'd both be amazing.

[wiLQ]

10 FTA at 85% FT means 8.5 points.

In that scenario wouldn't Shaq shoot less free-throws?