NBA Players with Mid-Career Improvement in FT%

As a fan of unusual events I’m both excited and fascinated by the career of Tyson Chandler.
Let me explain why…

• he was drafted second overall… yet he played less than 25 minutes in each of first three seasons.
  Obviously he came straight out from high-school which didn’t help but still it’s pretty unusual treatment of such high draft pick.

• he changed teams 5 times which is already well above average and he is 29 years old.

• his toe was the main reason for a rescinded trade which is a very rare event in itself
  [according to prosportstransactions.com there were only SEVEN of them!].

• last year alone he was traded as a salary dump… and he was the key piece for a championship team.
  Quite a rollercoaster ride, huh? And I can’t count how many times it happened but I’m pretty sure that’s not a typical way to acquire one of the best players on championship team.

• most importantly [at least for this post], he did something which most big guys [or maybe even all people] can only dream about: he learnt how to shoot free throws very late into his playing career!

  In his first 8 years Tyson Chandler attempted 1789 free throws and made 1071 of them for a 59.87% mark but in his ninth season he suddenly became 73+% shooter. And it wasn’t a fluke either, in all following seasons he made at least 73% of his freebies.

For the purpose of this post I’d like to focus on the last part and explore it: How often does such sudden improvement happen? Who did have the most impressive mid-career improvement in FT% in history?

Also you may not know this from this blog but I like playing basketball a lot and it’s the first topic which not only I can relate to personally but it also makes me appreciate it even more than just a curiosity because I feel like in terms of veteran’s basketball skills “you are who you are”.
Yet somehow at least one old dog learnt a new trick… maybe there is a light at the end of tunnel for all of us ;-)

OK, let’s start with basics, I downloaded a file from basketballreference.com with historical data and I compared FT% in every season after 5th [with minimum 150 free throw attempts] to Free Throw Percentage based on all combined makes and attempts at this point of player’s career. And here are the results…

Player	year	Season	ftm	fta	FT%	to-date-FTM	to-date-FTA	to-date-FT%	Sudden jump by
Chris Webber	1999	7	311	414	75,12	799	1477	54,10	21,02
Dale Davis	1999	9	139	203	68,47	882	1729	51,01	17,46
Dale Davis	2001	11	150	212	70,75	1117	2084	53,60	17,16
Chris Webber	2004	12	181	228	79,39	1983	3158	62,79	16,59
Kevin Restani	1979	6	131	161	81,37	131	201	65,17	16,19
Mark West	1989	7	199	288	69,10	471	872	54,01	15,08
Marty Conlon	1996	6	144	171	84,21	327	470	69,57	14,64
Corliss Williamson	2001	7	240	298	80,54	933	1415	65,94	14,60
Paul Silas	1971	8	433	560	77,32	1269	2023	62,73	14,59
Joel Przybilla	2008	9	112	169	66,27	331	633	52,29	13,98
Brendan Haywood	2007	7	216	294	73,47	794	1334	59,52	13,95
Chris Webber	2001	9	253	338	74,85	1434	2352	60,97	13,88
Gerald Wallace	2008	8	365	454	80,40	1074	1614	66,54	13,85
Toby Kimball	1973	8	127	185	68,65	571	1037	55,06	13,59
Connie Dierking	1966	6	134	180	74,44	455	747	60,91	13,53
Jamal Mashburn	2001	9	211	241	87,55	1734	2342	74,04	13,51
Kevin Willis	1998	14	130	155	83,87	2490	3538	70,38	13,49
Tyson Chandler	2009	9	115	157	73,25	1071	1789	59,87	13,38
Kevin Willis	1991	7	292	363	80,44	1004	1493	67,25	13,19
Connie Dierking	1967	7	237	310	76,45	589	927	63,54	12,91
Drew Gooden	2009	8	186	216	86,11	1180	1612	73,20	12,91
Caldwell Jones	1981	6	179	219	81,74	553	802	68,95	12,78
Baron Davis	2009	11	239	291	82,13	1983	2846	69,68	12,45
Thomas Sanders	1969	10	161	183	87,98	1632	2158	75,63	12,35
Nate Thurmond	1969	7	261	346	75,43	1554	2462	63,12	12,31

Obviously Tyson Chandler made a list, otherwise you wouldn’t read this post, but his improvement was far away from the most impressive one – this title probably should belong to Chris Webber who after six years of shooting at dreadful 54% made a jump to 75% and he even had some seasons close to 80%! Very nice Chris.

Dale Davis would be my clear number 2 in terms of most impressive improvement though he started at lower clip than Webber. Also last year’s backup to Tyson Chandler – Brendan Haywood – had a nice jump himself but it proved to be just a fluke year.

By the way, does anybody know how they did it?
Is there any coach who should get some deserved credit?

And just because I’ve checked and it works very nicely as a curiosity…
here’s a difference between the worst year and the best one [with minimum 150 FTA for both seasons]…

Player	Best Year	ftm	fta	FT%	Worst Year	ftm	fta	FT%	Difference
Karl Malone	1999	589	739	79,7	1985	195	405	48,14	31,56
George Mcginnis	1975	475	642	73,98	1981	72	159	45,28	28,7
Dale Davis	2001	150	212	70,75	1996	92	215	42,79	27,96
Paul Silas	1973	264	337	78,33	1964	83	164	50,60	27,73
Vin Baker	2003	114	157	72,61	1998	72	160	45,00	27,61
Doc Rivers	1988	247	287	86,06	1985	172	283	60,77	25,29
Baron Davis	2009	239	291	82,13	2001	196	338	57,98	24,15
Tom Hawkins	1959	106	164	64,63	1968	62	151	41,05	23,58
Wilt Chamberlain	1961	835	1363	61,26	1967	354	932	37,98	23,28
Dennis Johnson	1987	255	298	85,57	1976	179	287	62,36	23,21
Tyson Chandler	2009	115	157	73,24	2005	97	193	50,25	22,99
K.c. Jones	1959	128	170	75,29	1963	88	168	52,38	22,91
Drew Gooden	2009	186	216	86,11	2003	167	262	63,74	22,37
Kevin Mchale	1989	393	440	89,31	1980	108	159	67,92	21,39
Jerry West	1966	602	686	87,75	1960	331	497	66,59	21,16
World Free	1980	528	649	81,35	1975	112	186	60,21	21,14
Dick Vanarsdale	1976	145	166	87,34	1967	227	339	66,96	20,38
Gary Payton	2001	267	335	79,7	1993	166	279	59,49	20,21
Antawn Jamison	2002	375	475	78,94	1998	90	153	58,82	20,12
Shaquille O’Neal	2002	451	725	62,2	2006	124	294	42,17	20,03
Tim Duncan	2001	560	701	79,88	2003	352	588	59,86	20,02

Seriously Wilt? 38%?
Plus we should mention that Karl Malone also made a significant improvement in this category but it happened in his third season which certainly helped to reach second best scoring mark of all-time.

Finally, there aren’t many guards on both lists… so tip your hat to Baron Davis for… I don’t know, lack of concentration in some years? ;-)