What causes free throw percentage degredation?

spark_sara

I'm curious about Russell Westbrook who was an 84.5% free throw shooter with high volume in 2016 only to be sub 70% since with no prior history of such performance. Is there anything that can be pointed to when free throw percentage degrades in this manner? His volume has decreased but I wouldn't think a smaller sample size would lead to such an extreme skew.

Originally asked by ticonderoga on Stack Exchange (sports) (CC BY-SA 4.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

The NBA added a rule stating players cannot walk beyond the three-point line between free throws in 2017. Before the change, Westbrook often walked back to nearly half-court between free throws. The change disrupted his routine. Sources: https://basketballforever.com/2019/01/03/the-nba-rule-change-which-ruined-russell-westbrooks-free-throw-shooting

Full answer by Lucenaposition: https://sports.stackexchange.com/a/30091 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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