Ok, so with my team, SUNY Farmingdale in IBA. (http://www.whatifsports.com/hd/TeamProfile/Ratings.aspx?tid=6746)

I took over the team, and noticed that we had very weak FT shooting. It is important to make these baskets as they should usually be a free 2 points so I am pumping a lot of minutes into FT shooting. I know its important in RL, but how important is it in HD?

very

Doesn't pay to pump the practice - with potential, as soon as you push up FT practice, you get the AC letters about reaching his max. Last season, I recieved that letter on 3 freshmen after their first practice of their careers.

Only get that message if they have low potential there.

I think FT shooting is very important. In fact, I use it as one of my filters when recruiting. I will rarely take a player who is below 63.5 unless he has some knock your socks off cores. I think the difference between good and bad FT shooting is about 3 wins a season.

I wouldn't filter anyone, but I'd consider it when deciding between two recruits.



Weena... funny you say that because I only had 3 games last season that were within 5 pts.

5 or 6 games within less than 10 (including the 3 games above)

Maybe I'm the the exception but it seems most games these days aren't very close.

I think it is a factor in recruiting that must be considered. I don't automatically reject a poor FT% guy, but it hurts him. I also think FT% is more important for bigs than for SGs, and more important for uptempo teams.

It depends on the player. If you want to recruit a natural PG that just passes and has good ball handling skills or maybe a PF that is just rebounds and doesn't have any scoring ability, then free throw shooting would be much less important.

Quote: Originally Posted By mccabemi on 11/21/2009
I wouldn't filter anyone, but I'd consider it when deciding between two recruits.



Weena... funny you say that because I only had 3 games last season that were within 5 pts.

5 or 6 games within less than 10 (including the 3 games above)

Maybe I'm the the exception but it seems most games these days aren't very close.

Prob just variance. In Tark so far this season I've had 4 games decided by 4 points or less including 2 OT games. To take it a step further one of my exhibition games was a double OT game.

As for the topic, FT shooting is very important, but for whatever reason I always have bad FT shooting teams. I aim for good FT shooters but great cores trumps FT for me.

FTs, along with WE, are sort of the "bonus" deciding factors if I can't decide what player I like better during recruiting.

FT% was always one of the most important factors I considered when recruiting.

If free throw shooting is taking away from other ratings to balance everything out for that division then everything needs to be considered.

For example:

Do you take the guy with the B+ free throw rating with 50 speed or the guy with the C+ free throw rating with 60 speed? Personally, I would go with the speed over the free throw shooting.

I'm a proponent of getting to the free throw line, not so much with free throw percentage.

I'm a strong believer of FTs

My 5 starters (DIII) have FT ratings of B-, C, D+, D+, and D.

In my 10 games, this has happened:

In our opener, we missed 2 FT after time expired and lost 43-42.

In the 2nd game, we were up 53-51 with 33 seconds to go in the 2OT, missed a free throw, and lost in the 3rd OT.

In our next game, we led by 10 with 10 minutes remaining. We hit 2/5 down the stretch. In the OT, we twice missed the front of 1-and-1 and lost by 3 points.

Versus #3 Benedictine we led by 2 with 7 seconds remaining. We missed the front of a 1-and-1 and lost in OT by 2 points

RESULT: Instead of being a possible 6-4, we are 2-8 with an RPI of 304. Our season FT shooting is 54.5%

Don't get me wrong, I'm a strong believer in FTs as well. In the HD world, you cannot earn good FT shooting through practice - you must recruit it.