The Sacramento Kings are off to a strong start in preseason, winning all 3 of their games so far. They have shown improved defense, more off-ball movement, and better passing, but there has been one glaring trend that has shown up: free throws.
The Kings have combined to go 46 of 71 from the charity stripe in their 3 games, good for 64.8%. To see if this is going to be the norm, or a preseason anomaly, I compiled all of the current Kings free throw totals from last year, and their careers. Last year, the current Kings roster combined to shoot 77.1% (1898 of 2463) at the line. In their careers, they have combined to shoot 75.1% (8,919 of 11,873).
The historical numbers show that the Kings should improve with time as they return to their averages, but realistically, this team is not going to be a great free throw shooting team. The 77.1% from last year would have tied them with the Mavericks for 16th best FT% in the NBA, and would actually be an improvement upon the 2021-22 Kings mark of 76.8%.
In a season where the mantra is becoming “just be average” for certain aspects of the game, free throws might fall right into that category. Improvement should come, but the Kings may just be an average free throw shooting team, and hopefully that’s ok.
