Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle expects his second-year star Luka Doncic to improve from the free-throw line in the 2019-20 season.
Per Mavs reporter Dwain Price, Carlisle shared that Doncic put on a lot of work on his shot in the offseason. And he believes the Slovenian's hard work will eventually pay off.
“He’s a better shooter and he’s put in a lot of work into this summer, a lot of reps, a lot of attention, a lot of focus. I don’t have any doubts that he’s going to be vastly improved this year at the free throw line,” Carlisle said of Doncic.
The free-throw line has always posed a problem even to players like Doncic, who seems to have one of the smoothest strokes in the league. In his rookie year, Doncic shot 71.3 percent from the free-throw line. While it's a decent number compared to most, there's still lots of room to improve.
Doncic will need to bump up his free throw percentage as he'll likely get fouled often being the Mavs' premiere offensive threat. Last year, he took 6.7 free throw attempts per game which ranked 10th in the league.
Among those in the top 10, only three players shot below 75 percent: Giannis Antetokounmpo (72.9), Doncic (71.3) and LeBron James (66.5).
Doncic is clearly aware of his weakness and what's ahead. His rookie year with the Mavs has been tagged as one of the best first-year campaigns in league history, but he knows he has a long way to go. He's not satisfied with churning out a spectacular rookie season.
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