As they’ve tried to be throughout their existence, the Miami Heat are a gritty team this season too. With that being what the facts are, one would think that the tighter officiating would benefit the Miami Heat… right?
On the surface, one could say that it hasn’t and especially Kyle Lowry, being down to just 1.8 free throw attempts this season from 3.5 last season. That certainly would be a compelling argument, the one about Lowry in particular.
One could then look at the numbers on the other side, which might say otherwise.
When you look at Jimmy Butler, a high-attempt guy from the charity stripe, he hasn’t taken a hit.
Averaging just over 8.5 attempts, so far, throughout his tenure in Miami, he sits at exactly that on the year. The numbers on a team-wide scale say the same.
Averaging 21.4 free throw attempts on the year as a team, that’s about on par with the figure from the last five seasons, with the outlier being the 2019-20 season that saw their attempts relatively up from, even, those figures.
The same can be said for the opponents free throw attempts. In fact, the pattern is exactly the same, with the figure being close except for that 2019-20 season.