NBA: 10 Worst Free-Throw Shooters EVER

So it's called a FREE-THROW for a reason.

It's a free shot. No defense, nobody contesting the shot, no nothing. Yet, even the best of the best, historically, make 9 out of ten shots - Steve Nash is the league's all-time free-throw leader, with respect to efficiency at 90.43%.

Then, there's the other end of the spectrum. The players, mostly guys with no concrete standing shooting flow, who are among the worst ever. A majority of these players play the center position (normally around 7 feet), ones who have more or less cemented their career around the rim because of their height.

Los Angeles Lakers' Shaquille O'Neal is probably the most glamorous player in this bottom pile. Thus, the term Hack-A-Shaq came about, a strategy where teams fouled Shaq, once they were in the penalty, to ensure his team scores only point or even none instead of 2 or 3.

So much is being discussed right now about the game can be changed to make it better for everybody - with the shortening of the schedule, the possible 1-16 Playoffs format and so forth that people tend to forget how big a deal the intentional fouling had become, especially a couple of seasons ago.

Revisiting that issue, here are the 10 worst free-throw shooters in NBA history:

Honorable Mentions:

Dwight Howard

There are a few BIG names that just missed out on this list but are still among the league's worst, historically.

11-time Champion Bill Russell has the 14th worst free-throw shooting percentage (56.1%) in NBA history. Dwight Howard, at the 18th spot (56.6%), is the most documented active player on this list. Just above him are the likes of Mason Plumlee (17th - 56.5%) and Andrew Bogut (12th - 55.6%).

#10 Olden Polynice

Olden Polynice

Career: 1146-2141 (53.5%)

Olden Polynice played a long 20 years in basketball, of which 14 were spent in the NBA. He played as a role player for five teams during this span - Seattle Supersonics, Sacramento Kings, Utah Jazz, LA Clippers and the Detroit Pistons. Despite the years/teams ratio, Polynice has played 1,058 games, of which he started 658. The point being, he was more than relevant.

From his career numbers and game logs, it's quite obvious that Polynice's best days were when he was with the Kings from 1994 to 1998. He averaged 10.8 points and 8.8 rebounds in 345 games.

In different situations with different teams, Polynice's numbers varied but one thing from box score more or less remained the same - his free-throw shooting percentage. It varied from 29.0% for the Jazz (lowest for a team) to 60.2 for the Clippers (highest for a team). In terms of career-high for a season, Polynice's best came in his rookie year, where he shot 63.9% for the SuperSonics. However, it went all downhill from there.

In his last three full seasons, these were his free-throw shooting percentages - 30.9% (1998-99), 31.1% (1999-2000) and 26.2% (2000-2001).

#9 Larry Smith - 53.1%

#13 Larry Smith

Career: 866-1630 (53.1%)

Larry Smith, a 6-8 small forward, played 9 of his 13 years, from 1980 to 1989, for the Golden State Warriors. The other four years were spent with the Houston Rockets and the San Antonio Spurs (1).

As you study Smith's career game logs, in an attempt to track his free-throw percentage, another thing stands out. Smith made zero three-pointers on 7 attempts, even Polynice, a 6-11 power forward, has made 5 over the course of his career.

Anyway getting back to the category in question here. A majority of his career, Smith was an average free-throw shooter and would have missed out on this list if it wasn't for three bad seasons in the latter half of his career. From 1988 to 1991, he had three miserable free-throw shooting seasons - 31.0% (1988-89), 36.4 (1989-90) and 24.0% (1990-91).

#8 Reggie Evans - 52.8%

Reggie Evans (Image courtesy: thebrooklyngame.com)

Career: 1074-2036 (52.8%)

Another player, who roamed around the league quite a bit, playing for seven teams in 13 years from 2002 to 2015 - Toronto Raptors, Brooklyn Nets, Seattle SuperSonics, Denver Nuggets, Philadelphia 76ers, LA Clippers and the Sacramento Kings.

In his 809 games played, Evans averages more rebounds (4.7) than points (4.1).

He spent a majority of his career, coming off the bench, averaging just 19.2 minutes for his career. So his poor free-throw shooting numbers haven't got the spotlight other players on this list would get. For a majority of his career, Evans shot in the early 50's%. To make matters worse, he had a few in the 40's% (2006-07, 2007-08 & 2009-10) that kept him on this list.

#7 Shaquille O'Neal

Shaquille O'Neal

Career: 5935-11252 (52.7%)

So get this, Shaquille O'Neal, one of the best centers ever, has 28,596 points by only making 52.7% of his free throw attempts (11,252). Imagine, if he had knocked down more, surely his career points total would have crossed the 30k peak and then some.

O'Neal's dominance was such that after his first few seasons in the league, teams would intentionally foul him to make him shoot free-throws instead of allowing the Lakers to run a play for him. Few rare times, O'Neal would add insult to injury by making all of his free-throws but he couldn't do that too often.

Making at least one of his two free throws would have been respectable but O'Neal had multiple seasons (7 of 19) where he shot below 50% from the charity stripe.

#6 Bo Outlaw - 52.1%

Career: 957-1837 (52.1%)

Outlaw's career numbers paint a clear picture, that he was a backup power forward, having started only 352 of 914 games and averaging 5.4 points and 4.9 rebounds for his career. Although he did play the 4 position and even sometimes the 5, Outlaw was only 6-8 in height.

If it wasn't for a few seasons at the end of his career, where he shot a high percentage courtesy of fewer attempts, Outlaw could have been No.1 on this list. The last six seasons of his career, he shot 57.6% from the line which allowed him to be ranked as low as #6 on this list. His first 9 seasons, he only made 51.1% of his attempts with multiple seasons (4) in the 40's%.

#5 Wilt Chamberlain - 51.1%

Wilt Chamberlain

Career: 6057-11862 (51.1%)

Wilt Chamberlain, one of the most dominant players in league history, is the only rookie EVER to be named the league MVP but free throws were something he couldn't conquer. While his other averages - 30.1 points and 22.9 rebounds - made him look superhuman, it was the free throws that made him look mortal, making only 51.1% of them career-wise.

Over the course of his 14-year career, Chamberlain led the league in points (7 times), rebounds (11) and field goal percentage (9) multiple times but the story wasn't the same when it came to free throws. His free-throw percentage really started to see a significant dip, a dip that would see him on this list from his fifth season in the league.

The first five years, he shot 56.8% from the line but the last 9 years of his career, Chamberlain struggled a lot. Last 9 years, he shot 46.1% from the charity stripe, including a career-low 38.0% in the 1967-68 season, his last year in Philadelphia.

#4 Chris Dudley - 45.8%

Career: 691-1508 (45.8%)

Chris Dudley, another 6-11 Power Forward on this list, spent 15 seasons in the league. Of those 15 years, he didn't attempt that many free throws but he didn't make many either.

The numbers - 3.9 points per game, 6.2 rebounds per game in 18.4 minutes per game for 886 games - clearly indicate Dudley's backup role as a power forward or center. So it's no surprise that Dudley spent a lot of his career bouncing around, having played for as many as five teams in his 15 seasons - New York Knicks, Portland Trail Blazers, Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers and New Jersey Nets (now the Brooklyn Nets).

#3 DeAndre Jordan

DeAndre Jordan

Career: 1343-3006 (51.1%)

Five of the last six seasons, LA Clippers' DeAndre Jordan has led the league field goal percentage but the same story doesn't apply to his free-throw numbers. Jordan has been among the league's worst when it comes to free-throws

A huge reason why he's led the league in field goal percentage is that a lot of his baskets come in the form of alley-oops, a majority of them from the former All-Star duo of Chris Paul and Blake Griffin. His troubles combined with those of Dwight Howard's led to everybody experiencing long Playoff games during the Conference Semifinals Series in 2015 between the Houston Rockets and the LA Clippers.

It's been up-and-down all through his career. He's gone to the depths of shooting lows like 37.5% (in his 2nd season) and shot highs like 52.5% in 2011-12. The 2017-18 season is Jordan's 10th in the league and although he is shooting a career-high this season (60.2%) but this doesn't seem to help his career ranking as he is still the third-worst in the league history.

#2 Andre Drummond

Andre Drummond

Career: 898-2146 (41.8%)

At least guys like Howard, Bill Russell, Chamberlain and Jordan brought another aspect of their game, which allowed their teams to make-do with their poor free-throw shooting. When it comes to doing that, Andre Drummond is still finding his place.

His shooting has been TERRIBLE. Yes, you read that word in all caps.

Currently, in his sixth season, Drummond has shot free throws at under 40% four times. The second season of his career he shot 41.8%, not far off from 40%. This season, his free-throw shooting has taken a huge jump - 61.2%, however, at the start of the 2017-18 season, through his first 10 games, he shot a spectacular 75% but over the course of the current campaign, there was a regression to the mean.

It was only this current season's jump that helped Drummond escape the No. 1 spot on this list. Even with this huge improvement this season, he's only 0.4% better than the next player.

#1 Ben Wallace

Ben Wallace

Career: 1109-2679 (41.4%)

Ben Wallace was a ferocious defender, clearly proven by his four Defensive Player of the Year awards but all that ferociousness goes out of the window when he is forced to the free-throw line.

Wallace was pathetic from the free throw line.

An undersized center at 6-9, Wallace's career-high from the line was 49% in the 2004-05 season. Six of his 16 years in the league, he didn't even shoot better than 40% on free-throws including a career-low 30.0% in his rookie year.

If Drummond continues to shoot at his current clip of around 60.0%, Wallace's record of being the worst free-throw shooter in NBA history is very safe.