Los Angeles Lakers: LeBron James Reverting To Old Free-Throw Style To Improve Percentage

Learning and improving does not stop even for the likes of LeBron James, who continues to work on spots in his game that he knows still need to be enhanced.

The first thing in mind will always be his free-throw shooting.

While the massive improvement in his overall outside shooting has made him a more unpredictable offensive player, the Los Angeles Lakers star’s inconsistency from the charity stripe remains a chink in his armor. He tried several to employ routines, but it hardly made his rating from the line better. But the search for the remedy goes on for James, who is reportedly trying to bring back his old habits in his attempt to become a reliable free-throw shooter even at the late stages of his storied basketball career.

Lakers' assistant coach Jason Kidd pointed out the numbers in an interview with Sports Illustrated as he mentioned that James indeed is reverting to his free-throw style in high school which, so far, has yielded dividends for the King.

"As you can see, his free throws right now, he's gone back more closer to his high school free throw and he's shooting over 80 percent since he's done that," Kidd said. "He's always searching to get better and is there a way to fix something. And that was probably one of the things in his game that he needed to work on."

The numbers will affirm Kidd’s statement. According to a stat gathered by SB Nation’s Silver Screen and Roll, James has improved his free-throw rating by 3.8 percent from his season average while attempting close to more than two shots since the All-Star break.

However, James remains a below-average free-throw shooter at 73.5 percent for his career. He actually shot worse in 60 games this season with the Lakers, tallying only 69.7 percent to join Andre Drummond, Rudy Gobert, Ben Simmons, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Zion Williamson, Montrezl Harrell, and Bam Adebayo as the only eight players in the league to shoot below 70 percent from the 15 ft. line while taking at least five freebies.