By Giorgos Orfanakis/ info@eurohoops.net
It makes perfect sense that the Latvian guard of Olympiacos is very high on the list with the best free throw shooters in the history of the EuroLeague. To be precise, he has missed just 8 free throws in the 67 games he has played and, with a rate of 92.98%, he’s after sharpshooter and former MVP Nando De Colo (93.62%) of CSKA Moscow, who just can’t seem to miss.
Both of them are currently over legend Sarunas Jasikevicius and while Petteri Koponen of Barcelona and Gigi Datome of Fenerbahce Dogus following.
However, Olympiacos’s guard has 21-for-21 free throws in his first 11 games, while, to find his last missed free throw, we have to go all the way back to January 25 and the clash against Real Madrid.
It’s telling that in the four seasons he has been playing in the EuroLeague, Strelnieks has been shooting 100% (2013/14), 91.3% (2015/16), 89.2% (2016/17) and 100% (2017/18) from the charity stripe. Practically Strelnieks accuracy is more comparable to Koponen, who has also missed just nine free throws so far during his EuroLeague career.
In the table below you can see the All-Time Top 10 free throw shooters and as you can see from those players who are still active, the race is really close.
|
Player |
Games |
Free-throw |
Percentage (%) |
|
Nando De Colo |
113 |
484/517 |
93.62% |
|
Janis Strelnieks |
67 |
106/114 |
92.98% |
|
Sarunas Jasikevicius |
226 |
548/594 |
92.26% |
|
Petteri Koponen |
83 |
99/108 |
91.67% |
|
Luigi Datome |
118 |
160/176 |
90.91% |
|
Terrell McIntyre |
69 |
150/166 |
90.36% |
|
Arvydas Macijauskas |
56 |
288/319 |
90.28% |
|
Lynn Greer |
92 |
347/386 |
89.90% |
|
Jaycee Carroll |
165 |
179/201 |
89.05% |
|
Derrick Sharp |
195 |
225/253 |
88.93% |