Houston Rockets: 3 goals for Austin Rivers in the 2019-20 season

2. Shoot at least 60 percent from the free throw line

When looking at Austin Rivers’ stats, the biggest thing that sticks out is his poor free throw shooting percentage. It’s difficult to explain, because he has been a serviceable long distance shooter and his shooting form isn’t broken.

Over the course of his career, Rivers is only a 63.7 percent free throw shooter. After making a career high 69.1 percent of his attempts at the charity stripe in the 2016-17 season, Rivers’ free throw efficiency has been trending down in recent seasons. Rivers shot just 51.0 percent from the foul line and made only 25 total free throws in 47 games for the Rockets last season.

Overall, Rivers’ 52.6 percent average at the foul line last season was a career low for him and you’d have to assume its one the main reasons he only averaged 1.3 free throw attempts per game, which was also a career low.

If Rivers continues to struggle from 3-point range like he did last season and he struggles to make the easy ones at the free throw line, he could lose confidence in his shot and become more timid offensively, which can happen to any player who’s in a shooting slump.

Rivers needs to shoot at least 60 percent from the free throw line in order to have a respectable free throw percentage, even though that is still below league average at the charity stripe for a guard.

Next: No. 1