Philadelphia 76ers: How good would Allen Iverson be in today’s NBA?
By Brock Landes
Iverson’s capability to draw fouls
In the midst of an era where defense was physically oriented and little to no floor spacing, or the lack thereof, smothered offenses, Iverson scored more points per game than anybody around the league countless times (4x Scoring Champion).
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More incredibly though, Iverson led the league twice in free throws attempted and free throws made per game and finished within the top 10 attempted free throws nine other times. Even towards the backend of his career, Iverson registered a shooting fouled percentage (“percentage of a player’s shot attempts that he was fouled on”) over 16.0 percent from 2005-06 to 2009-10 in all but one season.
In that five year span, Iverson finished in the 92nd percentile or higher four times. For reference, James Harden, the most frequent visitor of the free-throw line (attempting a league-leading 11 free-throws per game) has a 16.5 percent shooting fouled percentage this season, good for the 96th percentile in basketball.
In 2007, a 32-year-old Iverson attempted 1.3 fewer free throws than Harden on a per game basis yet owned a 18.0 percent shooting fouled percentage (1.5 percent greater than Harden). Iverson would presumably draw more fouls than any player in the league today and given his career 78.0 percent free throw percentage, he’d score the most points at the line too.