5 best free throw shooters of 2020-21 NBA regular season with at least 20 points per game

In the 2020-21 NBA regular season, Chris Paul was the most lethal scorer from the free throw line. He averaged an incredible 93.4% success rate while shooting free throws. Of his 181 FT attempts, Point God successfully scored 169 of them. However, his per-game free throw attempts and free throws made were much less than the top five players with the best conversion rate from the FT line.

Meanwhile, Joel Embiid converted the most number of free throws per game in 2020-21. On an average, the Philadelphia 76ers' star player attempted 10.7 free-throws and made 9.2 of them per game. Although a high scorer, he was not nearly as efficient as the likes of Chris Paul or Danilo Galinari.

Five best NBA free throw shooters with at least 20 points per game in the 2020-21 regular season

Efficiency and free throws made, however, is not the theme of today's ranking. In today's rankings we won't discuss players who converted the most number of free throws or had the absolute highest success rate, instead we will discuss the players who scored at least 20 points per game while maintaining an incredible conversion rate from the free throw line.

#5 Bradley Beal (88.9 FT%)

Since the 2019-20 NBA regular season, Bradley Beal has been on a mission. The mission is to be the leading scorer in the league. And for two consecutive seasons, he has stayed as the second highest scorer, first behind James Harden in 2019-20 and then behind Stephen Curry in 2020-21.

He is the only player in the league who averaged 30+ points per game in the last two seasons. Although he was thwarted in both seasons from being the scoring champ, it is no exaggeration to call him one of the best scorers in the league currently.

Along with his plethora of attacking options, Beal is as lethal as it gets from the free throw line. He averaged an incredible 6.8 out of his 7.7 free throws per game. This translates to an 88.9% conversion rate, thus becoming the fifth best free throw shooter who has scored at least 20 points per game in 2020-21 regular season.

#4 Khris Middleton (89.8 FT%)

Khris Middleton, in his nine years in the NBA, has averaged 20+ points per game in only three seasons. Along with Bryn Forbes, Middleton was the Milwaukee Bucks' best downtown attack force. He averaged 2.2 three-pointers per game and registered a season average of 20.2 points per game.

Middleton was also a credible contender for the 50-40-90 club with 47.6% field goals made, 41.4% three pointers made and 89.8% free throws made. Of his 3.5 FT attempts per game, the 2021 NBA champion converted 3.1 shots per game.

#3 Stephen Curry (91.6 FT%)

Stephen Curry during the 2018 NBA Finals

Stephen Curry is arguably the best shooter the NBA has ever seen. People often misunderstand Curry to be only a brilliant three-point shooter. That, however, is as far from the truth as one can be. The Golden State Warriors' maestro is undoubtedly the best and most consistent three-pointer in the league, but that is not the only highlight of his professional basketball portfolio.

While Chef Curry had a field goal rate of 42.7% from beyond 24 feet, he also registered 45.8% success rate from 16-24 feet. Although not as good as Chris Paul from mid-range, he still managed to register a success rate of 47.9% from the mid-range in the 2020-21 NBA regular season.

Curry was also the leading scorer the previous season. He averaged 32 points while playing 34.2 minutes per game. He is one of the only nine players in the 50-40-90 shooting club, and is the leading act of the Golden State team.

To summarize his lethality from the free throw line, let's take a look at the Warriors vs Portland Trail Blazers NBA regular season game held on January 3, 2021. Curry attempted 19 shots from the FT line and converted a whooping 18 of them while registering a career-high 62 points.

#2 Kyrie Irving (92.2 FT%)

Kyrie Irving in a game against the Boston Celtics

Kyrie Irving is in the midst of another storm of his making after refusing to take the Covid-19 vaccine. He has missed training camp and preseason games, and if he maintains his stance will perhaps miss all of his home games during the 2021-22 NBA regular season.

His vaccination stance aside, Irving is a magician with the ball. His ball handling is otherworldly. He can, quite literally, beat any defender in a one-on-one game. However, dribbling, no matter how brilliant, does not make a player an offensive genius. It is what Uncle Drew does at the rim after dribbling past the defenders that makes him a boy wonder.

His jelly shot is, without any argument, the best in the NBA. He can use every single inch of the board to finish and the most incredible aspect of this skill is his ability to do it consistently.

In the 2020-21 NBA season, while playing for the Brooklyn Nets, Kyrie became the ninth player to join the ever elusive 50-40-90 club. In the same season that he joined Curry and Durant in the aforementioned club, Kyrie registered 26.9 points per game and managed to mae 92.2% of his free throws.

The best free throw record of his NBA career was registered against the Indiana Pacers on February 10, 2021. In the game, Irving scored 17 of his 35 points from free throws. The most impressive aspect of this feat was that he did not miss a single shot from the free throw line the whole night.

#1 Damian Lillard (92.8 FT%)

Dame time has become one of the most fearsome scoring phenomenons for the NBA defenders of rival teams. While in his zone, Damian Lillard becomes unstoppable from anywhere on the court. Perhaps the most lethal deep-three shooter in the league, Lillard buried a whooping 40 shots from 30-34 feet. That's two more than Curry's record from the same region.

In the 2020-21 regular season, he averaged 28.8 points per game. Although not the best scorer in the league or the most efficient free-throw shooter, he is the best free throw shooter among players who have scored at least 20 points per game. His 92.8% success rate from the free-throw line is only 0.6% less than CP3's and yet he made 4.3 more free throws per game than Paul.