Dwight Howard blames free throw trouble on overthinking

Dwight Howard is shooting below 50 percent on free throws for the third season in a row, following seven years of being slightly better, though still pretty bad.

The difference between really bad and pretty bad, however, is important - once a player drops below roughly 55 percent, a possession that ends in that player at the free throw line is no longer a positive one (depending on the team's offensive acumen).

With Howard at roughly 49 percent since 2011-12, a possession that ends with him at the line for a pair of freebies results in about 0.98 points, on average. Meanwhile, the Houston Rockets currently average 1.06 points per possession. 

In addition, his drop in efficacy has led teams to foul him more in recent years, as his rate of free throw attempts per field goal attempts is on the rise for a second straight year:

But please, don't mention any of this to Howard. He's tired of talking about it, and it's the constant thinking about it that is the root of the problem.

Or so he told reporters recently:

“I don’t want to talk about it. So much has been talked about free throws, just let it go. We talk about it so much, I think about it at the line. I don’t want to think about it. I want to shoot.

“That’s what I do in practice. I shoot in practice and I don't miss because I am not thinking about it.”
...
“I get in the game and I think so much that I tend to miss. The best thing to do is to let it go. If I make it, I make it. If I don’t, it’s not the end of the world. Even if I do miss, I will be out on the other end, playing defense, getting rebounds, blocking shots and paying back for fouling in that way.”

It's probably annoying to hear about the same flaw all the time, sure. But Howard has to find a way to fix the issue - he's been "good enough" before, so it seems this should be fixable. 

He doesn't need to be Steve Nash, he just has to stop being Andris Biedrins.