Jakob Poeltl was among the worst free-throw shooters in the NBA this season. His impotence at the charity stripe encouraged opponents to employ a Hack-a-Jak strategy that ultimately forced head coach Gregg Popovich to send him to the bench down the stretch of close contests.
The Austrian Center was shooting a frighteningly low 38% at the line by the end of March, which ranked 466th out of the 480 players who had taken at least one free throw attempt at that point. Spurs fans were well aware of his shortcoming, and Pop verbally expressed his discontent.
“There’s no improvement,” Popovich said.