Lebron's choice: One three pointer? or Three free throws?

Lebron James(to those who don't know) is a professional basketball player who plays in the American basketball league NBA for the team Cleveland Cavaliers.



Now the question is:

Should he take a three pointer? or instead Take three free throws?



The point labelled 5 is the free throw line.
The points 1,2,3 and 4 form the semicircle called the three point line.

As seen from the picture above the free throw line is much closer to the hoop than the three point line is.
But we must keep in mind that Lebron James must shoot from the free throw line three times but only once from the three point line.

So assuming we decide that the three free throws are better then let's calculate the % of successfully scoring the shot.

The average free throw % of the NBA is 75.7%

So for the first shot the % is 75.7
Similarly it will be so for the remaining two shots.
The chance of converting all the three free throws is 43.3%
The three point average is a meagre 35.4%
So it is much better to take three free throws than to take a single three pointer.

In my next blog I will be calculating this % with specific players, thus getting an understanding of how a player plays.