As best I can tell it does not include free throw attempts. If that is correct, the data and therefore the visualization is seriously incomplete and misleading.
No... it isn't. In fact, including free throws, which are a completely different scenario than regular shots, would be misleading and furthermore, not any more complete. Free throws and shots are very different: free throws are taken with time and preparation, from a fixed location and no defender. Shots are taken on the clock, with whatever defense the opposition can put together, no preparation of the shot--they are much more fluid and require a different (albeit related) skill set.
This graph tells me whether a guy prefers to post up on the right side or the left side... high post or low post... shoot mid-range jumpers or drop back to the three point line.
A colored dot at the free throw line would tell me where he shoots his free throws from, but I already know that.
A player's free throw ability does not need any real visualization. It comes down to number of attempts, and percentage made. Adding them would skew these visualizations and wouldn't tell you anything you couldn't easily figure out by looking at a player's stats.
Hhmm. I was assuming the purpose of such a visualization was to understand the offense, which can't be done without including free throws. Perhaps it serves some other purpose, like employing "front-end developers".
Visualizing the ratio points from the line vs the rest of the floor could be interesting, but it doesn't say much about how they run their offense.
As others noted, free throws occur at the same place every time and would seriously skew the chart - especially for lowpost/longrange players like James Harden.
Maybe a step closer would be showing where a player was fouled that led to shots from the line.
I was assuming the purpose of such a visualization was to understand the offense, which can't be done without including free throws.
This is an accurate assertion -- teams like the Heat live and die by their free throw attempts -- but the article isn't looking at offense. It examines how well players shoot around the court (as the title states).
Realistically, heatmaps with free throws will just have orange-to-dark red circles at the free throw line. That's boring.
