The Pistons’ Tony Snell can’t miss

Langston Galloway is a man of superstition … so much so, that even if he has no affiliation with a taboo-ish situation, he will disassociate himself. No way, no how.

I learned this about Galloway on Tuesday afternoon, when I asked the 28-year-old for a moment of his time to discuss his Pistons teammate Tony Snell, who is on the cusp of something never accomplished in the NBA. The first question didn’t get to the guts of what I really wanted to ask. “Tony Snell” and “free throws” were part of my generic first inquiry. That was enough word association for Galloway.

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With his smile widening, he began to walk away.

“Look, look … we’re not going to talk about this,” Galloway said. “We don’t want to jinx it.”

That’s a good teammate.

However, Snell’s chase for NBA history isn’t a secret. It’s been talked about during the Pistons’ television broadcast. And Snell’s teammates clearly have his perfection on their minds.

Snell is a pristine 28 for 28 from the free-throw line this season. He’s on pace to join Kobi Simmons (2017-18) as one of two players in NBA history to attempt a minimum of 25 free throws in a season without a miss, per Basketball-Reference. (The Timberwolves’ Kelan Martin, who is 27 of 27, has a chance to do the same.)

Real history, though, lies in this tidbit: Per Basketball-Reference, no player in league history with a baseline of 30 season free-throw attempts has ever made them all.

“I did not know that,” said Snell, a man of very few words.

He wasn’t impressed by the potential feat.

“That’s not a lot of attempts,” he said.

He’s not wrong. Twenty-eight free-throw attempts for someone who has played in 55 games this season and averages 27.7 minutes per night can be seen as concerning. It is to Snell. Instead of boasting about the record he is closing in on, he went on a tangent about his inability to generate more free-throw attempts, insinuating that facet of his game is one of his glaring weaknesses.

Roughly 67 percent of Snell’s shot attempts this season have come from the 3-point line. That’s where Snell earns his paycheck. The numbers have fluctuated over the years, but 3-point attempts have dominated his career shot chart. Additionally, he’s been the Pistons’ best at lobbing the ball this season, so when he does attack the basket, he’s often dishing off high-arcing passes to his bigs.

“I don’t get to the line enough,” Snell said. “I need to work on my game, expanding it and getting to the basket.”

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Snell has made 32 straight free throws dating to last season. That, according to Fox Sports Detroit/Sportradar, is the second-longest active streak in the NBA to Steph Curry, who has made 38 straight. Snell’s last miss came on March 12, 2019. He’s approaching a calendar year without a miss from the charity stripe.

Despite the achievement, Snell still needs to make 35 more to top the Pistons’ franchise list for most consecutive free throws made. Joe Dumars, impressively, converted 62 straight in less than a month in 1991.

Before walking too far away from the interview, Galloway did say that he has witnessed Snell miss a free throw. So, it has happened. The two play a shooting game to conclude every practice, and every now and then, Galloway said, Snell will slip up and clank iron on one or two. However, with the bright lights on and thousands of maniacs screaming, Snell is able to sink them one after the other.

His secret?

“It’s just concentration,” said Snell, a career 83.4 percent free-throw shooter. “It’s focus and concentration.”

Now that Snell is aware of his opportunity to etch his name in history, we’ll see just how far concentration and focus can go. There have been questions as to whether he’s actually a robot, so that mystery may get solved here soon, too.

If Snell ends up missing this season, blame me. I know Galloway will.

(Top photo: Nick Wass / Associated Press)