Way back in 2002, when Tim Duncan won his first MVP award, he shot 80|PERCENT| from the line.  At that time Duncan was an across-the-board roto beast as he produced elite numbers in several categories and had no real weaknesses.  In the seven years since, though, he has shot only 66|PERCENT| from the line on a good number of attempts which has limited his roto effectiveness in a similar (but lesser) way to the Superman Howard Effect.  Through the first month of this season, though, Duncan was shooting 75|PERCENT| from the line which would make him a much more roto-friendly player.  The question is: is it sustainable, or is it a mirage?  To answer, let's pull out some advanced stats and see what they can tell us.

If you check out 82games.com they have all types of stats broken down on every player since 2003.  Duncan's player card for this year tells us that 57|PERCENT| of Duncan's shots this season have been jumpers, and he is making them at an effective field goal percentage of 46.7|PERCENT|.  Last year 49|PERCENT| of his shots were jumpers and he shot a 43.4|PERCENT| EFG.  In fact, since the start of the 2002-02 season Duncan tends to take jumpers on about 50 - 55|PERCENT| of his shots.  But the news is that he is clearly becoming a better jump shooter. 

When you consider that from 2002 - 2008, Duncan had an EFG|PERCENT| of 39.6|PERCENT|, then the 43.4|PERCENT| that he shot in 09 and the 46.7|PERCENT| that he is currently shooting this season seem to indicate a clear trend upward.  And his jump shooting seems to tie in well with his free throw percentage, as he's shot 71|PERCENT| from the line in the past two seasons after shooting 63|PERCENT| from the line in the two seasons before that.

Conclusion: Duncan is getting to be a better jump shooter overall, and as he does the improvement is showing up both in his shooting percentage on jumpers as well as in his free throw percentage.  As such, his current eight-year high pace in free throw percentage looks like a sustainable trend, and Duncan has a solid chance of leaving the "Dwight Howard free throw killers" crew and once again becoming a very good across-the-board fantasy contributor as long as he stays healthy.