I also thought of this as well, if say, in comparison, 4 players popped in JS training throughout the year, what is that worth in terms of net points? Obviously very difficult to measure, but food for thought.
Further to your point, which, is very true, most games, which are close, you end up losing by 7-8 points, because your team will foul, force the turnover, try for the three etc...... But on the flipside, if you are leading by 5-6 points with 1 min to go, and the opposition is fouling YOUR players, how important is your freethrow shooting then? I cant say that i remember losing many games where the opposition fouling me and hitting three's at the other end has caused me to lose, but certainly from a 'What does your team do the most often at the end of close games", FT shooting is definately up there in terms of importance and frequency.
So yes you guys are both right, very rarely do you lose by 2 points, but maybe those extra 2 points through, as CrazyEye said, during the previous 47 minutes, puts you into a better position TO win the game in the last minute, or in a better WINNING position, come the last 60 seconds of the game.
Still, if all my players had mediocre JS, and mediocre FT, i know that it wouldnt be the FT that was making me lose games! and I know what im going to be training for the next 12 weeks! ha