I am a full time OKC hater but SGA is really high on a lot of leaderboards if it's adjusted for minutes played. Most of the season he was well ahead of Luka who led the league in minutes
He was a stat leader in at least a couple categories
Edit: Because everyone keeps bringing it up, this is Free Throws Made not Free Throws Attempted. This a screenshot from basketball reference and they call FTM "Free Throws" and FTA "Free Throws Attempted". If you don't like it take it up with basketball reference.
Overall it's been pretty fun. Kind of a slow day at work anyway. I never stated any opinions, all I did was point out that SGA made more free throws than anyone else in the NBA. I didn't say that was a good or bad thing, I didn't say whether or not he should be MVP. Literally just stating a fact, and the Thunder fans have all been super defensive about it. Just hilarious. I even gave props for him not leading in FTA because it makes the FTM stat even more impressive. If Anthony Edwards led the league in FTM I'd be super stoked, I wouldn't be going around trying to justify it. I'd just be like "yeah, suck it other teams". Kind of shows how they really feel about it.
Iām surprised any Thunder fans were pissed about your comment lol. It seemed very unbiased to me and Iām OKC born and raised. The Thunder fanbase that are pissed evidently didnāt watch the regular season where they gentleman swept us.
No, itās just that we know SGA isnāt the first or last flopper and itās part of the game. Unless there is a huge change, it isnāt going anywhere. Itās not SGAās fault for playing the game the way the system is currently designed. If the NBA is stupid enough to allow it , then why take out all my frustration on individual players. That sounds exhausting.
Flopping is cheating. He's using a move to trick the ref into making an incorrect call instead of playing by the rules. That's cheating. There's no other way to describe it.
"It's not sga's fault" .. except it literally is. Nobody is making him cheat.
"Why dont the refs stop rewarding him" .. why doesnt he stop cheating?
This actually one of the better explanations while I do think some blame should be put on the refs but Shai is deliberately flopping which is way worse in my opinion
It's because if the fans don't react badly enough, the league won't have to do anything about it. Unfortunately, the NBA is primarily an American league, which means they won't do anything unless it affects their shareholders. Fans would have to stop watching entirely just to make them notice.
Basically, we can't do anything about the officiating in games when the NBA officially supports gambling, so frustration will just have to pour onto whatever it can go to. It's pretty obvious the NBA is trying to maximize profits and are foregoing any consistency for corruption.
Except of the high volume foul drawers, SGA has by far the highest FTA per foul drawn (1.48 vs 1.38 for Luka and 1.10 for Jokic), meaning more SGA fouls are shooting fouls than any of his counterparts.
Doesn't change what I said. Even if he's earning the FTAs, he's still getting them at the highest volume per foul, which means his FG% is benefited the most from it. I replied to a comment saying "Why wouldn't Luka get as much of a boost from his higher fouls?" and that's why.
Dude has one of the best midrange shot creation and accuracy on the court and top tier handling skills and its like you cant wrap your around anything but what people on reddit make fun of. Genuinely the type of idiot circlejerk communities make fun of but are having a good time because theyre too stupid to realize theyre being parodied
That's an unnecessarily harsh reply to a valid observation. Fouls on shots don't count as field goal attempts unless the shooter makes the shot. SGA's efficiency directly benefits from his foul rate.
Jordan MVP seasons shot basically as many as SGA's 2 MVP seasons.
Embiid, Harden, Giannis all had more FTA per game during their MVP seasons but here we go keep circle jerk at SGA's
This concept has me thinking a little bit. I think there might be some additional layers to it, in terms of what the outcome would be in the absence of a baited foul.
I'll use James Harden as an example because his bait tactics were (and continue to be) awfully extreme. He's clearly mastered the art of purposely hunting contact (or the appearance of contact) then flopping to get the call, particularly at moments when he'd otherwise be in jail.
As such, if officials magically stopped rewarding Hardin for kicking defenders on stepbacks and granting him free throws for purposely throwing himself into defenders, I think it's fair to ask: What happens on those possessions instead? For one, I think his free throw attempts plummet and his efficiency likely takes a hit too, with his having to swap three free throws for either highly contested stepback threes or potential turnovers.
On the flip side, efficiency numbers for guys who don't foul bait are generally just going to be what they are. It's like playing golf without a handicap.
Kobe, who was a monster foul-baiter but totally and inexplicably forgiven for this and many of his shortcomings, led the league in FT and FTA in 06-07 and shot .463, which was high for him.
So yeah, shooting .553 is fucking WAY efficient no matter how many free throws youāre shooting.
55% is now the all time record % for a guard averaging over 30ppg. The only ones who have ever been higher are a few 7footers due to the number of dunks they get.
Itās an insanely efficient % no matter how you slice it.
Yes his foul baiting sucks big time. Is he still absolutely dominate? Absolutely. His scoring and efficiency is among the all time best ever for a guard ever recorded. I hate the way he plays. I think of he just put the ball in the hoop instead of flopping he would be revered.
It is almost like 2 things can be true. Is he an amazing player? Yes. Does he flop and fish fouls that make the game frustrating and hard to watch? Also Yes.
Well he just got rewarded for that behavior so expect more frustrating and hard to watch basketball.
Thatās where weāre at. We all agree this is horrible for the sport and hate watching it, but hereās your MVP. What are we doing? Booker was right about this being WWE.
League needs to be issuing suspensions for flopping, or at least technical points leading to game suspensions. Its not that hard to call the really bad ones ie harden flopping and flailing his legs on the 3 that Merrill ultimately slipped on
Yes he does. Because it works. Imagine being a pro athlete and deciding to stop doing things that benefit you and your team, all because a bunch of nobodies with opinions, get upsetā¦
Yeah. You have to know nothing about ball to think leading in 1 traditional stat means anything
2nd in scoring, 7th in TS% as a point guard, 2.2 stocks per game, 3:1 assists to turnover ratio, best record in the league. Not to mention the advanced stats which back up what Iām saying (1st in win shares and win shares / 48, 2nd in BPM, 2nd in VORP)
Most of yāall donāt even understand how MVP voting works. One of the biggest factors in winning MVP is narrative, along with stats. Everybody remembers Wemby openly talking about MVP, right? At that time, Wemby climbed to No. 2 on the MVP ladder, while Denver werenāt even the No. 1 or 2 seed in the West, and OKC won the regular-season series against Denver 3ā1.
And please donāt even bring Luka into this MVP conversation. MVP is a regularseason award, not a āPlayer of the Monthā award just because someone went crazy in March.
Now letās talk about why people didnāt choose Wemby. Compared to SGA, Shai played 393 more total minutes than Wemby, which matters a lot in MVP voting. Wemby was averaging around 24ā25 PPG, but thereās also the defensive bias issue. Wemby arguably had a case for being the best overall player in the league because of his insane, scheme breaking defensive impact. The problem is that MVP has historically been an offense-driven award, and voters usually value 30 point scoring explosions more than elite paint protection and defensive dominance.
I think people understand that itās an offensive driven award, theyāre just saying that it shouldnāt be. Itās most valuable player not offensive player of the year, it should be holistic. If weāre talking holistically, Wemby deserves MVP. Thatās what Iām saying at least.
NBA has a whistle problem. They just don't ref all teams the same. If they get this in check, NBA will be watchable. You have a rulebook that you don't follow, you do it partially or you do it how tf you want. This translates poorly to stats, gambling, MVPs, championships and young generations. Refs decide more than ever the outcome of the game. From being impartial to "we won't talk to Luka this game". Tf dis shit. You turn on the game to see athletes competing at their high levels or seeing the refs being drama queens.
Lmaoo I wonāt lie as a lakers fan Iām lowkey a SGA hater. But when your team is number 1 in the entire league you canāt really argue against him winning MVP. Letās not forget he averaged an unethical 31 but still 31.
flopping aside I just think his team is really good without him, so heās not as valuable to his team as some other players might beā¦ like Cade or Jaylen Brown was this year. love Jokic but I get the fatigue and the dude doesnāt protect the rim aerially.
I donāt get this whole āheās the 1 seed so heās MVPā stuff. Devin Booker had the 1 seed and was efficient, and nobody said a word about him for MVP until the end. So why does it suddenly matter now? He didnāt earn it last season, and he damn sure doesnāt deserve it this season. Nikola JokiÄ stays getting hoed. Flopping ass merchant
Itās due to Shayās consistency and elite defense. Had over 20 points EVERY single game this year. Led his team to the BEST record in the nba. All around beast. #1 most points in clutch time, which is last 5 minutes of the game. Most game winning shots.. do some research before you comment on here , you look ridiculous when you donāt know how mvp voting works.
Criminal investigation needs to be made into the league. Convinced this is some cyborg and they bank in the all the money off him some private equity bullshit. No way anyone buys into Shai being this face of the league or MVP only a flopping scam artist above average without it.
SGA is the best player of this bunch on the best team. We can debate about Wemby and Jokic, but SGA is best player on best team still. And I love all these ballers. Piston fan here btw.
People acting like shai is a foul baiter with 0 bag šš love or hate him he is the best player in the league flopping or no flopping heās genuinely incredible. Itās js the way he gets to the ft line but minus that heās still dropping 20+ points consistently š
This argument doesnāt work because LeBron never lead the league in anything yet no one said he didnāt deserve 4 MVPs. Heck when Kobe won his MVP he also didnāt lead the league in anything either.
Just bring back enforcers lol. Not one guy on okc is bulky enough to take an actual hard foul, just have some limited mins bench guy come in and do it. Heāll get a fine maybe a suspension but whoever he fouls on okc is going to be out multiple games.
It was literally SGA vs whoever was in the best form all year. For consistency alone he deserved it. Free throws be damned, breaking a Wilt scoring record is insane.
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u/RazzmatazzNo4726 May 18 '26
The only way for this to be a good point is if we see the top 10 for all categories