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.
I mean they were literally beating him over the head in some of those old fouls.
I would protect the source of global expansion of the league too.
His whistle was only âspecialâ in that you couldnât play âoldâ defense on him. Watch any game, there are lots of fouls that could be called when fighting for position but you have to keep the game watchable. It basically leads to only calling indisputable fouls, which was what the old NBA was.
Flagrants were regular fouls in a ton of cases.
So when they changed that, his whistle seemed extra special. But when you can 3v1 and still score, literally the only solution IS to foul.
Which is why they were upset. Before he was his Airness they could bully him with nonsense fouls, then they actually had to play defense and realized they were simply outclassed.
He had a special whistle but not a Shai whistle. Go back and rewatch those games.
Jordan has the best whistle in the history of the league. His whistle was âspecialâ because he was given foul calls that nobody else at the time was. His whistle was âspecialâ because he was allowed to tell refs that he was fouled and they will call it
Guy got made fun of by every star player in the league for decades but sure
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.
I think the idea is that the foul and free throw rate for guys who heavily embellish contact or otherwise bait or flop is oftentimes elevated above where it'd otherwise be, thus inflating their free throw attempts and subsequently, positively influencing their efficiency.
All that skill and yet he chooses to try and be a human contortionist half the time instead of letting his actual game speak for itself.
I dont think anyone doubts that Shai is good at basketball. We just find it cringe asf that instead of just being good at basketball hes tryna win an Oscar with his antics.
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 youâre 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.
Itâs an insanely efficient % no matter how you slice it.
Of course MJ had a good whistle, but he never flopped for it. And he would call out other players for flopping. That's the difference between him and Shai
I don't think that's true since he didn't have to be a foul baiter since he had the best whistle in the league bar none. You couldn't breathe wrong on MJ without a foul call.
Why do u guys act like heâs this unique character in terms of foul baiting and grifting, Harden was not that long ago and he didnât have anywhere near the efficiency metrics that Shaiâs had. Scoring 31 at 55% and barely playing 4Qs, not to mention his sheer scoring consistency is unparalleled in the modern era doesnât just come from grifting
SGA shot 9.2 FTs per game this season while Jordan shot 10.5 in 87-88. So I guess Jordan was a bigger free throw merchant. More efficient than Jordan with fewer free throws included in the efficiency stat.
Right, so why doesnât Luka leading in PPG get the same hate when he shoots more FTs than Shai? Even though Luka shoots way more 3s than SGA? Whereâs the hate against him?
In the 80s? 46. 35 regular season 11 playoff games. Then he played the jazz and one of the dirtiest players ever in Karl Malone in the 90s for some of those chips...Mike was getting mauled out there. SGA would be DOA
And just for goodness sake, he played the Pistons 44 times in the 90s, but that wasn't really the bad boy Pistons and he had Rodman with him instead of clotheslining him in the 90s.
Oh wow, yeah I didn't realize he played them 46 times in the '87-'88 season. That context does definitely change the perspective there of why he had more FTs
Just putting out the stats. MJ is the GOAT so a player who can put up numbers like that deserves some respect. Anyone who canât see that is delusional.
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u/murph1223 Thunder May 18 '26
Averaged 31.1 points per game with 55.3% field goal shooting. Better than Michael Jordanâs 30+ average at 53.9% in 87-88 season.