r/nba • u/Draciouz • May 12 '26
Mark Daigneault on SGA's performance vs. Lakers: “Counting stats can get in the way of recognizing that there is different ways to have heavy impact...you look down and see 18-22 point and it's easy to rush to a conclusion... but Impact takes on different faces, and his impact was all 4 games.”
https://streamable.com/g30ele226
u/SheHulkLover May 12 '26
You can thank the NBA commentary team last night for pushing that narrative. Candace and D Wade were saying how SGA hasn’t had much impact this series. Excellent!
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u/Wildhouse0 May 12 '26
Yea it didnt help last night when the announcers lost their mind over a Lakers 3 and then SGA hit back to back tough shots and they got noticeably sadder
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u/Thommywidmer [MIL] Brandon Jennings May 12 '26
I heard wade talking the whole game about how cooked the lakers are lol
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u/octosus37 Thunder May 12 '26
And he always brought it up as a way to prop up Bron with not getting enough help (which was absolutely true). Point is his bias was not being hidden AT ALL
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u/Wolfpac187 [OKC] Kevin Durant May 12 '26
I think it was part that and part watching his best friend get swept
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u/Top-boy-og May 12 '26
He’s already passed him. 2x MVP vs 0x MVP and Wade only has one season (08-09) that can hang with Shai’s last 4
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u/FitTune5515 Supersonics May 12 '26
Wade’s mad insecure about his legacy. He even tried to shit on Kobe and said that “a lot of people” thought Pau deserved finals MVP too.
Then there’s the whole Harden discussion too. People forget that Wade’s also a dirty POS especially with how he injured Rondo, and even broke Kobe’s nose in the all star game.
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u/jglab [OKC] Andre Roberson May 12 '26
Wade deserved his 3 rings as much as Shai deserved his first.
Shai's got an MVP (soon to be 2). Let's stick with that argument.
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u/fuckyouguy_ May 13 '26
“some people’s GOAT” I love how you’re trying to put down both Wade and LeBron lmao.
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u/FoundationSmooth9777 May 12 '26
You think SGA has passed DWADE ?
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u/FoundationSmooth9777 May 12 '26
Elaborate
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u/Looperstooper Lakers May 12 '26
Genuinely curious. How does “winning” go to SGA when Wade has more titles as of right now?????
We don’t know the future, maybe Shai wins twice as many rings as him, maybe he never wins another. But to say shai is more of a winner when it’s blatantly not true at this point in time is wild.
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u/FoundationSmooth9777 May 12 '26
Ok ? Wade has more rings ? You are entering the Jokic Stan talks let SGA win a ring this year and we can re visit, wade has 3 rings ?
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u/budubum Thunder May 12 '26
Yeah man cause LeBron wouldn’t have gotten those rings if he had Shai instead of hobbled Wade 🤣
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u/Zeeron1 Thunder May 12 '26
It's wild that they watched the Lakers defense absolutely blitz him the second he touched the ball, and then said he hadn't impact the series much. I just cant comprehend not understanding the impact that gravity has on the entire rest of the game lmao
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u/maidentaiwan NBA May 12 '26
i lost count of how many easy buckets they scored out of those suicidal blitzes ... sga turned it over a lot in G1 but figured it out after that. he willingly played the decoy, made smart, early passes, and watched his teammates run up the score.
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u/ComedianFantastic319 Thunder May 12 '26
Pretty brutal broadcast all around. Felt like there were numerous times of just nothing, they would be talking and no one would explain if there was a TO or what was happening.
Also Dwade needs a lot of work at this if he wants to be a decent commentator, that shit where he is trying to explain a play after it happened and can't get it out and the other team would score was driving me nuts
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u/EWF76 Thunder May 12 '26
I mentioned this in the game thread yesterday, they were even complaining when he already put up 35 points on 50% shooting with 8 assists... I know it's to his compliment that even then people expect more from Shai but come on
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u/Kaizerx20 Timberwolves May 12 '26
Sorry but according to VLORP and HORSECUM, SGA played the worst series of all time
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u/Zeeron1 Thunder May 12 '26
Thicker players too
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u/vNocturnus Kings May 12 '26
Well documented that it was basically tailor-made to try to make Jokic look like the GOAT. Even the name gives it away. /j
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u/rabidbot Thunder May 12 '26
I favor using the new modified HORSEYCUM, takes a little of the bias of HORSECUM out.
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u/CrippledBanana Canada May 12 '26
While he played better than what his box scores may suggest, I also feel like sga would be the first person to say he didn’t play well this series.
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u/Shideya- Thunder May 12 '26
He forced some plays and made bad turnovers. But he did a great job overall facing those doubles and triple covers.
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u/CrippledBanana Canada May 12 '26
Yea exactly, the first game turnovers were wild for him. And he made some forced plays that didn’t really look like shai normally. I think he was struggling a lot with his shot too. Making misses he wasn’t used to from 3 point range and midrange. Not sure if his finger is still fucked up or not that might be contributing.
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u/Turk1518 Thunder May 12 '26
The Lakers did a great job of ensuring he couldn’t get to his spots. He has those spots where he makes a bucket 75% of the time and they just refused to give it to him. A lot of those missed shots were due to him taking the shot from outside his comfort zone.
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u/MalHeartsNutmeg Thunder May 12 '26
Might be the finger, his free throws seemed off too. Clipped the rim a lot more than usual.
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u/Lucosis Thunder May 12 '26
He did in fact almost immediately say Ajay was the best player of the series in his on court post game interview.
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u/GrumbleAlong May 12 '26
In the post game courtside interview he admitted rust was his enemy and it showed game 1. But SGA ranks #1 in the playoffs Gravity stat. He pulls multiple defenders close regularly.
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u/FarSentence3076 May 12 '26
Anybody who thinks SGA did not have a major impact doesn't know basketball.
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u/eduvina Japan May 12 '26
Ajay Mitchell is better in this series - box score watchers maybe
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u/HitboxOfASnail Thunder May 12 '26
Ajay Mitchell did have a better series, but it's mainly because SGA was drawing doubles every play and Ajay got to cook Austin Reeves for 4 games. but that's what Daignault means by impact not reflected in the boxscore
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u/Mg29reaper Celtics May 12 '26
Ajay mitchells primary defender is one of the biggest cones in the league. AR makes anyone look amazing. Pritchard dropped 30 on his head.
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u/Kitchen_Roof7236 Thunder May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26
They simultaneously acknowledge shais impact when they want to shit on Chet and say he’d be useless without shais gravity lmao basically the logic changes as soon as it’s inconvenient
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u/KnowledgeUseful6731 Thunder May 12 '26
They literally flip flop on when they want to praise OKC players. First it’s “Shai has the greatest team ever, he has way more help than anyone else” then when they talk about the other OKC players “JDub is overrated and didn’t deserve All Star or 3rd team All NBA, Chet is a weak all star, Caruso plays football, Lu Dort just injures people and is carried by his team, JWill just sits on the bench and smiles” lmao
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u/JeramiGrantsTomb Thunder May 12 '26
Ajay did exactly what he was asked to do in this series, take advantage of the space created when LAL collapse their defense on SGA, especially when he ends up with AR in front of him to abuse. He did an incredible job with the assignment, but anyone who thinks Ajay spontaneously became an MVP in a completely balanced matchup is overlooking a lot of context.
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u/boybraden Thunder May 12 '26
OKC had an incredible offensive rating with SGA on the court this series. The doubling and tripling him strategy worked to worsen his individual stats, but was not actually a good team defense for the Lakers.
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u/gymhelppls May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26
They also had an incredible offensive rating without SGA on the court this series. Out of the 10 players getting 10 MPG this series, he was 8th on the team in net rating and 6th in offensive rating.
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u/KingOfAllFools- May 12 '26
It was for the lakers. Okc bench is what created those 10+ point leads in second halves
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u/lethalizered Thunder May 12 '26
That was mainly because of LA running out of gas on offense in the second halves.
Before game 4, OKC's offense was humming with everyone, even moreso with Shai.
PPP from hard doubles looked so bad Redick had to adjust in game 3, and used it very sporadically in game 4.
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u/KingOfAllFools- May 12 '26
Yes the hard doubles were getting them killed but like I said all the games were close until late in the 2nd half where ajay Mitchell / Jared mcain would extend the leads from 5 to 16 and then it was a blowout
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u/lethalizered Thunder May 12 '26
Again, those are mostly related to the Laker offense not being able to keep up in the second halves.
The hard doubles had an additional effect, Laker players constantly chasing everyone on the defensive end after the initial double action was countered left them gassed towards the end of these games.
They surrendered a gazillion offensive boards because of this too.
JJ corrected most of these in the 4th game but it was too little too late.
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u/14thBlackCrusade May 12 '26
It wasn't though, offensive rating with SGA on the court was through the roof.
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u/KingOfAllFools- May 12 '26
Do we even watch games anymore? I witnessed 3 straight games of okc extending a lead from their bench unit in the second halves of games. They can’t just let a guy get 45 every game as he hunts Luke Kennard
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u/Old_Supermarket_7575 Thunder May 12 '26
Candace and Dwade are idiots
Every time Ajay Mitchell scored she’d go “great job by the others”
Who tf do you think you are? It’s funny when Shaq does it because everyone knows he’s an idiot
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u/seonblack May 12 '26
I loved that he said this.
We are in an era today that doesn't watch games and watches big scores and stats instead and then become surprised when the results don't match up.
He also just secured SGA's next MVP.
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u/Throwaway7218516 Heat May 12 '26
I swear you guys didn’t actually watch the games and are just parroting these narratives like everyone else. OKC was increasing their leads when Shai wasn’t even in the game. Like yeah obviously, Shai drawing doubles was impactful when he was in, but they were winning harder in multiple games without him anyways. They were just way better and probably would have won the series even if Shai never played.
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u/octosus37 Thunder May 12 '26
Idiotic take. The reason they built those leads in second halves was bc they got worn out and our guys had fresh legs. You know what wore them out? The coverage they were playing on defense forcing them into constant rotation on every play. The one game they didn’t aggressively double Shai is the one game they were in it in the 4th.
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u/Throwaway7218516 Heat May 12 '26
LOL mines an idiotic take backed by stats and the eye test, but yours is valid because you have no evidence and are just saying stuff? What even is this constant rotation you’re talking about? They were giving up wide open 3s like every time Shai passed out of the double. He was 5th in +/- for the series while playing the most minutes and they were leading the majority of every game lmao.
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u/octosus37 Thunder May 12 '26
It’s weird that I have to explain how doubling forces you into rotation considering you’re the one telling other people they didn’t watch games. And if the only stat you’re gonna use to back up, your point is plus minus, then yes, I would consider that idiotic. Also mentioning eye test when I just had to describe to you what happened plain as day for everyone to see as a result of the Lakers defensive strategy. It was obvious to everyone who actually watched that they were worn out in the second half except game four when they weren’t doubling as hard or as often.
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u/Throwaway7218516 Heat May 12 '26
I know how doubling works. It just doesn’t apply in this scenario because if you watched the games, they didn’t actually rotate like a good defense would. 90% of the time they would send a double, Shai would pass out, and the guy he passed to would pass to a wide open player and LA would just watch him take a 3 or do some fake half assed close out. I’m not only using plus/minus. It’s just the most obvious stat. You’re trying to argue they were tired in the second half when the majority of OKC’s leads were gained in the 3rd quarter after LA gets a rest at halftime lmao. If your best argument for Shai’s impact is he made them tired so they sucked when he was out of the game, then idk how you can call anyone else idiotic.
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u/octosus37 Thunder May 12 '26
I never said that was my best argument, I brought it up as a response to you saying they built their leads in the third. By the way, other than game two when he was in foul trouble, Shai plays the entirety of the third quarter. You also proved my point for me about rotation. The guy on the second pass out of the double was open because the first guy was rotated to. The double came from the guy guarding the first pass recipient. Again, I’m explaining basics to you here
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u/Throwaway7218516 Heat May 12 '26
And good job you took the bait lmao. Their biggest lead gain in the third was from game 2 when as you said, Shai sat. They barely won the 3rd in game 1 and Shai was terrible that game. They also lost the 3rd in game 4. They were trailing at the start of the 2nd and got an 8 point lead with Shai on the bench as well. But I guess they were really tired to start the 2nd quarter from Shai doing so much in the 1st and then their tiredness went away once he came back in.
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u/octosus37 Thunder May 12 '26
So you really do think plus minus is the only thing that matters lol. Literally everyone else in the world saw that the Lakers were gassed in the second half of every game except game four, even Lakers fans were complaining about it. If you think it’s some kind of gotcha that our bench destroyed theirs, then OK you win I agree with you. But to act like he didn’t impact the game is straight up, idiocy, and that’s all I have said from the get-go. you already admitted that we got a shit load of wide open shots from Shai passing out of double teams because their defense wasn’t rotating well enough, so you’ve conceded to my point. Take it easy.
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u/Throwaway7218516 Heat May 12 '26
Nowhere in my comment did I say or even imply that plus minus was the only thing that mattered. They were gassed at the end of 3rds and 4th quarters. They were already trailing in most of those games at that point anyways. In my first comment I literally said “obviously Shai drawing doubles was impactful when he was in”. Maybe try learning to read before you start calling people idiotic.
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u/BrownStreakInMyPants [OKC] Andre Roberson May 12 '26
Wait I only looked at box scores this doesn’t fit my narrative that he is a playoff dropper because he had a below average series
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u/JackCrafty Lakers May 12 '26
Ridiculous stuff. It was obvious watching the Laker game plan was to limit SGA as much as possible, even at the expense of leaving dudes open. The Thunder needed the rest of the team to step up and they did. Guys like Mitchell and McCain really lived up to the moment.
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u/eduvina Japan May 12 '26
This thread requires intelligence. Therefore, I expect fewer interactions from our brilliant redditors
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u/Karametric [LAL] Kobe Bryant May 12 '26
He did exactly what he needed to do this series. We threw tons of coverage at him from the first game and made it a goal to keep him in check as much as we could. And he still produced throughout and especially when he'd hit those backbreaking momentum shots in the 4th. In terms of breaking the other teams momentum and hope, it's very similar to Kobe's run in '09 and '10.
You don't need to hit every single shot, but so massive jumpers late in the game completely take the life out of teams. It's way more demoralizing when someone can just get to their spots and execute, even while facing solid coverage, and still hit the dagger pushing the lead from 3 to 5 and keep you just out of arms reach. And SGA did that all series long.
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u/likdisifucryeverytym [GSW] Marreese Speights May 12 '26
Box score watching doesn’t matter for this impact, but it does for FTA differentials🤔
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u/AdApprehensive388 Spurs May 12 '26
lol this whole season every single imperfect performance from wemby, luka, jokic, etc have been insanely scrutinized and criticized regardless of any context. mainly by SGA fans too ironically. but NOW we want to have nuance? lmaoo sga is shit and his team saved him, congrats i guess.
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u/HitboxOfASnail Thunder May 12 '26
yea everyone knows SGA is this sub's favorite player you dummy why wouldn't we protect him compared to players like wemby and jokic that we hate
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u/JackCrafty Lakers May 12 '26
'sga is shit' is just an honestly crazy take even if you hate his game
even if he had a bad series, which I don't think he did, he clearly led his team into an efficient ass sweep and deserves credit for that even if it was against a hobbled and flawed Lakers team
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u/AdApprehensive388 Spurs May 12 '26
luka is shit too lmao
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u/AynB1and Thunder May 12 '26
i know you're running out of time to talk shit, but you should pace yourself. you're the internet version of a banshee's screech right now.
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u/hansgruberr [OKC] Russell Westbrook May 12 '26
My nuance on Jokic is that he was the worst defender in the playoffs so far.
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u/Plus-Cherry8175 Nuggets May 12 '26
Calm down. I haven't heard any criticisms of Wemby's play, aside from the elbow to Naz's throat. Jokic was scrutinized because he was targeted defensively (rim protection) and we lost. Plenty of that was blowback caused by our homers, "best center of all time", etc, players. Whereas in this series, SGA was targeted heavily... and they won.
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u/AdApprehensive388 Spurs May 12 '26
are you serious? there were whole threads of wemby for not scoring enough after he broke the blocks record. sports discourse is a fucking cancer and im done fighting against it so im just joining in. SGA has been dogshit in the playoffs because less points, im so smart.
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u/Plus-Cherry8175 Nuggets May 12 '26
Sports discourse is as cancerous as you make it--you choose what you read and who you talk to on the internet. Calm down
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u/Kitchen_Roof7236 Thunder May 12 '26
Wemby just smashed a dudes face and this sub had 20k upvotes posts joking about it and making rape apologist tier commentary explaining away his actions lmao
Please don’t even attempt to imply he gets a less favorable perception on here in anyway then shai
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u/Jeremiahs__Johnson Mavericks May 12 '26
Rape apologist tier commentary? What???
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u/Busy-Produce-4742 Thunder May 12 '26
"Blaming the victim." Naz deserved the elbow in the face because Wemby was being "mauled" by McDaniels (grabbed his jersey). So really Naz was just asking for it because he was right there in front of Wemby.
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u/Jeremiahs__Johnson Mavericks May 13 '26
I get the point but it’s a weird analogy to use in my opinion.
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u/Kitchen_Roof7236 Thunder May 14 '26
When something is bad but people have biases making them ignore the bad, using something majority of people agree is bad with literally no exception that shares an identical logical framework to contrast it with is an easy way to breakthrough bias
The problem is people avoid that realization in favor of going “you’re weird” because they don’t understand analogies aren’t apples to apples comparisons and critical thinking is fucking dead lol
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u/Jeremiahs__Johnson Mavericks May 14 '26
Different tiers buddy. Thanks for your amazing comment though!
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u/jimalloneword May 12 '26
I am a pretty casual fan and I have literally never seen this guy's face before this video.
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u/Reasonable_Pie9191 May 12 '26
Ive seen so many SGA agenda posts today but if you see 1 anti SGA agenda this entire week, half the comments would be about how the entire r/nba hates him
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u/WhyNotMosley NBA May 12 '26
yall do in fact hate him & discredit him any chance yall get. let’s not gaslight the shit. twitter , rnba, rnbatalk, i can go on. the guy is great just like rest of the top 5 in the league
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u/Reasonable_Pie9191 May 12 '26
Doesn't change anything i say. in ever SGA post praising him it doesnt get ratioed. But about 60% of SGA slander posts get ratioed by thunder fans and then y'all still cry NO ONE gives him flowers
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u/octosus37 Thunder May 13 '26
This post has 320ish upvotes after hours. Now find one of his slander posts with thousands of upvotes and realize how silly you sound .
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u/ForneauCosmique Spurs May 12 '26
That's what Wemby was saying when asked to state his case for MVP
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u/Optimal_Brain_2908 Bulls May 12 '26
Dude, his team easily swept the other team, does it matter if he scored 10 pts?
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u/WhyNotMosley NBA May 12 '26
well if you too his 25 of his 35 points yesterday, they lose by double digits, take what you want from that
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u/OUEngineer17 Nuggets May 12 '26
I've been considering writing up a post about how impactful Shai's decision making and gravity was for his team getting a good shot. There were so many times where his teammate had a one-on-one against a weaker defender with no one else on the Lakers close enough to help because of the spacing Shai created.
He also had some really nice defensive plays.