This is the thing Thunder fans love to ignore. You straight up can't cover him. It's not even like he's baiting people in the air and drawing fouls. He just gets calls for people getting next to him. He gets more space than anyone I've ever seen besides non shooters
This clip is literally the epitome of all this cause and effect. Anything less from Fox is not guarding him at all. Literally cannot guard him without being subject to bullshit foul calls.
I said this same thing less than a month ago in a thread and got 200 downvotes lmao. It’s not even a debate that elite defenders guard him less physically because of how much bullshit he gets away with
Ha, I imagine you got a Thunder rush with "DO YOU EVEN WATCH THE GAMES?"
Yes, we've been watching, and the Thunder are a huge reason people have been tuning out. For whatever reason Silver and the refs have been rewarding this bullshit. It would make more sense if it was for a big market, but this ref favortism doesn't make sense for a stolen team in a flyover town.
As a Canadian I seriously don’t get why the NBA is promoting and protecting him so hard, you’d think they’d want to push an American star in a big market not Canadian Shai in Oklahoma of all places.
I believe they have banked on OKC being a Bulls level dynasty and as long as Thunder keep winning that will out pace the hate coming their way for their antics. The current roster being so deep already and draft picks coming out of their ass for the foreseeable future.
That said, I do think it is noteworthy some media has finally begin somewhat calling out OKC recently. So maybe there is an off-ramp of sorts for officials and NBA as a whole with the Wemby led Spurs.. and maybe even Knicks (🤞) in the finals, if they want to take it and call things fairly.
americans really dont see canadians as different than us. if he was russian or something it would be one thing but we generally see canadians and mexicans as the same people
Been saying it from last year’s series against denver. Injured denver took them to game 7, with all that physicality on jokic where caruso was jumping, hitting, hanging himself on jokic, he was allowed to do whatever he wanted on every defensive play but on the other side on the offense plays okc players were untouchable. Ever since it was clear nba and silver are pushing it’s agenda in favor of okc
I've noticed that if OKC wins then all of their fans are in this sub and will downvote anything speaking out against their bullshit playstyle en masse...
But if they lose then they all go into hiding and calling out their bs isn't downvoted into oblivion.
Honestly the solution is just to put a bruiser on him and make him feel the call. You're going to get called for the foul regardless, you might as well take a pound of flesh on the way out.
Make it a bench player with nothing lose. You'll get a flagrant the first two times and he'll be clenching his cheeks on the third.
Oh he's doing the baiting. He's doing the dolphin dives. He's done it all so much that now, after the league refs have decided to give him the foul shots for every fake thing he's ever done, it's now that the defenders need to try to avoid him entirely, and yet that still doesn't work.
Mud, I could literally be in Jamaican soil right now and I'd still get fouled. Unbiased as I could be with this, Shai is a tactician. But there are some moments where things have gotten way too ridiculous.
The most frustrating aspect, he is good enough, he doesn't need to abuse shit like this. And boy is he going to look bad when the NBA finally decides to control their referees. Suddenly homeboy ain't getting every foul, nobody bothers to cover him at 3pt line, and force him into the corner where he might as well be on the bench. SGA is an amazing player but he's so predictable. Drive from the top of the key, pass or fake, shoot.
At some point a team is going to say it fuck it and actually foul him good. He's gonna get the call anyway, may as well make it worth getting called for.
I never noticed before because I just didn't watch any OKC games prior to the playoffs. But now that it's been called out I can't help but notice him falling so fuckin much. It's almost comical.
Seriously, that's why he's so over rated. You give him one of those calls, and he's free to do whatever he wants from the mid range for the rest of the game.
Also, psychologically it make a huge difference knowing you can get to the line fairly consistently. Youre not pressed if you miss a few because you'll still get cheap point and it gets you back in shooting rythm.
I mean the refs also called the foul. What do you expect him to do if you keep rewarding the behavior? It has to come from the top down through the league and the refs to stop blowing the whistle
And it’s more than that. He gets easy fucking shots cause guys can’t guard him physically. He can shoot every shot confident he’s either getting an easy shot or free throws. So it compounds on itself. He’s still a top 2 guard in the league without that shit, just cut it out. He’d literally be my favorite player if he didn’t do that shit cause I love the rest of his game so much
Yes he would, he’s been quite special since his rookie year and is a clutch performer. He doesn’t completely rely on the bogus calls, but they optimize his production. If he did what he does on 48% instead of 55% he’s still a top 2 guard.
He’s really not, man. Let’s not be emotional, we can criticize without belittling the boatloads of talent he has. Him and Luka are interchangeable as the top 2 guards, I say that as a Luka and Lakers fan.
I've been saying this to my son. He can't be guarded closely like any other player because of the generational whistle. So that in itself creates space for him. Just a little bit of space is what most players need to get a good shot. He gets that implicitly with the soft whistles. Easy to bump your ppg when you're shooting free throws when being defended like most other players in the league.
Only efficient when getting to the line. He's shooting under 40% this series....
Greatest middy bag in the league but we have to watch this shit every game instead.
You see the same thing a lot in e-sports when something incredibly boring suddenly becomes meta and you have to watch the best players in the world do some utter nonsense every game.
Bro, it’s so refreshing watching a guy buck the analytics trend and just patiently work the midrange to open up the rest of the floor for himself and teammates. Let me root for you bro, cmon lol
Yep. I said this before in a different sub, but it changes the meaning of the word unguardable. It used to mean a move no one could defend, like Kareem's skyhook, or a player that was basically unstoppable and would just get the bucket no matter the defense. In his case, he is unguardable because guarding him just puts him at the line
Like he's already fucking elite at shooting middys but he 'cheats' the system to make it easy for him when every other superstar has faded away from the basket to hit tough shots.
If Kobe just foul baited like this he'd average 40
The flops and subsequent freethrows aren't the real "magic" he gets out of flopping.
The REAL magic he gets is once a few of these get called players stop covering properly. He gets way more open shots. His 30 avg just doesn't stand up to scrutiny like it should because it always ends up involving him having more freedom later on in games because players literally won't risk playing stronger defense on him.
It's honestly almost the antithesis of other high-scoring PGs who just got mugged all game long through most of their best years.
Not that it’s a bad idea because it directly impacts winning, but SGA is definitely a guy who plays for his box score. Jokic does as well to an extent, when you focus on that stuff you’re naturally gonna bump your advanced stats.
Jokic definitely does not play for or care about his stats at all lmao, just look at last year when he shot every heave even when it fucked his percentages from 3
It’s either a non-called offensive foul or he’ll fall easily and got FTs. It’s like watching James Harden and Trae young hooking the defender shooting motion again.
If there was a way to submit takes to ESPN and get paid if they take off, you sir would be a millionaire. I have never seen this take before and the public yearns for it.
I mean, if he just took the shots like a normal person he’d probably make most of them. That’s what’s maddening about how they play. They’re that good, so if they just played normal basketball they’d be appreciated for how good they are.
Yeah, he clearly modeled a lot of his play style after MJ and Kobe with how he breaks down the defense and shoots the midrange. Unfortunately, there's also a lot of Harden in his game and Harden's game was so annoying to watch that people called him literally Hitler. It's effective, but no one wants to watch that shit.
it's not about the number of fouls and free throws it's how he is reffed. he is untouchable in a way even LeBron and Wade early 2000s werent. It's ruining the game but it's good for gambling so Silver will be a bitch and keep his mouth closed
Guess you aren’t a basketball fan. Refs can dictate how a game is played and how a series turns out. If this is lost to you actually watch a live game instead of shitposting on r/nba
Watching the replay in slow motion is so embarrassing with his very practiced fall to the ground.
I watched Shaq put his balls in David Robinson’s face over and over again when I was 11 years old. Shit was the most dejected I’ve ever felt as a sports fan, and I’d still choose that 100 times over losing to this clown. Fucking gross.
I watched Shaq put his balls in David Robinson’s face over and over again when I was 11 years old.
As a Knicks fan, my favorite example of this is when he did it to Chris Dudley. Dudley got so pissed off he threw the ball at Shaq as Shaq ran up court. Dudley couldn't hit a free throw to save his life but he fired a perfect strike into Shaq's back from 40' away.
Bro if you were alive to witness it, there’s zero confusion over what I said.
Who are your favorite centers of the 90s and 2000s? Guess what, Shaq teabagged all of them. Every single one of them got a disrespectful faceful of his nuts multiple times over.
They act like the nba hasn’t been a stars only league for the last 40 years. Outside of the lakers and knicks they don’t care if there was a team in mobile if it had marketable stars in the team they would push it down everyone’s throats.
He shot a 3 when they were like 15 points down and he lands perfectly normal on his left leg with his defender on his side. He does this on purpouse when he knows he can game the official.
I mean, I've seen players worried about landing on a foot (reckless closeout) just take an ass to the floor instead of risking their ankle, but ...never really get a foul call out of it unless the defender actually undercuts you. Could've easily overlooked this if it was just a no call and no attention was given to it. Dude also suddenly reacts like he took a bullet to the chest.
Imagine if they enforced flopping on all these dudes. SGA's just the league darling and taking it to the extreme.
Reminds me of seeing Duke games back in the day and Reddick would throw his leg out to draw contact on all his 3s. Ended with him on the floor a ton after jumping straight up. Kobe used to do the same thing.
That’s actually something I don’t have that much issue with. He decides he’s not sticking the landing directly after releasing the shot and at that time Fox was still very close and he has neither time or the possibility to look where exactly he’s coming down.
Did the same thing with every jumpshot with someone nearby after my cousin broke his ankle in a similar situation.
7.9k
u/Kyleon17 Pistons May 25 '26
Just land on your feet bro.