Describing SGA as a foul merchant seems extremely disingenuous.

[Profound23]

Watch on YouTube

Also OKC needs to make a complaint to the NBA/ ESPN.. Dorius Burke can't be name calling a young promising player who's about to win an MVP. Don't be using twitter as an excuse either. Twitter got plenty of words for her boy LeBron but I don't see her quoting those. Hypocrite and classless.

doris is everyone's auntie

no one will complain

Doris is just mad her crush Tatum is out. Time for her to start piling on everyone else because she can't spend 48 minutes praising Tatum anymore.

[jbk1234]

I would turn it off too if my team was getting punked.

Blaming SGAs FTs is nothing more than a convenient excuse your team played horribly.

I'm a Cavs fan. Either let both teams play physical defense, or allow neither team to do so, but games with different rules for different teams aren't particularly entertaining.

Even number of fouls called, Minny shot 30 more threes.

You even admitted you turned off the game.

These blanket statements would have more weight if folks wanted to offer any semblance of proof other than vibes.

There's an absolutely huge body of evidence of SGA using his off arm to clear space and getting touch fouls. I don't work for CBS. I didn't write the article.

[Lo Wang]

I'm a Cavs fan. Either let both teams play physical defense, or allow neither team to do so, but games with different rules for different teams aren't particularly entertaining.

Even number of fouls called, Minny shot 30 more threes.

You even admitted you turned off the game.

These blanket statements would have more weight if folks wanted to offer any semblance of proof other than vibes.

There's an absolutely huge body of evidence of SGA using his off arm to clear space and getting touch fouls. I don't work for CBS. I didn't write the article.

So what?

I can say the same about Luka or Lebron. What's your point bro?

[Profound23]

Of the four teams left, three (Brunson, SGA, Hali) of them have stars that flop and bait fouls. It's weird that SGA is the only one getting the criticism. Ant does it periodically too but the other three listed do it repeatedly. Hali kicks his leg out forward or to the side depending on where his defender is going and gets that call consistently while Brunson throws up circus shots and falls to the ground the entire game. It's the way of the NBA now. Either accept it or stop watching but putting it all on SGA is weird.

Don't even get me start on Joker....dude has become Embiid 2.0 the last three seasons.

[jbk1234]

Even number of fouls called, Minny shot 30 more threes.

You even admitted you turned off the game.

These blanket statements would have more weight if folks wanted to offer any semblance of proof other than vibes.

There's an absolutely huge body of evidence of SGA using his off arm to clear space and getting touch fouls. I don't work for CBS. I didn't write the article.

So what?

I can say the same about Luka or Lebron. What's your point bro?

I've said it three times. That type of basketball isn't particularly entertaining.

[KyRo23]

100000%

I’m confused at what people are watching. SGA is SUPER slippery and shifty. You can’t bump a guy while he’s driving. I don’t understand what people are seeing but this foul merchant stuff is dishonest.

He definitely tries it a lot. When you see him pick the ball up from a couple steps inside the 3pt line on a drive and launch it up, he’s definitely trying it, but the refs sometimes don’t call it. A lot of times they do though. He had a bad one in the first quarter that wasn’t called, thank god

Show me how many possessions he did that in game 1.

I didn’t get to watch the full game unfortunately, but I’ve seen him do it a lot. I don’t think he does it the most in the league either, but he definitely does it which is the point

Harden was much worse in his prime, I think Trae is worse at times as well. Right now, I just see him doing it more than anyone in the playoffs. Even if he doesn’t get 15 FTs a game he is getting the weirdest calls at the moment

[Lo Wang]

There's an absolutely huge body of evidence of SGA using his off arm to clear space and getting touch fouls. I don't work for CBS. I didn't write the article.

So what?

I can say the same about Luka or Lebron. What's your point bro?

I've said it three times. That type of basketball isn't particularly entertaining.

I agree it's hard to watch when you are losing.

[Lo Wang]

Of the four teams left, three (Brunson, SGA, Hali) of them have stars that flop and bait fouls. It's weird that SGA is the only one getting the criticism. Ant does it periodically too but the other three listed do it repeatedly. Hali kicks his leg out forward or to the side depending on where his defender is going and gets that call consistently while Brunson throws up circus shots and falls to the ground the entire game. It's the way of the NBA now. Either accept it or stop watching but putting it all on SGA is weird.

Don't even get me start on Joker....dude has become Embiid 2.0 the last three seasons.

Your name suits you.

[syrus3]

Jokic being a flopper is a load of sh*t! He just got through a series where he was allowed to be mauled by a 6’5 punk.

Meanwhile Shai Flopeous is routinely bailed out by the refs. And it occurred again last night.

The ratings for the Finals are going to be abysmal if folks have to watch him shoot free throws all game.

[Lo Wang]

Jokic being a flopper is a load of sh*t! He just got through a series where he was allowed to be mauled by a 6’5 punk.

Meanwhile Shai Flopeous is routinely bailed out by the refs. And it occurred again in the 3rd quarter last night.

I agree, but I can shape the same narrative about him with short clips.

[syrus3]

I don’t need to see your clips. You can enjoy watching them though.

[dhsilv2]

To be honest, I am not even sure what is a foul anymore. If a big guy makes contact with a small guy with a same force as the small guy making a contact with a big guy, then you will get different results. But should a small guy be rewarded by virtue of being smaller? Should the big guy just take the contact because he is bigger?

This checks. All I know is Towns gets murdered and Brunson gets every call.

Even Steven.

It does and lets all be honest...Brunson is stronger than KAT

I'm only maybe...sorta exaggerating here too.

[Profound23]

Jokic being a flopper is a load of sh*t! He just got through a series where he was allowed to be mauled by a 6’5 punk.

Meanwhile Shai Flopeous is routinely bailed out by the refs. And it occurred again in the 3rd quarter last night.

I agree, but I can shape the same narrative about him with short clips.

No need, Joker is definitely a flopper. It's sad because you would think he would see what happened to Embiid and try to avoid that extra wear-and-tear from falling all over the place.

Joker constantly locks arms with his defenders purposely to receive a call. If he put as much effort into his defense as he does into his foul baiting, Joker would be in the GOAT debate with Lebron/MJ/Kareem instead he is just a big man version of Harden.

[sfernald]

It’s not that he’s getting to the line a lot - good players like him do. It’s the way he’s getting to the line. He gets a whistle like no other. Which is absolutely insane because of how physical guys like Dort play on the other end

It seems pretty clear that they are letting them play physically as in defenders bumping players at the perimeter and such but when players are attacking to score and the defenders are chasing and slapping at their arms from a bad position they call the fouls every time on both sides of the court.

Okc was just much much more aggressive. If Anthony Edward’s drove aggressively as much as Shai I’m sure his ft numbers would be similar. He and the rest of the team settled for contested threes. That was pretty much the game.

[Chanel Bomber]

Right who needs evidence when you have a narrative you want to push

It's not a narrative, it's a reality that some basketball fans do not enjoy watching SGA and that therefore they may decide to pass on watching OKC games. I think everybody would prefer to enjoy watching the product.

As you know, the number free throw attempts is not necessarily indicative of how a game is officiated - it applies both at the team and player level. With SGA, it's not so much about volume as it is about how he manufactures some of these free throws.

How is it a "reality" when "some" people do not like SGA?

Both cannot be logically coherent. It's only your reality homie.

It is a reality that I do not enjoy watching SGA.

I didn't say he was inherently not enjoyable to watch. I just don't enjoy watching him play, and a number of people feel the same way, for reasons that some of them have explained.

There's nothing incoherent about it.

Nobody should be forced to liking SGA's style of play. We all watch him and form our opinions. If you like watching him play, good for you, I'm not trying to convince you not to.

[walk with me]

The two things are not mutually exclusive. Just like Harden was a beast on offense, he was still fishing for fouls in a blatant way, the same way SGA is doing now.

Harden would literally lift his arms underneath the defenders Arms before looking for a shot which forces the refs to call a foul regardless of shot quality.

SGA shot quality BEFORE any of the fouls happen are extremely good shots. The fouls are occurring “as” he’s finding a really good shot attempt. That’s why he’s differnet and it shouldn’t be considered foul baiting. Harden WOULDNT EVEN BE LOOKING FOR REAL FIELD GOAL ATTEMPTS while being fouled.

I just don't get why we have to lie about what he's doing.

He's an incredible player, but he's doing exactly what Harden did. That and one layup, he literally just stepped into McDaniels and fell down. He made up his mind to do that before the shot attempt.

Show me a play for yesterdays game where he raised his arms under his defenders arm while not even looking for an honest and good shot attempt.

[holdenwait]

he's "slippery" alright... man falls mid motion driving to the hoop, expecting a foul to be called, and it does! must be great

[___Rand___]

5th time of this postseason he's shot under 40% in a game tonight in G1 vs MIN.

OKC is 4-1 in those games and the only loss was in OT.

Lot of cushion there.

% good or bad he’s really damn good and doesn’t intentionally look to create fouls without looking to score. He gets fouled while looking for legit scoring opportunities which is good in my book. Tatum, Embiid and harden are guys who I find looking for contact to draw fouls regardless of shot quality.

I think this is the key difference between SGA and foul merchants like Embiid or Harden.

[Blame Rasho]

We need to understanding getting to the free throw line is a skill. People can’t grasp this. People think dunking isn’t a skill, but it really is.

[Sixteen]

it's only a skill if the player is likeable.