Describing SGA as a foul merchant seems extremely disingenuous.

[bbms]

FTA is a foul merchant…nobody is changing that narrative when he created it and people won’t root for someone like him to win

keep hating

we don't care

ask your guys to play better defense and whine more

[MoneyTalks41890]

SGA has a worse free throw rate this season than Harden, Rudy, Giannis, and Trae. He’s comparable to lots of other stars. It’s a silly narrative.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2025_advanced.html

[Rubio9Guy]

SGA has a worse free throw rate this season than Harden, Rudy, Giannis, and Trae. He’s comparable to lots of other stars. It’s a silly narrative.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2025_advanced.html

To be honest, It's kind of crazy that you try and deny it.

[Rubio9Guy]

FTA is a foul merchant…nobody is changing that narrative when he created it and people won’t root for someone like him to win

keep hating

we don't care

ask your guys to play better defense and whine more

If the Wolves try and play defense like your wing defenders do, they will be in the Oklahoma county jail by 9 pm Thursday.

[MoneyTalks41890]

SGA has a worse free throw rate this season than Harden, Rudy, Giannis, and Trae. He’s comparable to lots of other stars. It’s a silly narrative.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2025_advanced.html

To be honest, It's kind of crazy that you try and deny it.

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

[Onus]

This is the discourse for SGA and people seriously want him to be the face of the nba. The nba is not in a good spot moving forward.

[Rubio9Guy]

SGA has a worse free throw rate this season than Harden, Rudy, Giannis, and Trae. He’s comparable to lots of other stars. It’s a silly narrative.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2025_advanced.html

To be honest, It's kind of crazy that you try and deny it.

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

You compared Giannis to SGA. One guy takes over half of his shots at the rim and the other lives in the mid-range.

Get out of here with that "evidence"

[Rubio9Guy]

[Optms]

Never understood the criticism here. He doesn't even get to the line as much as the critics suggest. You would think the guy is averaging 10+ FTA per game (something all the great perimeter stars avg at one point) but 8? Something doesn't add up here. He isn't even the league leader. Probably just haters.

[Chanel Bomber]

SGA has a worse free throw rate this season than Harden, Rudy, Giannis, and Trae. He’s comparable to lots of other stars. It’s a silly narrative.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2025_advanced.html

To be honest, It's kind of crazy that you try and deny it.

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.

[Bergmaniac]

11/14 Free throws game 1

If that's not a free-throw merchant I don't know what is.

So every player who has ever shot 14 FTs in a playoff game is a foul merchant?

There is a good argument that SGA is exactly that, but just showing his FT attempts in one game which aren't even that out of the ordinary is not a proof of this at all.

[walk with me]

I’m not liking how they try to paint SGA to be like harden (shooting layups under his opponents arms).

SGA is extremely slippery, has insanely good footwork, and has really good ball handling. The way nba rules are designed benefits the offense since the defense can’t really be physical with the offense. SGA is super crafty and his skill makes it next to impossible to stay in front of him. If you decide to continue to pursue him while out of position, you deserve the foul call.

I can’t speak on the reg season cause I didn’t watch okc much but SGA is a BEAST on offense.

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.

[walk with me]

He’s good but its no different from Harden, DWade, Luka

Very different.

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/AbmU3A1soA8 Many of hardens foul draws are like this. SGA does do this. Neither does Dwade.

Dwade does the pump fake then jump into you thing. Harden, Embiid and Tatum are in their own worlds.

SGA and Luka are different players

This is why you are posting on an internet forum and not sitting next to a coach making the big bucks.

If you truly believe the Twolves lost because of SGA's FTs despite them winning even if he attempts zero FTs, then we are looking at an easy sweep.

Keep up with the copium. OKC fans thank you.

Did you mean to quote me lol ? I started this thread.

I’m enjoying watching okc and don’t think SGA is a foul merchant at all. Okc has the most impressive defense I’ve ever witnessed in nba history. People are missing out on something really special.

[walk with me]

SGA is slippery and changes direction constantly when driving, he used to be known for his euro and now defenders play him close, when he changes he gets bumped and fouled. If you don't defend SGA like this then he scores at a very high clip on drives. It's a tough cover.

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.

[walk with me]

Never understood the criticism here. He doesn't even get to the line as much as the critics suggest. You would think the guy is averaging 10+ FTA per game (something all the great perimeter stars avg at one point) but 8? Something doesn't add up here. He isn't even the league leader. Probably just haters.

Exactly… it’s honestly one of the weirder narratives I’ve seen in recent memory. I don’t know if it’s jokic fans trying to diminish SGAs season or what but I don’t understand it.

I’d think his FTA per game low considering him and Jalen are the only people capable of shot creation on the team. Dame averaged 2 less FTAs than SGA while playing with giannis who has the most FTA per game in the nba this season.

The way people talk abt SGA you’d think he’s shooting 15 FTA per game or something

[Rubio9Guy]

I’m not liking how they try to paint SGA to be like harden (shooting layups under his opponents arms).

SGA is extremely slippery, has insanely good footwork, and has really good ball handling. The way nba rules are designed benefits the offense since the defense can’t really be physical with the offense. SGA is super crafty and his skill makes it next to impossible to stay in front of him. If you decide to continue to pursue him while out of position, you deserve the foul call.

I can’t speak on the reg season cause I didn’t watch okc much but SGA is a BEAST on offense.

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.

[Alatan]

His playstyle is Harden-ic and Embiiid-ish; of course it’s frowned upon and even hated.

The good news (for the entire NBA fandom) so far is that both those guys are career losers. Those same playstyles are what has stopped them from going deep into the playoffs and win the title.

An SGA championship will validate that playstyle and of course, the NBA fans does not want that because validation means replication in this copycat league.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What happens if OKC wins with SGA playing like this?
Will everyone start charging and flailing then? Will the NBA be watchable?

[Mr Peanut]

People who are using "he doesn't shoot as many FTs as this guy" defense are missing the point. It's not the volume of FTs (which is still high). It's the method in which he draws them.

Most neutral fans aren't interested in seeing a guy clearly flail about with no actual intention of attempting a genuine shot and make non-basketball moves to get to the FT line. OKC fans understandably are fine with it because it leads to points and their team winning. But every other fan is more likely to change the channel.

[jbk1234]

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/the-real-problem-with-shai-gilgeous-alexanders-foul-baiting-is-that-it-works/

[MoneyTalks41890]

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/the-real-problem-with-shai-gilgeous-alexanders-foul-baiting-is-that-it-works/

The article offers two video examples.

On the first he legit just fell trying to get too fancy. Nothing about that was a flop.

On the second, that’s a foul every time and he made the bucket. Look at it from the baseline. That doesn’t fit the narrative the article is trying to push at all. Lot of hot air.