First 50 point game goes to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Best player in the world

[Yes or No]

You just don't know how to read. Please quote anyone who said he doesn't foul bait. You cant.

We just think people focusing on his foul grifting are exaggerating. He isnt as bad as other some other guys.

You are a ****ing moron.

[tontoz]

You are a ****ing moron.

How so? Do you have the quote where someone said SGA doesn't bait the refs, or did you just pull that out of your ass?

[Proctor]

The amount of retards in this thread that think that SGA doesn't foul bait is alarming. How does society even function with these people? Holy shit.

I'm not talking about the occasional flop. Unfortunately pretty much every player does that.

I'm talking about the fact that it is a quintessential part of his game.

I'm talking about the fact that he will actively hunt a foul and decide for the ref rather than try to make a difficult play and let the ref decide.

He is a dishonest player and so are the people in this thread that claim he isn't or they're retarded. No in between.

It's part of their dishonesty cycle. Same thing that happened with Harden before everyone came crashing back down to earth.

Offensively, SGA is an efficient scorer who flops and manipulates like a bitch and who the refs award an insanely bloated amount of FTs to. Sure fire way to make someone who would otherwise be a 23-26 PPG guy into a perennial 50 point threat. How many ****ing 40 point games does this guy drop where he has 24 FTAs? And yes, he is absolutely hunting for fouls and making lame and indecisive offensive moves because he knows the refs are going to blow the whistle anyway (not even trying to score), with an egregious dose of it in closing time. We saw it opening night in the 2OT game.

The NBA likes the Thunder because they're organically grown and SGA is becoming a gay icon. Refs play their part, and casuals in return think SGA is some Jordan-esque scoring god.

[Yes or No]

It's part of their dishonesty cycle. Same thing that happened with Harden before everyone came crashing back down to earth.

Offensively, SGA is an efficient scorer who flops and manipulates like a bitch and who the refs award an insanely bloated amount of FTs to. Sure fire way to make someone who would otherwise be a 23-26 PPG guy into a perennial 50 point threat. How many ****ing 40 point games does this guy drop where he has 24 FTAs? And yes, he is absolutely hunting for fouls and making lame and indecisive offensive moves because he knows the refs are going to blow the whistle anyway (not even trying to score), with an egregious dose of it in closing time. We saw it opening night in the 2OT game.

The NBA likes the Thunder because they're organically grown and SGA is becoming a gay icon. Refs play their part, and casuals in return think SGA is some Jordan-esque scoring god.

100% spot on.

How so? Do you have the quote where someone said SGA doesn't bait the refs, or did you just pull that out of your ass?

I'm not reading the thread for you.

[tontoz]

100% spot on.



I'm not reading the thread for you.

Apparently you didn't read it for yourself either.

[ImKobe]

It's part of their dishonesty cycle. Same thing that happened with Harden before everyone came crashing back down to earth.

Offensively, SGA is an efficient scorer who flops and manipulates like a bitch and who the refs award an insanely bloated amount of FTs to. Sure fire way to make someone who would otherwise be a 23-26 PPG guy into a perennial 50 point threat. How many ****ing 40 point games does this guy drop where he has 24 FTAs? And yes, he is absolutely hunting for fouls and making lame and indecisive offensive moves because he knows the refs are going to blow the whistle anyway (not even trying to score), with an egregious dose of it in closing time. We saw it opening night in the 2OT game.

The NBA likes the Thunder because they're organically grown and SGA is becoming a gay icon. Refs play their part, and casuals in return think SGA is some Jordan-esque scoring god.

You're comparing SGA to Harden. Really? Look at Harden's numbers. He led the league in FTA 7x in an 8-year stretch and his Free Throw Rate was 53% for that period. SGA has never led the league in FTA. He had that one odd season ('23) of averaging over 10 FTA on a bad team but hasn't even averaged 9 since. I think you're being a bit dishonest here. SGA last year shot under 10 FTA in most of his games and barely had any 40-pt games to begin with. He's just a great player but people have a hate boner for him because they don't like OKC and they find SGA's game boring. SGA's modeled a lot of his game after Kobe (Kobe is his favorite player ever), some of his moves are damn near identical to Bean's.

[ShawkFactory]

It's part of their dishonesty cycle. Same thing that happened with Harden before everyone came crashing back down to earth.

Offensively, SGA is an efficient scorer who flops and manipulates like a bitch and who the refs award an insanely bloated amount of FTs to. Sure fire way to make someone who would otherwise be a 23-26 PPG guy into a perennial 50 point threat. How many ****ing 40 point games does this guy drop where he has 24 FTAs? And yes, he is absolutely hunting for fouls and making lame and indecisive offensive moves because he knows the refs are going to blow the whistle anyway (not even trying to score), with an egregious dose of it in closing time. We saw it opening night in the 2OT game.

The NBA likes the Thunder because they're organically grown and SGA is becoming a gay icon. Refs play their part, and casuals in return think SGA is some Jordan-esque scoring god.

Yea guys are just mad at him for some reason

I don't really get it because he seems like a good dude who is well-liked by teammates and he's not a diva at all.

someone who would otherwise be a 23-26 PPG

This in particular is wild. He scored 25ppg on made baskets last year. You think he should be a 1.5-2.0 FTA per game kinda guy?

the refs award an insanely bloated amount of FTs to

8.8 FTA last year. 8 point fvcking 8.

Not an insane number at all

Some people just see what they want to see.

[Proctor]

His averages, while very high (say the 8.8) are nothing mindblowing, you can't breathe on the guy in the 4th quarter. This is a cheat code for any semi-lethal, big name scorer with ref respect. I have seen plenty of his games playoff and regular season (it is not a small sample size), the bullshit calls are egregious late in games. Rivaled only by, yes, prime Harden, who could fall over like an idiot in the 4th, feign or initiate his own contact and they'd whistle him to the line for 3. Same for SGA, just not really with 3s.

If you look at stats and put on a certain pair of goggles I can see why you could look at this and say "meh, it's not that bad." If you're actually watching SGA closely game after game (when and where it matters most) and what he is doing with his arms and body it isn't that much of a different animal than Harden...just a different methodology.

Great player, great footwork, sure maybe a decent guy (I threw the gay part in there as a joke because it's obvious that he is and maybe several others on his team as well), but it's very obvious he's enjoying the marketability and success that comes with pairing being a proficient scorer and a master foul manufacturer.

If there is a "hate boner" for SGA and OKC it's because they push the limits of the refs will call on the defensive end, WHILE having a "superstar" getting the softest, stupidest, incidental contact calls on the offensive end. WNBA type calls. You can't have both things be true. Or you can, and you get a team that blows the hell out of everyone like OKC did last year. Surprise!

I dislike the trash reffing that permits it, and I dislike the player that brings it to the table. Once Harden fizzled out people started to accept how very lame it all was.

[tontoz]

If there is a "hate boner" for SGA and OKC it's because they push the limits of the refs will call on the defensive end, WHILE having a "superstar" getting the softest, stupidest, incidental contact calls on the offensive end. WNBA type calls.

That isn't what is happening. OKC is very physical on off ball defense and on ball defense before the shot. When a guy goes into his shot that is when they back off, but by that time the guy is already flustered much of the time.

The vast majority of cheap calls happen when a guy is shooting, or getting ready to shoot.

[warriorfan]

SGay is a nice player but he gets absurd whistle and detracts from his game, at least the appreciation of it. NBA doesn’t realize they are cheapening their product and selling their talent short by gifting them all this shit that isn’t really necessary. Yes we are obsessed with numbers and bigger equals better in a fundamentally flawed outlook but still it ends up shooting themselves in the foot. We would appreciate SGay on 25 ppg with out the absurd whistle and him having to earn more buckets than him pulling 30+ with the equivalent of bumpers on in bowling.

[tpols]

And Doncic had a much higher Free Throw Rate on the Lakers than SGA did for last year, smaller sample size but he was also out of shape and sharing the offense with Lebron and Reaves.

Lebron in his prime years also had a similar FTr, actually higher in most of his prime/peak years than SGA did last year. Lebron's Playoff FTr career average is higher than SGA's Regular Season FTr was last year.

SGA isn't anywhere near as bad as prime/peak Embiid or Harden when it comes to foul baiting, he just does it very efficiently so people get pissed about it.

Lebron had years where his flopping was just as bad or worse than SGA. Notably 2011-2016. And its even worse because SGA is skinny and kinda weak but Lebron was built like Super Man and still playing like a ho.

[warriorfan]

Lebron had years where his flopping was just as bad or worse than SGA. Notably 2011-2016. And its even worse because SGA is skinny and kinda weak but Lebron was built like Super Man and still playing like a ho.

Crab dribble to him propelling himself off guys who weight 25+ pounds less lmao. Shit was absurd

[ShawkFactory]

I understand why people would be frustrated with the whistle SGA gets. Totally.

I just take issue when some people insinuate that that's all he has as a player and that he wouldn't be all that effective otherwise. If anything he doesn't need a whistle like that to be effective, which I can see is a problem.

[Yes or No]

SGay is a nice player but he gets absurd whistle and detracts from his game, at least the appreciation of it. NBA doesn’t realize they are cheapening their product and selling their talent short by gifting them all this shit that isn’t really necessary. Yes we are obsessed with numbers and bigger equals better in a fundamentally flawed outlook but still it ends up shooting themselves in the foot. We would appreciate SGay on 25 ppg with out the absurd whistle and him having to earn more buckets than him pulling 30+ with the equivalent of bumpers on in bowling.

Yep

[Proctor]

I understand why people would be frustrated with the whistle SGA gets. Totally.

I just take issue when some people insinuate that that's all he has as a player and that he wouldn't be all that effective otherwise. If anything he doesn't need a whistle like that to be effective, which I can see is a problem.

He doesn't need it at all. He's a very nice player who's favorable whistle takes him just enough up the ladder that somehow people think he's the best player in the league, which is laughable. Just flat out not true.

Again, he doesn't need it, and that's what makes it worse. If this was Michael Kidd-Gilchrist out there hooking guys, strong arm discharging and baiting refs any way known to man, I could at least rationalize that as a player trying to be relevant and do something to keep himself in the league. Like a Dellavedova diving on the floor and taking players legs out with him. Annoying, but at least it makes some sense.

Instead, we have a really good player supplementing his game with extreme douchebaggery, making a mockery of the game and catapulting himself in the eyes of casuals to "best player in the league" contender status while the NBA tries to ram him and his team down our throats. And then the next guy wants to do the same thing, and then the guy after that, and the guy after that, and then you have a completely garbage product.