rewind the clock a few years and try to tell a Mavs fan Brunson and Luka will be on the same court but for different teams and neither of those teams would be Dallas, they'd have an aneurysm.
He has not, Giannis has. He has made the most in the league. He also leads the league in drives per game and points off field goals. On a free throw attempts per drive basis he's like 6th in the league, I believe Ja gets to the line at a higher rate per drive. The Thunder are 28th in free throw attempts, which is not a stat that typically tracks with actual free throw merchants. Mad because bad.
Is that the 2025 version of “everyone kills people, murders people, steals from you, steals from me” ?
It is indeed. I think he's a long way off from peak Harden or pre rule change Trae Young. But I understand you need to uplift Jokic's MVP candidacy, so do what you're gonna do.
shai cant be a foul-baiter because the rest of the thunder dont shoot fts is royce young tier poppycock
I apologize for starting these appalling free throw merchant rumors....my whisper campaign has grown out of control and isn't based on people watching games.
Maybe. Probably. But people just don't watch games. He's taken over 1300 field goal attempts this year and there's only one other player in the league over 1200 (Anthony Edwards). He's more than 2 drives per game higher than second place at that stat (Jalen Brunson). He's also durable, is top 10 in the league in minutes played. So that's a shitload of drives into the heart of the defense. For how relentlessly Shai gets to the rim, his current free throw rate is absolutely defensible and is not the result of James Harden esque unethical play. Giannis gets to the line at a much higher rate and you never hear him called a free throw merchant.
Being a free throw merchant isn't just about doing Trae Young things or how often you drive to the basket. Drawing fouls is a skill that SGA possesses and uses to his advantage. I'm not sure what the point of trying to fight that is. Giannis is also a free throw merchant. He just runs full speed into people and gets a ton of calls.
Free throw merchant to me does imply Trae Young or James Harden things. And I do not see any egregious rule bending from SGA the way those two gentlemen display.
Shai is averaging 9.0 free throw attempts per game. That ranks second in the league. Third place is averaging 7.2. He's not getting all those just because he drives all the time and gives people no choice but to foul him. Drawing fouls is a skill that he is really good at and always has been. He's averaged as many as 10.7 per game two years ago when they were calling more stuff. I like Shai. He's awesome. I'm just not sure why you would get this worked up about this.
nah Wade didn't do what Jimmy did. Jimmy would literally bull his way into people creating a situation where there was clear contact in an attempt to actually score and refs would have to make a call even if it was on Jimmy at times. Like MG said you don't have to be Trae, Harden, or Embid flopping around all over the place to be a FT merchant. It's a skill that some players posses.
Early career Wade is a good comp for Shai when it comes to FTs. And early career Wade was really annoying if your team was playing against him because he got a ton of calls.
Agreed. My point about late career Wade was he was more of the Harden version that everyone hated. Jumping into vertical defenders on shots 12 feet from the paint to draw fouls.
Austin Reaves is the most annoying FT merchant for me to watch , he has perfected the sniper head snap
100% but idk if you can put him in the conversation with the other guys since he doesn’t get the superstar whistle
Yeah Steph really gets NO whistle at all man. It’s infuriating but they have to try to keep the games fair I get it. Since Jimmy came over it’s been getting much better. Worst to first in lots of league wide FT stats since the trade.