You watch any of them games OKC dropped and you’ll notice an extra 5-10 FTAs probably give them the W.

Edit: this is supposed to be a joke BUT…since that game the thunder average about 6 fewer FTAs per game which would have given them some wins in that period.

Discuss.

How is he supposed to do anything? He has already sacrificed himself.

Only if the ref is a horse. Or a centaur.

Who’s to say he was even talking about the refs? Maybe he was implying that the way Deni gallops around the court is his advantage

We’re about to find out.

Not if you have the Z-word pass

No he’s really talking about that Kobe system commercial with Kanye. He’s saying that dude is a different beast, but the same animal. He’s saying he’s playing like a zebra. Fast, getting low and eating grass, zigzagging through lanes. So what makes him so hard to guard? zebras.

Only if they can prove that he’s referring to the refs, which I don’t think they can lol.

Yeah this should be part of every team’s media training toolkit for players. Whenever they think the refs fucked them over, they simply say “them zebras, man” and move on to the next question.

Maybe make it so that if the offensive player initiates the contact while the defender is in a legal guarding position (ie, stationary (or jumping vertically) between the offensive player and the basket), the defender doesn’t have to keep their hands completely vertical and arm to arm contact after the original contact is deemed marginal.

ORRR. Just do what the rule was in the NBA for several decades before changing its interpretation for no reason. Offensive players raming into the defense used to be called.. you konw… Offensive Foul… because its an offense fouling the defense.

Somehow, that concept has completely disappeared

They also need to actually enforce push-offs, they are SO common on driving offensive players.

SGA is obviously the popular culprit but it’s everywhere in the league

You cannot really criticize Giannis or Deni for driving through contact… It’s not them who award themselves freethrows. What you can ctiticize is playstyles that are specifically tailored to get FTs or and-1s e.g. jumping with a shot motion at the defender once they’re in the air or moving.

Thunder flair posting this is quite funny ngl. You’re right about giannis and deni initiating contact but truly no one has a better push off that is never called than sga, so this would very much hurt him/ your team.

Be Scottie Barnes seems to be the solution to not getting calls in the paint.

Pistons last 2 game with the trailblazers featured 150 free throw attempts.

Shit is cancer for my eyeballs.

People will say this but won’t actually post the videos because when they do pretty much all of them are obvious fouls

Yeah. Seems like every shot he took within the paint was and1. And dude was making them too

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Dude beats his man to the spot and bc hes faster and or stronger than the defender they have no option but to reach and hold

Idk when people are going to start realizing hes alot more like Giannis with his fouls than he is like harden or sga

Reminds me of a famous Rocket that’s commonly used as the role model in this context.

He’s like a Harden but he actually just gets hammered inside every time. You think guys would stop fouling him so much

Same bro was I like are they putting his minutes into PPG?

I had to go on google and verify those numbers because I haven’t seen anyone talk about how efficient this G.O.A.T. is.

I think it was “when in the starting lineup”, still impressive

I didn’t catch the entire game but all the fouls I saw seemed legit. Tari also complained about one of the And1s in the fourth quarter where he clearly hit Deni’s forearm on the shot.

It’s really easy to tell the people that watch the blazers and the people that don’t. He’s the 2nd most doubled player in the league and has very little shooting options on the wing. Him driving and going up for a shot or kicking it out to the perimeter is literally the only offense the blazers can generate.

Is he great at drawing fouls? Yes. Want to call him a foul-baiter, sure it’s a part of his game.

But those in this thread calling him a flopper or saying he doesn’t look to score don’t stay up until 1am est to watch the blazers play.

dude is beautiful to watch, this sub is pathetic.

Yeah he shoots a pretty crazy amount of FTs but he also is a very high usage guy this season and plays SUPER physical offence. And sure, he sells contact, but who doesn’t?

Thanks… for sure we’ve been on the winning side of some BS officiating (Sacramento game comes to mind) but I just don’t think most people in this thread actually watched the game last night. And fair enough because it was the late game and nobody watches the blazers but still lol

And they only have 2 legs. 

Well sure they wear grey, but they cant call them the elephant in the room either since that phrase is reserved for all the gambling and money laundering associated with the league these days. 

Hey, someone who actually watches the games!

If you’re meeting the defender in the chest half the time that’s not blowing by.

Nah, I’ve seen him get a good amount off him smacking a dude in legal guarding position in the chest with his shoulder, which collapses them and makes their arms come down from vertical, and that earns him the call. That shit is as annoying to watch as the chicken wing pushoff and they both should be called as offensive fouls.

Seriously this is out of hand. Those whistles should be reserved for push off merchants like Tatum in Boston and Luka in LA. But it ain’t no fun for folks when the rabbit has the gun.

ah i love it when we okc fans are still eligible for this excuse

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When the Pistons played them recently it was kinda crazy the calls he was getting. He managed to get three fouls on Ausar Thompson in less minutes and all of them seemed to be incredibly ticky tac

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Yea, that low pickup left to right is crazy good. Some of his whistle is pretty egregious but that one is legit. It’s just a fuckin awesome move.

His playstyle is basically discount Giannis so the people who have been bitching about Giannis for the last 5 years have unlimited ammunition against Deni.

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And nobody talking about rebounds. If i remember correctly the Rockets out rebounded the Blazers, especially at the offensive end, in one sequence got 4 offensive rebounds in a row, didn’t score, the Blazers went to the other end and scored a 3. I guess that’s the refs fault too.

And there were a lot quite questionable calls which went in Rockets direction…

Rockets lost because they went 20% from 3. If they even shot slightly below average this might have been a blowout. Blaming the refs is a copout. 

You should see their sub, just grown men having baby tantrums

Yeah Deni is different than the guys who just barrel into the defender and then scream and throw their arms up while falling down.  Deni drives and changes direction and stretches around defenders, which often results in the defender reaching and grabbing.  But Deni is so good at this that he does get the benefit of the doubt on a few calls here and there.  But most of the fouls are actually fouls.  I can understand how this is frustrating for fans of other teams.

I love that the majority of the non-Blazer fans defending Deni here are Rockets fans. You know, the other group that are likely to have actually watched the game.

No, buts that because it wouldn’t be socially acceptable to hate any other player for their ethnicity or nationality.

People on this sub are fine with discrimination as long as their social circle says an ethnic or national group is bad

No. Because Reddit hivemind is basically free palestine now

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Seriously lol this is about the lamest post game quote I could imagine. Dude gets cooked and gave up a career night to Deni and couldn’t even give an ounce of credit, all excuses. What a loser lol.

I actually remember at one point in the first quarter after Deni had blown by and scored on him like fourth time I thought to myself “Man this Tari dude looks like complete ass. Getting absolutely flame broiled on D and can’t make a wide open 3 to save his life”

Dude is mad because his whole game just got exposed when his team desperately needed anything from him. That’s why he is acting like an 8 year old in this interview.

You love to see it. Can’t wait to see their reaction when we clap their bitch ass cheeks without a point guard tomorrow night too.

Dude I had to fact check because I was so confused lmfao. He’s averaging 12 PPG for the season, the graphic is showing his MPG (twice) instead of PPG.

Most certainly is not. I don’t think he’s reached 24 in a game all year haha

Look at half the comments on here. He’s legit getting hated cause he’s Israeli that’s wild lmao

This post was posted at like 6am pst, everyone commenting on here didn’t stay up until midnight est to watch the blazers of all teams lmao. The original clip of this vid posted here has like 30 upvotes from last night.

Just like all the other Deni free throw posts from this user, it’s all in the early hours of the EST where box score watchers get the most angry.

I’d actually say his style of drawing fouls is closer to Giannis than Shai. Giannis is more of a bulldoze to the hoop guy, Shai is a get you in the air guy.

Deni leads the nba in drives per game. (754)

The next closest is SGA with 650ish

Can’t say it any more eloquently than that. A tall, fast, skilled ball handler in the paint has an innate advantage at generating calls in todays nba due to the ability to finish (or pass) through contact vs smaller/weaker players and worse ball handling bigs.

Should the shoulder/ball swipe through that brushes a defender into a backing motion result in the offensive player getting a call? No probably not. Is Deni the only one to benefit from this? No he is not.

He just spams the drive because the blazers have 7 offensive options out to injury right now.

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