[Highlight] A highlight that got glossed over last night: Shai with the Filty crossover and ball control near multiple defenders to get space and hit the shot
Major bag alert
And it’s just pure vibes i feel like
it all felt so improvised and free.
Yeah the thing about Shai is none of it feels “choreographed” if that makes sense. Just feels natural.
He’s a cheat code.
It’s hard to deny that he plays with a freedom that borders on watching someone dance. It’s like he’s feeling a rhythm the rest of us aren’t privy to.
I don’t really care that much anymore but its just funny how people will look you dead in the eye and tell you this guy isn’t fun to watch
It’s bottom of the bag “I gotta say something to hate this guy” material
Right after “this is why viewer numbers are down” gets straight up disproven
I hate this guy for very specific reasons that dont include foul baiting.
Whilst also glazing MJ and Kobe. You’re literally watching him.
i’d say kawhi’s game is more like MJ and Demar game is more like kobe’s. Shai is fun to watch but he gets alot of whistles but so did james harden
MJ factually got more whistles bud.
Btw last year when everyone was crying about his free throws….he averaged the 3rd LEAST amount of free throws for a 30+ PPG season ever, at #74 iirc
Go look at Kobe and MJ’s ft rates during their prime seasons, and look at some of the calls that got them there, it’s a lot of the exact same stuff as Shai
Kobe and MJ both got more whistles than SGA does.
And unlike Kobe he never raped anyone
You think MJ and Kobe didn’t get a fuck ton of free throws? This is exactly what I mean
do you even think before you spew this shit?
Thats cuz mfs really arent fans of basketball. They like their team or their player and thats about it. For people that actually enjoy the sport as a whole, its a treat to watch talented players like SGA. Being that surgical with the ball is extremely satisfying to watch
I think there needs to be a technical term for these type of fans. People who like a sport because of a specific player and not because of the genuine interest of the sport.
We’re watching historic basketball right now and SGA is a straight mid-range sniper with insane athleticism and ball-handling.
I’d love to see an honest poll (impossible) for how often r/nba posters watch games outside of their favorite team.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with just watching your team though. 82 games a season is a lot.
The problem is making dumbass claims about players you barely watch.
Wolves are the only team I don’t really watch bc I just like ball, but watching the Wolves I get too emotionally invested
Sometimes he’s fun to watch, sometimes he’s not. Most of time he is though
nah the real thing is none of yall watch the games anyway
I mean we do when yall play us.
Sometimes it’s okay to not like something. We’re all entitled to an opinion. This? He’s technically skilled and insane and easily one of the best players in the league. Gets to his spots, impossible to guard middie.
But because he’s great he draws greater scrutiny.
Steph? Moving screens. LeBron? Flopper/not a clutch winner early in his career Dirk? soft Tatum? Shark and soft Brunson? Too big of head too ball dominant Shai? Forearm and faces he makes when doing the same thing every other player does in the league Harden? Travelling step back Luka? Slow and fat Embiid? Barely plays not that good Giannis? Fluke season
Dude the list goes on. The more people talk shit you gotta just learn to take it as a compliment
It’s funny to me how upset OKC fans get when people hate on Shai. I hate every fuckin’ guy who plays good against the Thunder. It’s normal, especially since Shai dog walks and devours opponents on a regular basis. I would be infuriated to have my team have to play against him. That’s what makes him incredible lol
Yep. Like dawg, you think we don’t get tired of hearing “moving screens”
Yall need to starting bringing up what shai DOESNT get. Like Steph’s and jokic’s whistle, or Jaylen’s hairline.
Shai actually gets called for a lot of BS fouls on defense…
we watch games. just seen him do stuff like this alot, that’s all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2ggqrAgIxk obvously he’s an amazing player though. just acknowledging one side is lame
I watched 15 seconds, the 2nd clip is literally Mobley clearly fouling him on the right arm. I closed the window. yall people will believe anything
watch the slow mo. SGA hooks mobley’s arm. theres a reason why you only watched 15 seconds and closed the window lol. It’s ok to be willfully ignorant. You’re a fan. But just be honest about it
I watched it. Mobley got caught with his hand out, that’s pretty classic punishing bad defense. It happened to chet last night against jokic.
You cannot be serious lmao
A compilation full of reach in fouls which have been taken advantage of by offensive players for 40 years?
He’s awesome to watch when he’s not just flailing in the general direction of the hoop the moment he feels contact on a drive
I mean there’s plenty of clips that go the other direction too, but nobody should be doubting his talent
“clips”……point proven. Watch an actual game nephew
Yeah the point is that a clip can show anything. Gotta watch games
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Do you think Jokic is fun to watch bc he’s done that more than any player not named Luka since the playoffs started last year
You tried.
Why do I see this guy trolling under every single Thunder related post here
You think he has anything better to do?
Nobody should be taking u/nbaistheworst seriously in a discussion about the nba tbh
Agreed. Don’t think I’ve seen SGA flop a single time this season tbh.
Must not watch many games.
You do know there’s a distinct difference between a flop and baiting for a foul right? At least people saying bait are accurate.
☝️🤓
You know what’s funny? Someone DID get a technical for flopping this season. I think he was on the spurs actually. What was his name again? Wendy? Wembley?
I dont like when he does it either lmao. Nice try but I dont slob on it like thunder fans do.
I’ve watched every game this season. Ethical basketball always prevails
I can’t tell if that’s intended as sarcasm, but it certainly should be.
I had a hilariously defensive Thunder fan tell me a few minutes ago that “SGA falls on his jumpshots and layups as a way to preserve his ankles.”
LMAO !
Alexa, tell me why Steph Curry is always falling down on his shots? Alexa, tell me, do other players do the same thing for the same reason?
I don’t think these people can jump more than 6 inches off the ground so they’re not worried about potential impact injuries.
Spurs fans say that Wemby practices falling down to save his knees and ankles.
I got downvoted significantly for mocking that.
Some of the times, yes. Sometimes it’s flopping.
It’s pretty basic physics. You are dispersing the impact across your body instead of just the ankles.
Wemby shoots 5.3 ftas/gm career. SGA on the thunder is at 8.1 ftas/gm.
Wemby is shooting 8.8 fta per 36 minutes this season.
SGA is shooting 10.0 fta per 36 minutes this season.
Looks like the refs rewarding floppers like SGA have made Wemby decide to join the flop for calls concept like Jokic did in the playoffs last year.
How is this a response to what I said?
Low-Effort, Misleading, or Redundant Content. Please review the rules - https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/wiki/rules
Dang
Yeah that was filthy. He’s like a more fluid Kawhi on offense, the way he just gets to his spots
Sometimes I winder what prime Kawhi would look like without the injuries.
We saw it when he won a ring with Toronto
This was right after Chet got postered too. Insane crowd silencer
the chet clip was posted here and did numbers. nephews who get all their basketball opinions from reddit don’t even know what they don’t know
grown man crying about upvote counts
He did really well handling double and triple teams all night.
I remember when he would get clamped down by them. Now he seems to still break through a good amount of the time. Soon we’ll start seeing quadruple teams 🤣
His handles are underrated
NBA fandom seems to judge handles based on who has the coolest dribble highlights, rather than by the competitive criteria of who can get to his spots, create seperation, and not turn the ball over. By that criteria, Shai has absolutely top tier handles.
He’s pretty much a 6’6 Kyrie
6’6” AI
5’9 Shaq
that’s how i describe my game. 5’9 shaq if he was also slow and didn’t have a post game. but ooh now get me on an open layup and i’ll show yall somethin
I’m a 5’8 Ben Simmons without any of the athletic gifts
It’s partially because he’s getting better every year. You can look at highlights from 23-24 and even though that’s just a couple of seasons ago, it’s pretty clear how much better his handles have gotten.
Who has better handles him or Payton Pritchard
It’s easy when defenders have to keep from touching him or he’ll dive to the floor while flinging up a shot.
AOTC. What else is new?
Look at how much space defenders give him no one is going to even touch him
This is an incredibly correct take. Shai wasn’t even doubled last night for instance.
And he still flopped his way to 13 ftas
Detecting sarcasm isn’t your thing is it?
The venn diagram of people who cannot detect sarcam and repeat the same goofy as comments might as well be a perfect circle. There’s a specific diagnosis in the DSM for it, but apparently it’s harrassment to acknowledge it.
You are a Nazi and a Luka fan btw
not fun to watch they said
Because it’s not only this. If he didn’t flop around like a stupid fish, he’d be the most hyped, loved player in the league.
No he wouldn’t cause noone likes to see their team getting spanked
You’re right. Everyone hates Curry.
I used to hate Curry lmao
Curry and klay made my blood boil
Dude when he’d hit a three and do that fucking shimmy I would actually get heated 🤣🤣🤣
I was ruined by his game winning sideline heave in that game that Durant fouled out
That and the Dame shot are in my mt Rushmore of sports fandom tragedy along with the helmet catch and the chicken and beer Red Sox
Yeah that will probably always be the most memorable regular season game of my life I remember where I was like it was my 9⁄11 lol.
Would prob be my favorite game ever if I was on the other side of the coin
They definitley hated him and the Warriors about 8-10 years ago. Now they’re sputtering along on fumes so no one hates anymore
People used to when they were an actual threat
If flopping makes him unpopular why are Jokic and Luka so beloved?
Because it’s about HOW they flop /s
He didn’t even flop last night, jokic was 10x worse
Two floppers don’t make a right.
Not while his team puts belt to ass vs all your favourites
Every star player gets unwarranted hate / backlash eventually. It’s to be expected
Damn. He made it look like a slow mo (body movement) and a time-lapse (dribbling) at the same time. It’s too smooth.
His change of pace and knowing when to use it is otherworldly.
Honestly this. His movement is top tier but it’s heavily underrated. He masters shifting his tempo and he has no out of control movements. He’s not even that quick and he keeps defenders so off balance they look like they can’t keep up.
Bro looks like a tiktok velocity edit.
Nuggets basically tried to throw the same coverage they did at Kawhi a couple days ago and got burned. While Kawhi has a 90th percentile handle for a wing, SGA is arguably the best ball-handler of all time 6’5 and above and he will kill you every time if you throw multiple bodies at him.
It’s crazy how he handles the ball so clean with such long arms
This is more entertaining than what Jokic does but SGA gets called “boring”.
Nasty
That’s insane
He did this right after Chet got posterzed, almost like hitting them back in the mouth
How many players in the league right now have that right a handle to do this? Thinking Shai, Kyrie and Steph but after that not quite sure
I don’t think even Steph. Steph’s handle is more about beating his man with speed rather than getting to open parts of the floor.
Maybe not anymore, but he used to do the most insane shit. There’s the clip of him maneuvering around 3 clippers players with the ball on a string.
Link
I know exactly what you’re talking about and yes totally agree! I was talking about twilight steph for sure.
Yeah, you’re right OP mentioned right now, my b lol.
Yeah definitely he has the handle just isn’t quick enough to do it like he used to be able to
What an ethical shot. The way basketball 🏀 is supposed to be played.
What a bad day to be a nuggets fan lol. We really got our ass handed to us
That’s disgusting
handles + elite middy game = deadly
You see this move happen and you know the game is over before the first quarter
his lobster too buttery and they hate him for it
disgusting
His whole life is consistent.
It took me this long to figure out who he reminded me of and it’s Chris fucking Paul- not as fancy as guys like Kyrie but so efficient and controlled. I wonder how much of that he learned under CP3’s tutelage.
It blows my mind how smooth Shai makes everything look. It doesn’t even look like he’s exerting much energy here.
his handle is getting ridiculous. the way he can slow down time and create space against multiple defenders is giving prime harden vibes
Oh that’s so smooth
Unwatchable
He’s pretty good!
basically just dancing out there lol
Man was in his bag all night long. Just insane work
But there are people that actually think Luka is better…good grief.
Shai would feed families (including his own if he was poor) by just opening a footwork academy
His fundamentals are so good that he can then improvise off them
Clean. Best handles in the game currently, right?
Honest question.
Ive seen baby getting carried less the this play
He’s so goddamn good
Look at that insane push off screen by Hartenstein to create some space
“Filty”
Fuck lol.
Somehow missed that mistake
it’s really sad. I really want to like him but it’s going to be really hard to just enjoy his insane talent when he’s just insufferable with his free throw bag.
You’re really sad!
That’s really bad defense, no one even touches him or stays in front of him.
If they call the soft foul then they call it but don’t play fake defense because you are scared to foul
Push off