asonkidd

755 | 5 hours ago

Over the last 5 years, they are roughly 2.5x better at creating a differential than the second place team

Impossible to justify. Sorry.

jrlandry | Celtics

355 | 4 hours ago

Wym? They had a coaching strategy of “don’t foul” for some of those years. Doesn’t that explain it?

PrimeTimeInc | Hornets

94 | 4 hours ago

That’s Charles Lee philosophy too, doesn’t stop zebras from lighting us up lmao

Nuclearsunburn | Heat

34 | 4 hours ago

Tbf guys like Grant Williams are so goofy they can’t help it lol. LaMelo is pretty careless on defense too.

Our fouling went down quite a bit when Duncan Robinson’s minutes got cut last year because dude just isn’t a good enough instinctive defender to not be a split second late and get caught reaching.

PrimeTimeInc | Hornets

14 | 4 hours ago

You are definitely not wrong lmao. I’m pretty sure we led the league in illegal screens by a wide margin this year too lol.

Kraze_F35 | Hornets

4 | 3 hours ago

Honestly a lot of the fouls against us I don’t think are too egregious most times, but it’s the lack of fouls in our favor that bugs me. It’s insane to me that LaMelo averaged less than 3 FTA’s per game this season

Rokarion14 | Lakers

17 | 4 hours ago

You jest but if you ever watch us just giving up the lane uncontested over and over, it is pretty evident that that’s what’s happening. Good defensive teams are more physical and apply more pressure at the rim and on the perimeter and we frequently just don’t. That and Luka and Reaves are really good at drawing fouls. Or it’s just a massive conspiracy between all the refs including the ones who are Celtics fans as seems to be the implication in this thread (and every thread about this topic).

SoaplessTitanic | Celtics

55 | 4 hours ago

Good defensive teams are more physical

I could maybe see this argument if the lakers had a horrible defense in this same timeframe, but the stats don’t back that up. In chronological order over the past five seasons, their defensive rating has ranked 21st, 12th, 17th, 17th, and 20th. Obviously that’s not great, but it is nearly average.

So clearly there are plenty of teams who are significantly worse on defense, but they don’t have anywhere near the same free throw differential. Why then would those other teams not copy the lakers strategy if it could at least help those teams be nearly average on defense instead of well below average? That’s because “just giving up the lane uncontested over and over” actually isn’t a good defensive strategy unless there’s also a bias for that team in the officiating. Not a league wide conspiracy, but an overall bias

SquintsRS | Hornets

18 | 4 hours ago

Or their defense could be better but they’d get more fouls so in the end it doesn’t even matter. I just wish we got more fouls

Rokarion14 | Lakers

7 | 3 hours ago

Your counter argument is that there are worse defensive teams therefore those teams should have a better free throw differential. That argument doesn’t make sense or really counter what I said. I haven’t watched enough bad teams to know if they’re giving up the lane freely. But I do know that when we play bad defensive teams, they tend to get beat easily then foul because they are out of position and don’t want to give up the uncontested layup. Also those bad defensive teams don’t have Luka and Reaves who can pretty much get to the line against anybody.

The other thing about these threads is after a game where Lakers shoot more free throws than their opponent (and there are many) no one ever brings receipts to show the bad calls or light calls. It’s always just a nebulous “Lakers got too many free throws.” Always. You’d think after 4 seasons of a huge differential, someone would have found at least 1 game to show what you guys claim or imply is a blatant bias.

If I’m being honest, LeBron should get probably have gotten 2-4 more free throws per game for his entire Lakers stint, he’s just strong so they don’t always call blatant contact.

SoaplessTitanic | Celtics

8 | 3 hours ago

I realize bad defense isn’t the full supposed explanation to the free throw differential, but lakers fans are arguing that giving up so many uncontested shots is a large contributing factor to the differential. But the lakers defense isn’t that bad statistically, so presumably they’re doing something right on the defensive end.

I understand you’re saying other bad defensive teams will get beat and then foul, but that’s kinda my point. Why don’t the other bad defensive teams in the league, and especially the ones with much worse defense than the lakers, simply give up the open shots like the lakers do? That should in theory help their defensive rating if the lakers give up the most open shots, and that strategy has been such a big factor in their free throw differential.

As for why people don’t point out bad calls / non-calls, well they do sometimes. But I think the main issue is that NBA reffing is very subjective. It’s usually very difficult to find a black and white example of “oh that definitely should’ve been a foul”, cause it depends what the refs are allowing in that game. That’s why it’s good to be able to analyze the numbers and see if there are any teams that are consistently an outlier in free throw differential

flaming_burrito_ | Wizards

7 | 2 hours ago

You’re gonna get downvoted, but what you’re saying is true. This is just conspiratorial thinking at work. It doesn’t even really make sense when you think about it. There are other big markets in the NBA, how come they don’t get a higher free throw differential too if the refs are rigging games? Golden State also has a huge market comparable to the Lakers, especially in the last decade, how come they don’t get a favorable whistle? Or the Knicks? Or the Celtics, who have a huge amount of influence in the basketball media space and are the most storied franchise in the NBA right alongside the Lakers? Why would it just be the Lakers getting this favorable treatment?

Also notice that people always cut it off at the last 5 years, because before that this wasn’t true at all. The last time before that the Lakers were number one in FT differential was the Kobe/Pau days. But yeah, I agree with your assessment that for the past several years, apart from Anthony Davis who kind of was their whole defense, the Lakers defense has been very soft and non-physical, and allows a lot of uncontested shots, but they also tend to have a good offense that gets fouls.

Rokarion14 | Lakers

1 | an hour ago

I’m aware. This isn’t my first foray into the r/nba conspiracy theories. If you actually watch the games you will see why Lakers have a positive ft differential. Watch either okc game. We get blown out because they play amazing physical defense and we give up layups and wide open 3s. Teams shoot amazing against us from 3 because we are slow and passive on close outs. But nah, it’s probably all the refs doing Illuminati.

jrlandry | Celtics

14 | 3 hours ago

Or it’s just a massive conspiracy between all the refs

Thank you for being unbiased enough to admit that

Trumpisanorangebitch

1 | an hour ago

Yeah the league would never do anything in favor of the Lakers lmao. You guys get bjs from the refs every fucking game.

CutLonzosHair2017 | LAL

119 | 4 hours ago

Its 4 players leading to the large chunk of the differential.

AD took 7.2 free throws a game while with LAL and only committed 2.4 fouls a game.

A good chunk of his fouls would be nonshooting fouls so his differential is pretty high. Is it an LAL thing? His differential with the Pelicans was very similar. 6.9 free throws at 2.4 fouls per game. Getting traded to the Lakers increased his differential by .3 FTA a game.

LeBron James took 5.6 FTA a game while fouling 1.6 times a game with the Lakers.

While with the Cavs during his second stint, he took 6.9 FTA and 1.8 fouls a game. His differential actually came down in LAL.

Luka Doncic is averaging 10.3 FTA a game. While committing 2.6 fouls a game.

He probably the player in the league with the highest differential outside of maybe SGA. But he was like this before. He averaged 9.6 FTA a game the last two full seasons he had in Dallas. On similar fouling numbers. His FTA went up .7 but this year wasn’t even a career high. He average 10.5 FTA a game 3 years ago.

Austin Reaves is averaging 8.5 FTA a game this year on 2.2 fouls.

He has no non-LAL comparison. So anything I say can be attributed to LAL bias. He’s a big cause of our differential. Make of it what you will.

It isn’t a team thing. Its a personnel thing. We had the highest differential because of the style of our players. And their individual differential did not change much coming from other teams. And then we traded AD who has a high differential for Luka, who had the biggest differential in the league.

MatchAffectionate951

47 | 4 hours ago

Ad and LeBron are both amazing at not fouling their whole careers .

And of course are physical players so they’ll get foul calls.

Luka and Reaves are both grade A foul merchants with Luka being the current best grifter in the league.

I don’t think it’s lakers opponents not getting fouls thing

But a lakers personnel thing

Patton370 | Lakers

20 | 4 hours ago

I wish Luka and Reaves could teach LeBron how to foul merchant

Lb1rd33

40 | 3 hours ago

Looked at something similar last year- lakers personnel by and large had similar free throw rates whether they were on the lakers or on a different team.

Outside of reaves, there isn’t really anyone you can point to as the cause and not have some pushback evidence. If it’s the lakers name or jersey creating this FT differential you’d think it would show up meaningfully and consistently in the numbers when players change teams. It definitely weakens the argument that there’s some overt bias when there’s not.

There’s a lot of issues of when trying to confirm this bias- has it always been there? Did it come with LeBron? Or only when there’s a superstar in town like Kobe? Is there tracking/video data to confirm their call rate is favorable compared to that of other teams?

There still could be one, but I haven’t seen any solid data suggesting it, only the opposite so far. Leading the league in differential is not meaningful if you expect to lead the league in it based on your roster.

CutLonzosHair2017 | LAL

19 | 3 hours ago

The other thing that’s dumb about this specific post. Is that over the last 5 years, Lakers have lead each single year by a certain amount. adding that up year by year just makes the differential grow larger. Especially since other top teams have switched out their personnel. The Heat with Jimmy Butler for example.

say_wot_again | Celtics

14 | 3 hours ago

The implication is that if this were random, you wouldn’t expect a team to keep leading every year and accumulating an ever larger lead. So it’s very clearly NOT random chance.

Your breakdown of AD/Luka/LeBron accounting for the majority of this and having the same numbers pre-LA makes sense as a “this is a result of personnel, not Lakers bias” argument. But that doesn’t mean that accumulating this data over years is stupid.

tangential_quip | Lakers

14 | 3 hours ago

Why would you expect fouling to be random?

AnAimlessWanderer101

2 | an hour ago

That genuinely makes no sense. It’s absolutely inane to think it’s random chance.

Lb1rd33

5 | 3 hours ago

Agreed, saying they are 2.5 times better at creating differential is misleading- at the very least take the sum of the 2nd place teams for each year. Even at +500 differential that’s only like +5-6 FTAs a game over another team when teams each take 20-30 FTAs a game. That’s about 3 shooting fouls more a game, not a titanic difference that 2.5x suggests.

BritzBeef

5 | 3 hours ago

Wait til they see Adou Thiero get some minutes who is an absolute free throw magnet too

Low-Initial-4355

2 | an hour ago

Coinciding with the fact that he’s not that much of a shooter and uses his size strength and athleticism to get buckets.

Rubberbabeh | Bulls

20 | 3 hours ago

Easy to justify, they need those FTAs to squeak out wins earlier in the season to keep them competitive for the playoffs/play-in.

porkchop487 | Bulls

1 | 31 minutes ago

Its so funny watching Lakers fans justify this. Their SRS and points differential predicts a record of 45-37. They are 53-29. Thats almost an unheard of disparity, due mostly to Lakers getting free throws in tight games that they really shouldn’t.

Find me another team with an 8 win differential compared to their expected. And a team that has this massive free throw differential. They can’t. Oh and last year they were 6 games above expected. The year prior? 5 games above. In fact there has not been a single season in the past decade where the Lakers were even 1 game below their SRS expected W/L

Robinsonirish | Finland

3 | 3 hours ago

Impossible to justify. Sorry.

I’ll play devils advocate(I hate the Lakers).

When it was AD and LeBron they drew a decent amount of fouls, but where they shone was how good they are at not fouling on defense, it’s one of ADs greatest strengths. That’s where the discrepancy comes from. They have been top 3, but never #1 in drawn fouls on offense in any of the last 5 seasons.

This year it’s a similar story, where they play disciplined on defense, but the addition of Luka and Reaves coming out of the closet on offense they are drawing a massive amount of fouls.

That’s it, that’s all I got.

Lou_Peachum_2 | Clippers

1 | 21 minutes ago

Laker fans will claim they “play differently” - but now they don’t even have AD who used to draw a lot of fouls

Whether intentional or not - it’s suspect. Laker whistle is different

warriors_of_hope | Warriors

493 | 4 hours ago

“Lakers vs. Lakers,” David Stern’s reply when asked his dream NBA playoff matchup.

Junior-Job-754 | Magic

57 | 4 hours ago

At the end of day, it’s the money that keeps the world spinning

Khetoo | Raptors

5 | an hour ago

With people betting on the most stupid shit, like I can’t over emphasize the word stupid here folks, like the color of the fucking gatorade at a game it’s just made pro-sports so deplorable to even partake in. I just want to watch my sportsball team without feeling like I’m funding the orphan crushing machine directly.

The guys at work are always talking about their parlays, I’ve lost friends cause I don’t want to engage with that shit and I’m the lame one for not gambling my fucking money all the time?

rodpod17 | Celtics

11 | 2 hours ago

People shit on silver all the time (justifiably so) that’s it made people forget that stern was the original corrupt shitbag

GlueGuy00

1 | 26 minutes ago

at least Stern is not an incompetent commissioner

MrProfessorMD

367 | 5 hours ago

Every season it’s a new excuse. It was the fact that AD was great in the paint and didn’t foul, then it was the have made 3pt defense so teams just shoot a lot, then it’s oh now we have Luka and he gets a lot of FTs. If Luka is the reason why didn’t the mavs have a better differential 2 years ago???

HitboxOfASnail | Thunder

220 | 4 hours ago

well now it’s that they just don’t play any defense so they don’t commit fouls duh

obvious_bot | GSW

166 | 4 hours ago

Ok but this one is actually true lmao

DreTownblues | Celtics

53 | 3 hours ago

Bad defenders commit more fouls not less. They are always out of position and have to recover so they by default get called for more fouls.

captain_ahabb | Lakers

61 | 3 hours ago

Depends on if they’re trying or not. Lazy defenses don’t generate FTs because they don’t contest shots.

obvious_bot | GSW

21 | 3 hours ago

That assumes they are trying to recover, and not just giving up on the play

JMEEKER86 | NBA

20 | 3 hours ago

Bad defenders who actually try to defend commit more fouls. If guys don’t even try, like not even bothering to cross half court which happens a lot, then they aren’t going to commit fouls.

zazerite | NBA

8 | 3 hours ago

That’s if they contest, lakers are bad defenders in the way they play no defense, not play defense badly lol

redbossman123

1 | 2 hours ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/kux45Yo2Ta

henryofclay | Lakers

49 | 4 hours ago

You literally score all over us with no defense being played, if you watch your own team’s games you’d see what you said is actually true lol.

No_Handle_6492

30 | 4 hours ago

I mean that one is true, they don’t even try on defense most of the time.

Capable-Force-4757 | Lakers

15 | 4 hours ago

What do you want? If its true, its true

TonyHawktuah69

16 | 3 hours ago

Your team literally beat the lakers by 30+ recently…

livefreeordont | 76ers

1 | an hour ago

The wizards method is to not play defense and commit fouls

BritzBeef

12 | 2 hours ago

They replaced AD with a guy who gets even more free throws, why would it get notably worse?

AnAimlessWanderer101

4 | an hour ago

Seriously, these people don’t even bother with reality. After the AD trade, before Luka, that disparity dropped immediately.

You throw Luka on that team and are suddenly shocked that “it’s a different excuse.”

why didn’t mavs have a better differential

… maybe because they have completely different teams around them???? That mavs roster was built around Luka. The lakers roster construction is a meme in comparison.

Nobody - even lakers are fans - are saying Reaves isn’t also a foul merchant lol. Luka contributes. He’s not the only factor

BillPaxton4eva | Celtics

9 | 2 hours ago

Laker fans want to preserve the illusion in their own minds that they’re somehow playing on a level playing field, so they don’t have to admit that any success they have in inherently less valuable than success other teams have. It’s a simple thing that they try to overcomplicate for the sake of their emotional state. It happens when they talk about free agency, free throw count, media coverage, title count, etc. They’re not going to be honest, and it’s unlikely to ever change.

No-Oil2676

2 | an hour ago

Lakers got 2 of the best foul baiters in the NBA (AR and Doncic) and Doncic was putting up more egregious numbers in Dallas of FTA
Doncic FTA/100 poss
25-26: 13.6
22-23 14.5

Lakers defense is garbage, coneding a ton of open looks in the paint and If you look at the worst defenses in the leagues none got the same level of foul baiting as them.

dabbers4123 | Hawks

1 | 8 minutes ago

Cause they had shit players surrounding him? On the Lakers you have 3 starters that have averaged a 5 plus differential per game their entire careers,not just in la. A toddler could put those together.

SquimJim | Celtics

217 | 4 hours ago

Lol if you took 3 of the top 5 teams (Mavs + Pels + Clippers) and combined their differential (1667), it’s barely larger than the Lakers differential alone (1635)

Listen, I don’t care what kind of excuses people want to make, that’s fucking ridiculous

HB3187 | Nuggets

24 | 4 hours ago

If it was at least somewhat close you could make a case. But that shit is blatant lol

Frosty-Roof3124

133 | 4 hours ago

insane lmao. just insane

Nice_Pipe_7608

119 | 4 hours ago

The league wants them to win so badly.

Quote-me-if-afk | Lakers

99 | 4 hours ago

I wish the league would do a better job at that

Conn3er | Spurs

70 | 3 hours ago

You can lead the horse to water, but you cant make him drink it

Uni-Loud

36 | 3 hours ago

lol they literally fuckin’ gift wrapped you Doncic, one step further is handing you a wildcard to the finals

ArchimedesNutss | LAL

23 | 3 hours ago

Nico being a dumbass isn’t the league gift wrapping Doncic for us

PrimeTimeInc | Hornets

32 | 3 hours ago

Remember when the league blocked the CP3 trade? Pepperidge farm remembers

DiscoDoorknob | Bulls

8 | 3 hours ago

Pepperidge Farm misremembers… everyone says this about the league but Stern was acting as owner of the hornets, not commissioner of the league, when that trade was blocked. League owned the hornets and obviously had an interest in not giving away their star player for scraps.

mcnabb77

14 | 3 hours ago

Dallas gave the lakers the best young player in the league for a horrendous return. Didn’t even try to shop Luka around to other teams.

Dallas then wins the draft lottery for the most hyped prospect since Zion.

Hard to not think there’s at least a chance the lottery was rigged to compensate Dallas for bailing the Lakers out for the next decade

GSG2120 | Spurs

12 | 3 hours ago

There’s just a zero percent chance that was an entirely basketball related trade. We’ll never know what the conversation was, but we can all be damn sure it wasn’t “Yes, I agree that AD for Luka is a fair basketball trade and we agree to make this trade for basketball reasons.”

Kevinar | Knicks

1 | an hour ago

No, but Nico getting $$$ under the table might have gotten Doncic. There’s no evidence for that but I find it easy to believe

samurairocketshark | Suns

5 | 3 hours ago

“I wish my 80$ steak had a little more butter on it”

rodpod17 | Celtics

5 | an hour ago

You were gifted top 5 player for a bag of aging peanuts. I forgot how entitled yall were

redbossman123

0 | 2 hours ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/kux45Yo2Ta

Pleasestoplyiiing

75 | 3 hours ago

Not sure what you guys are so mad about. Legendary Lakers coach Darvin Ham once told the team to “Contest without fouling” and that’s been the team mantra ever since.

I would recommend any team who wants to win tons of games acquire Darvin and make your dreams come true.

guzzler_bennett_jr

13 | 2 hours ago

the Lakers learned not to Foull at that point and it changed the course of the franchise forever

soulcreator24 | Mavericks

67 | 4 hours ago

Something something, contest without fouling, salute

ZeroMomentum | Raptors

6 | 3 hours ago

When lebron was still on the cavs thats what a cavs fan said “the cavs dont foul”

That is not how it works. That is not how any of this works

InevitablePart3417

13 | 3 hours ago

brother lebron has 3 free throws a game, are you kidding me, the guy begs and flops for fouls and doesnt get them.

OpportunityNext9675 | Minneapolis Lakers

57 | 4 hours ago

The lakers have consistently ranked near the top of the league in frequency of high FTA yielding scoring opportunity types (iso, roll man, dump off, post up) while ranking low for low FTA plays (spot up, pull up, movement 3). While conversely their opponents have consistently been skewed toward low FTA plays types. No other team in the league has had this dynamic. The data is all out there and it’s fairly interesting if you want to take 20 minutes to learn about basketball, but I do get the appeal of knuckle dragging conspiracy mongering.

Free_Surprise_7939

22 | 3 hours ago

You cant make me believe the lakers are the only team that plays off pick and roll and post uos like vome on i dont believe you yourself think thats reasonable

redbossman123

4 | 2 hours ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/kux45Yo2Ta

OpportunityNext9675 | Minneapolis Lakers

1 | 15 minutes ago

It’s not just that. It’s ranking highly in those plays, low in low FT plays, high opponents low FT play, and low opponent high FT plays. It’s 4 separate contributing factors. And yes, they are pretty unique in that aspect over the last few seasons. Notice that they aren’t huge outliers in either side of the delta (high FTA or low opponent FTA) they are just uniquely positioned on both sides at once, leading to an outlier delta.

CredibleSloth | Thunder

16 | 3 hours ago

Still doesnt account for this large of a deviation from the mean

Free_Surprise_7939

16 | 3 hours ago

Only the lakers drive and play on the pick and roll every othwr team jumpshots

BritzBeef

2 | 2 hours ago

The Lakers free throws differentials in any given year has not even been that high historically, there’s just not been other teams to put out a high free throw differential of their own or a consistent 2nd place team. Most of these years Lakers have been on the lower end of league leaders in FT differential.

CredibleSloth | Thunder

3 | 2 hours ago

So every other team falls into the same pool but the Lakers? Thats the point

Most of what years? 4 out of the last 5 years they led in differential lol

BritzBeef

3 | an hour ago

Throughout the 2010s the league leader in free throw differential had a higher difference than the Lakers have had in recent years, some years 2nd place had a higher differential as well. The Lakers aren’t some absurd outlier in free throw differential.

Paris_Who | 24

2 | an hour ago

And before that?

Wise-Performance2420 | Spurs

1 | 3 hours ago

Zipf’s Law

bbuucckk | Lakers

14 | 4 hours ago

No amount of proof or data will convince Lakers haters that their silly beliefs aren’t true and the team they root for just simply can’t get it done.

TonyHawktuah69

20 | 3 hours ago

It’s also funny because the league was blatantly rigging it for a play in team to get smoked for several years?

Lakers have sucked the last 5 years. Everyone is acting like they were winning titles

Wetzilla | Celtics

1 | 2 hours ago

They literally won a title 6 years ago.

why-god | Heat

1 | 2 hours ago

They haven’t even sucked - they just weren’t a top 5 team for some of those years, but were still well above the league average. Forums are crazy bad about dogging teams that haven’t recently won a championship. 29 teams don’t suck because 1 team is better.

floop_isamad_manhelp | Nuggets

4 | 3 hours ago

I haven’t actually seen any proof or even shred of data that attempts to explain the (statistically significant) gap in this thread. Just ham-fisted attempts at citing high FTR players who have played for the Lakers.

Pleasestoplyiiing

8 | 3 hours ago

You could try reading the comment comparing Luka, AD, and LeBron’s average FT differential from when they were on other teams until now - where they essentially had the same numbers on other teams.

But then it would be harder to be authentically mad.

redbossman123

3 | 2 hours ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/kux45Yo2Ta

floop_isamad_manhelp | Nuggets

2 | an hour ago

I agree that some players who have played on the Lakers take more free throws than they cause via fouls. That’s not what we’re debating though. You cited the literal post I was criticizing!

bigbodydenver | Nuggets

51 | 5 hours ago

And get the marquee weekend game with their 2 best players out

Hard to say the league has integrity

I mean no one really believes it does.

Capable-Force-4757 | Lakers

50 | 4 hours ago

There was a never a reality in which KD vs Lebron, possibly for the last time, wasn’t gonna get the marquee spot lol

Aniketos33

18 | 4 hours ago

Why watch if you really believe that? When did it have integrity last?

lawschoolthrowaway36 | Lakers

18 | 4 hours ago

Why are you mad at the league for choosing the team for prime time that routinely attracts the highest viewership?

Be mad at the fans. A lot of people tune in to watch LeBron and Steph who don’t really otherwise follow the league.

Broken_Lute

4 | 4 hours ago

And we sit Steph vs Lebron but play him 28 vs the clips. Cool.

[deleted]

10 | 4 hours ago

[deleted]

HumongousMelonheads | Nuggets

7 | 4 hours ago

This upcoming playoff game?

relax336 | Lakers

9 | 4 hours ago

The Lakers still has the biggest fanbase and its Lebron vs KD.

ShowdownValue

2 | 4 hours ago

How can they schedule playoff games months in advance?

Skillomie | Lakers

8 | 4 hours ago

Crazy how the league is putting checks notes its most popular player and team in the marquee time slot lmao

bigbodydenver | Nuggets

1 | an hour ago

Dont know if you know this but its 2026.

Lebron isnt the most popular player anymore and ya them putting most popular team and not best teams in the marquee spot is the problem

grxccccandice | Lakers

1 | 39 minutes ago

Until you accept that they’ll always give the most popular team more coverage and marquee time slot, you’ll never be happy with their decision. NBA is a for profit league. All they see is money. I’m not saying it isn’t problematic. I’m saying it is what it is, and that’s capitalist America in a nutshell.

Magnus_The_Read

1 | 4 hours ago

A lot of people want to watch KD vs LeBron, and somehow people online are seething and turning it into the league not having integrity. People here are so detached from reality.

bigbodydenver | Nuggets

1 | an hour ago

Nba fan polls consistently show distrust in the league.

godfrey1 | LAL

1 | an hour ago

turns out people want to watch Bron vs KD instead of Raptors vs Cavs, shocker right?

xebex1778 | Knicks

42 | 5 hours ago

5.5 more than their opponent per game is pretty wild, but some of this can be chalked up to 1. having Luka and 2. not having any good physical defenders

bigbodydenver | Nuggets

75 | 5 hours ago

Smart?

And they just added Luka last year

This stat covers 5 years lol

The common denominator is that theyre the NBAs marquee franchise very clearly getting more calls every season even when their roster changes.

BBQ_HaX0r

8 | 3 hours ago

LeBron, AD, and Reeves are also good at drawing fouls and they themselves not fouling. Add to that they have weak defenders and you end up with this. It’s not absurd.

BritzBeef

8 | 2 hours ago

Smart has a higher foul rate this year than his previous few years and career average, but a sub 30 MPG player who played 60 games is not making that huge a difference.

AgadorFartacus | Celtics

72 | 4 hours ago

this can be chalked up to 1. having Luka

Except Luka’s FTr took a sustained leap as soon as he joined the Lakers despite getting to the rim less than he ever has.

Transky13 | Pacers

24 | 4 hours ago

This exactly. The Lakers have gotten an insane whistle for so long and Laker fans are the only ones who seem to not get it

samurairocketshark | Suns

7 | 3 hours ago

Oh they get it, they just desperately take every chance they get to justify it because they can

NeoMagnet | Lakers

2 | an hour ago

Here are the stats for luka’s free throw rate by year. Can you point me to this supposed sustained leap? I’m not seeing it.

AgadorFartacus | Celtics

2 | 39 minutes ago

‘23-‘24 Mavs Luka: .368 FTr

‘24-‘25 Mavs Luka: .313 FTr

‘24-‘25 Lakers Luka: .445 FTr

‘25-‘26 Lakers Luka: .443 FTr

jackaholicus | Mavericks

2 | 42 minutes ago

his career high ftr was on the mavs though

AgadorFartacus | Celtics

1 | 38 minutes ago

Yeah, back when he actually got to the rim. He’s not that guy anymore.

‘23-‘24 Mavs Luka: .368 FTr
‘24-‘25 Mavs Luka: .313 FTr
‘24-‘25 Lakers Luka: .445 FTr
‘25-‘26 Lakers Luka: .443 FTr

TitanTigers | Grizzlies

14 | 5 hours ago

The rockets and thunder are both towards the bottom of the league in fouls per game, with the rockets fouling the least out of everyone. I don’t think that having physical defenders necessarily means more fouls.

The Mavs also had a better differential this year than the past 5 years of Luka

xebex1778 | Knicks

9 | 5 hours ago

That sounds like a bigger issue tbh

redbossman123

1 | 2 hours ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/kux45Yo2Ta

WhiteHeterosexualGuy | Hawks

7 | 4 hours ago

Not having good defenders makes them foul less? Ass backwards logic lmao

xebex1778 | Knicks

13 | 4 hours ago

Guys like Ayton and Luka can’t foul because they don’t even contest

WhiteHeterosexualGuy | Hawks

2 | 4 hours ago

Then why isnt their defense worse? Teams just dont want to score on these guys that dont even contract shots?

redbossman123

2 | 2 hours ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/kux45Yo2Ta

EntrepreneurWooden99

12 | 4 hours ago

Ayton doesn’t foul a lot cos he can’t be asked to defend

rodpod17 | Celtics

1 | 2 hours ago

What about the other 4 years?

RealBigFailure | Raptors

41 | 3 hours ago

Just don’t foul 4Head

raw-honey-35 | Thunder

41 | 4 hours ago

Wait the “Ethical Spurs” have the second highest free throw differential?????

anesthesiologist2 | East

42 | 4 hours ago

Does it make them unethical to be called for less fouls on defense? Because I’m sure ethical typically refers to foul baiting, and they’re 13th in FTA.

Adorable-News-9364 | Spurs

9 | 4 hours ago

Wemby has only fouled out twice (hilariously both against the Lakers) in his career despite being the best rim protector in the league. He’s elite at contesting without fouling. Teams have to take more jumpers against the Spurs because Kornet is also great at preventing rim attempts. Castle is called for many more fouls on the floor when he’s staying attached to players going around screens.

GaimeGuy | Timberwolves

2 | an hour ago

He’s so damn tall and agile that he can just sort of hover near a player and be in a position to block if they release a shot. He doesn’t stay as close as a typical defender since it doesn’t provide any additional defensive benefits for him. More spacing = less contact = less fouls

InternationalClick78 | Spurs

14 | 4 hours ago

Considering they have an unguardable big and 3 of the most slashing oriented guards in the league while being a hyper disciplined defensive team it’s not exactly surprising

Broken_Lute

4 | 4 hours ago

Also not surprising you cheer for them 😂

InternationalClick78 | Spurs

3 | 3 hours ago

Wow what a strong counter lol. Hopped on the burner and everything

Broken_Lute

4 | 3 hours ago

Change “big” to “guard” in your first post and you describe OKC, right? Also, not a burner. Weird comment.

InternationalClick78 | Spurs

2 | 2 hours ago

Cool… this post isn’t about OKC. Also still not really, castle Harper and fox as supporting pieces for wemby are significantly more effective and aggressive drivers than anyone around Shai this year

Broken_Lute

3 | 44 minutes ago

Shai 3rd in drives per game

J dub 11

Castle 20

Fox 25

Ajay 34

Harper wasn’t listed in the top 50.

Poor argument.

MarduRusher | Timberwolves

3 | 3 hours ago

I won’t pretend to have watched a ton of Spurs games since I’m not a fan, but from what I’ve seen in stats and watched when I’ve watched them, it sounds about right to me.

fab_frog_disco

4 | 3 hours ago

I mean yeah? Their defense is led by the player with the best foul to block ratio in NBA history.. The dude literally doesn’t have to leave his feet to block shots. It’s a huge reason why he never picks up fouls and San Antonio as a whole foul so little as a team

Plus their entire philosophy on defense is just a funnel guys to Victor and not reach or gamble for steals

They’re pretty low and defensive playmaking metrics, despite having the best defensive playmaker in the entire NBA because the rest of the team just keeps their hands out of the cookie jar

1gnominious | Rockets

3 | 3 hours ago

Wemby is the one player who can single handedly skew that number. When he’s on the floor all of the sudden guys want to shoot long 2’s and 3’s. Then on the other end of the court there are a lot of situations where you have to foul him as soon as he gets the ball.

Even with a genuine freak of nature on their team the Spurs are only slightly ahead of the pack.

GaimeGuy | Timberwolves

3 | 3 hours ago

No one wants to attack the paint with wemby on defense, and they have 3 slashers

ElGoddamnDorado | Spurs

2 | 2 hours ago

People don’t attack the paint against us, while we do it repeatedly to other teams and have some of the best slashers in the league. Just like what happened when you guys played us. Not that it stopped you guys from complaining (or that it’s stopping you now)

CredibleSloth | Thunder

19 | 3 hours ago

You could literally force someone to view this and they would still say OKC gets the best whistle

1nTheNick0fTime | Lakers

1 | 22 minutes ago

This is an egregious and indefensible stat that favors the lakers, but SGA is still the biggest masterbaiter lol

str8rippinfartz | Celtics

1 | 17 minutes ago

If I foul you 30 times and get called for 20 of them, and you foul me 15 times and get called for 15 of them, does that mean you get a better whistle than I do because I’m -5 on total foul calls?

AnkitPancakes | Thunder

14 | 4 hours ago

Cant believe SGA would do this

Black_Ember06 | Thunder

17 | 4 hours ago

Imma just say it: with the way this sub hates on OKC for not having fouls called on them and having too many fouls called their way in general…u would think they’re higher on this list but they’re 25th…

mickeyj623 | Celtics

6 | an hour ago

The sub hates you guys the most or second behind the Celtics because this sub is 40% Laker fans. They can push any narrative they want as fact. Other fans see it constantly and roll with it. It’s literally propaganda.

Broken_Lute

0 | 4 hours ago

Crazy. Almost as if the masses can be…wrong.

Black_Ember06 | Thunder

7 | 3 hours ago

Yes that’s almost exactly…what I’m pointing out

Broken_Lute

1 | 3 hours ago

I’m from Tulsa sir, I agree.

str8rippinfartz | Celtics

1 | 10 minutes ago

If I foul you 30 times and get called for 20 fouls, and you foul me 15 times and get called for 15 fouls, does that mean you get a better whistle than I do because I’m -5 on total fouls called?

It’s about how many extra fouls go uncalled on one end while the same play/contact gets called on the other. Doesn’t mean you end up with a great FT differential when your strategy is to bank on the “you can’t call them all” principle to generate a ton of extra turnovers/bad shots

_Parkertron_ | San Diego Clippers

0 | 42 minutes ago

I think the whole free throw thing for the Thunder is overblown at this point too, but its not about the total differential most people are complaining about, but rather how physical OKC’s defense plays. Obviously, the differential isn’t that great because you guys get called for your fair share of fouls too, but with the defensive reputation the players on your team have and also just due to the fact that most refs don’t want to always be calling fouls, there are many that are left uncalled (like Caruso grabbing Wemby or Jokic in those match ups). That juxtaposed with the foul baiting SGA does occasionally is what annoys people.

freshoutofbatteries | Thunder

15 | 3 hours ago

How could SGA does this?

iCarpet | Thunder

2 | 2 hours ago

Two FTs for SGA

Gristle__McThornbody | Lakers

13 | 4 hours ago

They probably have a lot more if they called the fouls on Lebron.

GMoney_McSwag | Bulls

1 | 37 minutes ago

Would be -1600 if they called fouls on him while he’s playing defense

SignificantNatural11 | Thunder

10 | 2 hours ago

These sorts of threads always attract the absolute worst fans.

PanthalassaRo | Knicks

10 | 4 hours ago

Lakers always have a way to make it a close game, either talent or the refs bailing them.

dustincb2 | Thunder

6 | 3 hours ago

Huh how about that

rocket_beer | Celtics

0 | an hour ago

No one complains in general about the “OKC whistle”

It’s only about 1 player

Alexcox95 | Heat

4 | 3 hours ago

“They just drive to the basket a lot.”

tgf5

3 | 4 hours ago

Pull up the data for the years after Kobe and before LeBron.

I_Set_3_Alarms | Celtics

4 | 4 hours ago

Basically 1,000 more than second place is insane.

Could you imagine SGA or prime Harden on the Lakers? They might average 20 FTs a game

jakinatorctc | Thunder

18 | 3 hours ago

Crazy hypothetical to pose when we have Luka on the Lakers presently in real life

mickeyj623 | Celtics

2 | an hour ago

They literally have Luka

GMoney_McSwag | Bulls

1 | 31 minutes ago

Similar story from a few years ago. The league doesn’t even try hiding it. https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/6nRwhWwdRF

coldtrashpanda

2 | 3 hours ago

When u let perimeter players waltz to the basket u wind up not fouling much lol

InfamousCattle3223 | Hawks

3 | 3 hours ago

AR was getting 10 FTA a game before LeBron came back haha

dead-ass- | Spurs

2 | an hour ago

the Lakers whistle is a proven fact

Xsy | Jazz

1 | 29 minutes ago

Listen here, I’ve been invested in this league for a long time now.

I don’t need this data to tell you the Lakers get preferential treatment from the league, lmao.

larrylegend33goat | Timberwolves

2 | 4 hours ago

BEAT LA

Old_Supermarket_7575 | Thunder

0 | 4 hours ago

It’s how they win so many close games

killersky99

1 | 4 hours ago

The contest without fouling culture Darvin Ham was able to instill into the Lakers has to be one of the greatest coaching achievement in history.

cadoavodo | Lakers

1 | 3 hours ago

Best defensive player in the league barely fouled, team has players that can draw fouls at a high level. Wow can’t believe it

gotothepark | Lakers

3 | 3 hours ago

You know what’s crazy about this? We have so many YouTube channels that break down a bunch of different plays in detail, but not one that goes through the Lakers fouls and points out how they’re wrong? Imagine the amount of views this would get. But nobody does it…. I wonder why….?

Free_Surprise_7939

2 | 3 hours ago

Its pretty easy the lakers instead of getting ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ fould they get like ⁸⁰⁄₂₀ thats about it

mcnabb77

2 | 3 hours ago

I don’t think it’s really that specific calls or games are bad. Most fouls in the NBA are ultimately judgement calls.

But when one team consistently ends up with the best free throw differential every year despite the massive roster turnover in the league it’s kinda hard to pretend there’s no bias

clearsurname | Nuggets

2 | an hour ago

You can watch a game and there are 30 possessions that are a coin flip if a ref will call a foul or let the guys play through contact. The individual call isn’t bad in isolation, but ONLY the Lakers have been winning the coin flip in 90% of the possessions in 90% of the games across 5 seasons. That’s a crazy coincidence

FunkTronto | Raptors

2 | 3 hours ago

Darko called it out early last season. Yup, nothing has changed.

Puppetmaster858 | Suns

1 | 3 hours ago

Couldn’t even see where the suns are cuz statmuse cuts off after 25 lol.

Anyway crazy how the lakers just destroy everybody in this stat, kinda frustrating tbh

FirstPreparation8538 | Pacers

1 | an hour ago

Nothing to see here folks, NBA is rigging for OKC !

Choomba_Lord | Bucks

1 | an hour ago

It’s all rigged. Just like the draft.

__NOT__MY__ACCOUNT__

1 | an hour ago

Wow

NeoMagnet | Lakers

1 | 43 minutes ago

Every time I see this argument it’s laughable. Yes, Lakers probably historically have some form of a biased whistle (see kings vs lakers wcf in 2002). However, the idea that this same tired cherry picked ft differential stat from last 5 years is some evidence of this is ridiculous if you take even half a second to consider any of the context.

During this period, our offense for the first few years was centered around heavy pnr with AD and Lebron, an action which generates tons of FTA with two players who dominate in the paint and just don’t foul very much. We had awful perimeter defense and an incredible rim protecting anchor, meaning teams were incentivized to score from the outside, generating less FTA. “But Lakers went through an entire roster overhaul and still maintained the same differential!” Oh, you mean the roster change where we acquired Luka fucking Doncic, one of the greatest FT grifters in NBA history, and moved to an iso heavy offense with him and Reaves, another generational foul baiter? Gee, wonder why we kept such a high ft differential, can’t figure it out.

If the lakers really had a significant ft bias over the last 5 years, the easiest way to prove it would be looking at ft stats for the most significant contributors to the differential before and after they joined the lakers. Why doesn’t anyone just post those stats? Here they are. Decide for yourself.

ComfortableTap8343

1 | 11 minutes ago

The lakers don’t play defense

Chickachic-aaaaahhh | Thunder

0 | 3 hours ago

Damn!

daclyda | Lakers

0 | 2 hours ago

Imagine for a second how much bigger the difference would be if LeBron had a better whistle O.o

Comprehensive_Pin_86 | Supersonics

0 | an hour ago

And I still think Bron deserved more whistles all year tbh

With the regular season wrapping up, the lakers have led the league in free throw differential for the 4th time in 5 years. The second place team (Spurs) was not even close.