[Starkand] JJ Redick was asked about the key when it comes to playing through contact against the Thunder: “They don’t foul, so the whistles aren’t gonna be there. You accept that going in. They don’t foul.”
The inconsistent whistle is the worst thing about the modern NBA
Well, I would put it second to selling out to gambling companies
What if I told you they were the same thing?
Honestly, I could handle the gambling BS if fouls were enforced consistently and fairly.
The problem is the perception that the two are entwined, right? Like the gambling takeover amplifies every referee mistake in a way the impacts money and puts a lot of doubt in viewers minds that everything is on the up and up. League sanctioned gambling just makes you question every little thing that the referees do. I could handle yelling at bad refs if I didn’t also have a creeping doubt in my mind that they’re fixing lines
They’re only entwined if you think it’s gambling related. I don’t think the bad reffing is in reference to gambling, I think it’s trying to manufacture narratives, superstars, and villains similar to the WWE. They aren’t altering gambling lines they’re altering marketability
It something where perception becomes the reality. People will bet based on these narratives, true or not.
The core problem with gambling though is that there is now a massive incentive to leverage tools like reffing unequally to drive outcomes. And it’s extremely hard to catch if done well. It’s valid to have a default state of suspicion now.
That being said, everything you said is also valid. I just think the rise of Draft Kings is a scourge on sports.
Always follow the money.
After Tim Donaghy’s revelations, it’s honestly hard to not give all the gambling endorsements a severe side-eye.
He resigned from the league in 2007. it’s been nearly 20 years since that, and I feel a lot of people have just forgotten or never knew.
Totally with you on this.
They should hire you to Ref
Also carrying, gather inconsistency, and moving screens, flopping, load management…
Fwiw you could lump all those, sans load management, into a “poo poo officiating” umbrella/bucket
Most of those come down from the bosses tho. (The betting companies)
Bro all that was an issue before any of the current companies even opened sports books (or offices in some cases)
All real issues with the game / officiating today for sure.
Disagree
Refs were betting on games before it was legal…
Nah Reddick just has respect for the skill of these players and doesn’t create narratives about the officiation.
The craziest part is how it can flip mid game. One minute every little contact is called. The next you can hit a guy in the back of the head and nothing. Sometimes one team gets a crazy whistle, sometimes they both do, sometimes nobody gets a whistle.
It’s like how teams go on scoring runs and droughts. The refs do the same with their whistles.
My favorite is when Team A gets called for a handful of very untimely fouls in quick succession, while Team B gets called for a larger number of fouls at less disruptive moments, and then fans just point to the final FT differential on the box score afterwards.
Team A just plays more physical defense bro, and their star drives more than anybody in the league. Don’t be hating
If your team has a small lead with a minute left on the clock they’re getting for literally anything and conversely the other team ain’t getting called for shit.
Not just modern
i don’t think these kids were old enough to see magic’s lakers or even the bulls. hell even kobe’s lakers lmao. or the wade heat…
Fucking truth. They always try and implement rules on the players to make the game flow better and stop the foul baiting. The problem is the referee’s pick and choose when to call it. Plenty of players get away with over exaggerated shooting or driving motions(annoys me the most) but that shouldn’t warrant a shooting foul majority of the time. Let them hoop!! Unless someone makes a foul away from the ball let them play.
Modern?
The worst thing by far is traveling. Dude will catch a pass, step back to behind the arc, landing on both feet, then do 3 quick lateral steps to the left or right and the ball never touches the ground.
As far as the thunder go the worst thing is SGA literally fouling every single time he gets the ball by shoving off with his forearm. Then the defender gets called for a foul.
Not really. People whining about it is. Calls are always going to be missed.
The worst thing is the hypocrisy
nah, i think that’s tanking
Not according to adam silver. Tanking is the only issue and cap circumvention/ poor officiating are total non-factors
I think it’s the hypocrisy.
It’s been inconsistent since the dinosaurs roamed the earth.
You can say this about very sport with refs at any point in history. People always complain about officiating because we’re all biased.
It’s not inconsistent we just happen to have the best defense of all time
Particularly relevant for the Lakers as the avalanches in this year’s match-ups have typically started with Luka, Austin, and Bron trying to foul bait with no call resulting in a turnover and them just complaining to the refs as OKC makes open an transition 3.
Not getting the call makes them want to force the issue to get the call on the next play, and when it doesn’t happen again and again, it just snowballs, and before you know it we’re down 20 just 5 minutes in.
JJ’s basically telling his guys stop looking for fouls and just fucking play.
Which is the correct mentality to have. Focus on what’s in front of you. If they didn’t blow a whistle, keep going
I was watching the 3rd of last night TOR vs CLE and there was a drive by I think Allen where I thought his face got grazed and there was no call initially. The defender also got grazed in the face and no call. Both players didn’t even bother reacting to the contact and kept contesting each other until a whistle was finally blown when defense swiped down on Allen’s shot attempt and failed.
Was refreshing tbh
and then Harden throws himself at the opposing coach to get a call
Or Jokic trying to qualify for a BAFTA
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/KNXFUmnB33
That’s part of the reason why I thought the Pistons/Magic series was the best of the 1st round. Both teams were incredibly physical. There would be possessions where I’d see no less than three calls that could have been made but weren’t, and nobody lingered for too long while staring at the refs because the other team was already racing to the other side and their teammates were trying to stop the easy transition bucket.
JA is the creator of the term “ethical ball” for a reason
You can’t control the whistle, but you can control yourself.
Play your game. Look at Minnesota and how they just fight through everything.
Lebron and foul baiting isn’t in the same hemisphere as Luka Austin and shai. He also has a terrible whistle more than he foul baits.
People will forget that first stint Cavs LeBron fought through so much contact and never complained.
And then as a Heat, he started selling contact when he got hit.
Not even close to what the others are doing to get the whistle.
The Pistons used to maul him and he still dominated.
Bron has to bait because his whistle has been bad for a decade lol
On every drive with a lot of contact, he’s like semi-baiting but also wants to finish the attempt for a chance at an AND1 (probably because he isn’t the best free throw shooter)
This leads to either a make with no call or a miss with no call cause he doesn’t commit to the flail
Even when he gets clearly slapped around the arms and have it affect his shot, he will not have anything called half the time lol
Jokic falls into this trap like clockwork. He feels the need to show the officials how to officiate and just spirals when it doesn’t work. Infuriating to watch.
I do not get how some players can’t just swallow their pride and get back into the game after a missed call. Complain about it all you want when play has stopped, but if the game is still going then for fucks’ sake please do not stop playing. I’m a lakers fan but I can acknowledge our guys do this to an excruciating extent
Easier to say before Dort injures someone
Jokic does have to exagerate so that he can get calls. Officials have admitted it.
I think this is where it comes from. I swear he didn’t used to flop really at all. It’s been a super disappointing development for my favorite player. I’d rather see him lose than flop around like he’s been doing. (And then losing anyway ugh)
He is taking classes from Luka. Dude bitches when he makes a shot AND GETS A WHISTLE. Do they believe me rematch the okc Dallas playoffs.
JJ has been a genuine Chad of a coach. I can’t help but wonder how many other guys out there could out coach some of the other HC’s in the league.
With only one year total coaching professional basketball, he gained my trust after second 50 win season and the way he outclassed Ime.
I think it was clear pretty early on that he has a very good basketball mind, the question was whether he can communicate with his players and be a good man manager as well. After two years at the helm of arguably the biggest circus in US sports (second biggest in the world after Real Madrid) I’m pretty confident saying he’s very good at it.
He hasn’t truly entered the circus fire yet tho.
To really test that, Lakers need to get KD
He’s good, but having LBJ playing at a high level while also being very smart helps.
People that are familiar with the best defensive teams in NBA history know that one of the key aspects of an elite or all-time defense is forcing your opponent to play optimized offense by taking away any reliance on the whistle.
It’s one of the key details that feeds into the “defense wins championships” due to playoffs generally allowing more physicality, which translates into defenses being given more room for error. However, if your team is already an extremely well-disciplined defense whilst also being physical, the playoff whistle simply benefits you that much more as a series goes on and the defense starts to adapt to whatever offensive schemes were working in the earlier rounds/games.
Yeah, as frustrating as it is to be on the other side, and saying “they keep hacking and they don’t get foul calls the way we do”, the reality is that the elite defenders are also actually that much better at reaching and getting ball instead of wrist, as well as moving their feet and staying in legal guarding position during contact. The 2020 Lakers championship team was really similar. Danny Green was one guy who was elite at reaching and stripping without fouling. Caruso was another, who’s on OKC right now.
From the broadcast view, it looks like they’re all just reaching and bumping the same on both sides, but in reality the better defensive players are for the most part better at staying on the side of not fouling than the other. Of course they get the benefit of the doubt sometimes which can be frustrating, but it’s not really as egregious as crying fans want to believe it is.
Yeah, a lot of it comes down to sensationalism that forms a narrative without perspective or honest context.
I’m going to just give my very summarized analysis of OKC’s strengths as a team.
My observation is that OKC is an elite and intense defense that pride themselves on that side of the ball. They also just so happen to have some of the best offensive ball handlers in SGA, JDub, Chet, Mitchel, Joe on top of having a really well coached defense that capitalizes on the skills that Dort, Wallace, Caruso, JDub, SGA on the perimeter and IHart, JWill, Chet, JDub on the interior.
Their defensive philosophy seems imo, to be based around having 1.5 defenders hounding the ball on every possession. Constantly reaching for any mishandle of the ball or opportunity to poke it free if you try to bully your way past them, then you have their bigs just defending the interior or slowing down a drive to allow for the opportunities to get at the ball by the hounding perimeter players.
It’s honestly a really just fundamentally good and successful defense that doesn’t give up a lot of bad possessions. It also doesn’t seem to come at the cost of being too reliant on a unique athlete, it just benefits greatly from the fact they have some. They aren’t just finding great talented players, they’ve got a roster of players that uniquely benefit from this kind of defensive philosophy.
They just also have SGA, Chet, & AJ as offensive creators.
Woe be the NBA season that these guys actually reach their peaks and miss fewer than 10 games collectively. People too often forget that this team is still itself ramping up in strength.
I agree with all of the above, but I think its also important to point out that once a team/player gains a reputation for being a good defender - they are allowed to get away with committing a lot more fouls that don’t get called compared to the average team
Half of all Alex Caruso “steals” these days are just him hitting guys on the wrist/arm aka a foul that any other player would get called for. But when Caruso does it, it’s a “steal”. At least half of the turnovers Dort and Caruso force these days are just plowing their bodies into the ball handler/tripped/shoving them until the ball comes loose.
If a defender on the average NBA team shoves/trips/pushes the ball handler in the same way, they’ll get called for a foul guaranteed
The same principles apply to a lot of the great defensive teams over the years: Thib’s Chicago Bulls headlined by Joakim Noah, the Grit and Grind Grizzlies with ZBo and Gasol
It doesn’t start out that way. But over time, part of the reason why “physical” teams are allowed to play “physical” boils down to “refs decided they’re allowed to commit fouls more than everyone else”
After all, if it was more than that, then why doesn’t EVERY team in the league play “physical” defense? It seems to generate lots of steals and turnovers! Why doesn’t everyone do it?? Because everyone else gets called for fouls when they commit them. But Caruso and Dort don’t. If they were officiated the same way that as everyone else, they would both be fouling out of the game before the half every game
Banchero could never
So all 3s here we come
I’d be ok if the refs swallowed the whistle as long as they do it to both teams. We’ll see what happens tommorow night.
Redick needs a white board so he write “THEY CONTEST WITHOUT FOULING!”
Foulling*
r/confidentlyincorrect
Unless I missed something and then r/whoooosh
r/elegantlycoveringallbases
My current mood: r/notsoelegantlycoveringallthebasesinshitincludingthird
(I am sick)
r/subsifellfor
Ham wrote “contest without foulling” on the whiteboard (though a generous interpretation I’ve seen is that one of the L’s was really the backside of his capital letter “U”).
Ah so I did miss something.
Its Darvin Hamas’ best move when he was Lakers’ HC. “Contest w/o foulling” as he wrote it during a timeout lmao
go hard on them dudes
Go hard on them dudes. Salute!
You missed something
You’re so helpful
Aw come on people had helped you, a little sass is funny
Wasn’t my comment asking about it, and it could be a joke that I missed too which would be ironic lol
I think it was a meta joke talking about the usefulness of the instruction of contest without fouling.
I like how you contested the correction but didn’t get let yourself get baited into foul by going to hard.
JJ gonna stuff his hands in his pockets after this
Salute to the Thunders for contesting without foulling
go hard on them dudes, without fouling
*foulling
salute
Salute
Lmao, time for r/NBA to tell us all that JJ Redick doesn’t know what he’s talking about 🍿
Well it’s obvious what he means lol. He means they don’t get called for fouls. They foul more than almost anyone. But he can’t say that. Anyone who has watched the Thunder knows exactly what he’s saying though.
He’s praised OKC defensive identity before he was even a coach. People saw this two seasons ago before we won the title. But all of a sudden he’s hiding cryptic hidden messages in his response to fit your narrative? Holy shit lol
This is so off if you actually watch the full clip. He is genuinely praising them and his tone sounded completely earnest
Yep, there’s the exact comment I was talking about. Lmao
You’re getting down voted but the video is Reddick straight-faced saying:
“OKC is disruptive. They are top 5 in every category that is disruptive: steals, fouls, turnovers. – And they don’t foul. They somehow do all of that without fouling. Which is what I think is one of the most remarkable things in NBA history”
Thats a nod to OKC, he’s not shitting on them and hes not saying they get calls their way. Reddick doesn’t talk about teams in that way and self accountable. People confusing Reddick with Finch.
They didn’t watch the video, it just doesn’t fit the narrative of the game being rigged and they are haters and don’t care if it’s based in reality.
I think they all go about it the wrong way but the general sentiment with fans is still clearly that OKC plays way more physical defense than most teams and doesn’t get called for (some) deserved defensive fouls. They are also still very clearly elite at defense, I don’t think anyone doubts that
I mean great players push the envelope, KD got a rules change on rip ups, Moving screens on the Warriors, Harden score leading for seasons. Until they change a rule or a call it’s just the game isn’t it? Do we expect players to not learn what’s being called and what isn’t and play the human element of the game?
I really think that’s the heart of what Reddick is talking about as an all time great defensive team etc.
Sub is pathetic
Reddit psychologists about to tell you that he was passive aggressively calling out refs bias towards OKC
they didnt even watch the clip. he’s dead serious
They don’t need to, they already know what he’s thinking
You can’t possibly be this dense. He’s obviously just working the refs before the game by calling attention to the fact that OKC never gets called for fouls.
Or are you trying to tell us that Lu Dort is some kind of collective hallucination?
collective hallucination
Reddit in a nutshell tbh
Lu dort isnt real, he cant hurt you
Mostly, it’s called a narrative divorced from reality. You are currently experiencing cognitive dissonance and trying to justify it by making it some ploy or deception, because it couldn’t be true that Reddick simply respects what he is up against and is giving his pregame sizing up of the series not wanting to engage in narratives that make him and his look weak.
DAMN BOOMED HIM
No. Why would saying ‘yeah they do a great job of defending without fouling’ work the refs? If he’s signaling that he’s fine with the way it’s being called, the refs aren’t going to change.
If it’s meant as a sarcastic slight, you’re not really putting any pressure on the refs and they’d have to interpret as a slight.
JJ has had pretty consistent praise for OKC’s defense for the last several years. He’s talked about how necessary it is to have at least 3 ball handlers on the floor against this okc defense at all times because of their ability to isolate ball handlers.
I don’t think people are watching the video here. He’s clearly complimenting OKC’s defense. He’s setting the tone of what he wants his team to expect.
Houston would bring pressure but in those moments, they were able to draw fouls to punish that pressure. You can’t punish OKC in that way.
Every team fouls, but he’s saying for the consistent pressure we bring, we foul less than you’d expect. One of the ways OKC does this is by trusting help. People will say “OKC grabs constantly” and they just aren’t watching. We are really physical up front before the ball handler tries to drive (this contact is getting allowed more because it doesn’t effect the ball handler’s SQBR). We fight over screens. But when the ballhandler gets past the defender, watch what happens, they pull their hands back and away and trail the play and the help defense rotates in. Some teams (cough cough wolves) are very bad at not trusting their help and grabbing or the defender tries to get back in front but at that point it’s really easy for the ball handler to draw a foul.
Go take a look who JJ wants Bronny to model his game after…
The other thing JJ is doing is trying to get it into his teams head to not go out looking for the foul. If players do that, it’s really easy for this OKC team to not foul. And JJ saw that happen earlier this season.
That’s just Luka but Reeves was doing the same thing. Instead of running the offense, you could tell the thought process was “okay, I have X guarding me tight, I’m going to iso and create contact” instead of actually running real offense.
And the Lakers did win the FTA margin that game 28-23, but in the attempts to draw fouls, there were wasted possessions and turnovers (turnover margin 20-11).
So JJ is just signaling to his team “don’t look for fouls, this OKC team is good at avoiding fouls when they dial in the pressure”. He’s not trying to work the refs or sneak diss OKC. He’s being genuine and trying to set an expectation for his team.
They literally think he is being sarcastic lmao, the cope.
I just can’t believe that there are upvoted replies to my comment that are the exact type of comment I’m making fun of.
Me neither, your same post with a thunder tag is also auto-9000 lol. The haters don’t like being told bandwagoning about the refs is about the lowest of the low in fan behavior, its degenerate gambler talk to denigrate the game itself and the athletes that go out and give 110% for the big bucks and a chance at glory, often times pushing themselves past the limit.
There isn’t sometime where human error wasn’t a factor or people weren’t bitter about calls, but /nba has some seriously awful conspiracy headed takes that go no where.
They’re held to a different standard than any other team in the league, people hate watch and scour these games looking for that one juicy clip. All it takes is one slow motion off-angle clip of a half and half call, type of thing that happens at some point in every single game across the league. The type of call that even the opposing players all promptly move on from (and likely get themselves at some point on the other end) and it’s on the front page making the rounds for weeks and casual fans go all like “durr hurrr it’s always the thunder with these calls.” You just have to lack critical thinking skills to be one of those people tbh. Fans will always turn their head when it benefits their team and at this point, I think OKC is just a free, tried and true, social media algorithm engagement bait farm that’s just the gift that keeps on giving for NBA observers that have more of a compulsion than a fandom. It makes OKC kinda fun to root for. Cause I’ll be honest, the people who incessantly whine and complain about OKC are far more annoying than any actual type of discrepancy in calls/officiating that I’ve observed watching them over the years. I think they play an excellent brand of basketball, and I’ll never understand the hysteria.
Hate is a strong force in the algorithm and most people don’t understand it’s a negative feedback loop, it’s also heavily conspiratorial where they turn the NBA into a scripted event where their team is trying to break the script against overwhelming odds, they casually drop allegations of game fixing and various actual crimes when talking about the officiation, as if the refs are the supreme court and can’t be fired just because they have a good union.
It’s certainly not critical thinking, it’s just conspiratorial and they feel special for their elementary school version of how they would cheat the game. A game people genuinely give the best years of their life to and a sport people pay billions into finding and training the most elite athletes, just to be cheated by the refs, just to tear their ACLs and get maimed for life, because of some storyline?
I wish they would get real and hop off the hate train, its exhausting and ridiculous. please r/nba I’m so tired.
(Thank you for being here and not an energy vampire or whatever people are that like to just shit on everything all day here. Glad there are other fans like us.)
Of course bro, and I appreciate hearing this from your end as well. I think what could help people is just frequently reminding themselves that it’s okay to want things to go and play out a certain way, but at the end of the day, you as a fan have absolutely no control over how the result of any given game or series is gonna play out. I almost wonder if all the heavy narrative posting and I’ll use the word again: hysteria, is a way for people to feel like they have some sort of control over the outcome. Or, they can feel better about their irrational hatred of a team by feeling like they’re part of a ‘consensus,’ whether that consensus is grounded in reality or just a collective disdain. But when you really break down some of the simple things people frequently say, it makes no sense at all. The squinting people have to do to rationalize their hatred of the team is unbelievable, the NBA wants to engineer Oklahoma City to be the next dynasty??? And its always funny how you know, someone like Devin Booker who shoots 8 FTAs a game (using the same bag of tricks) or Anthony Edward’s/Victor Wembanyama who each shoot 7 a pop are discussed over SGAs 9. As if one extra trip to the line is THAT offensive or disparaging towards the game of basketball.
See, I love the Tyrese Haliburton quote that he dropped on the Mind the Game podcast with LeBron (and in general, I just love that dude and his perspectives on these things). He said, “everybody loves you until you start to threaten what they want to happen.” You just gotta learn to live with whatever happens and remind yourself that it’s just basketball. Hell, you think I was happy when the Celtics won the title in 2024? No way. But at the end of the day, you tip your cap to some great team building and dominant playoff basketball. I think what the Spurs have going is awesome and unprecedented! Much like what OKC had in their breakout season two years ago. Sure, I’m more of an OKC guy and hoping to see them repeat, but man how awesome would it be to see Vic and all those young dudes go on a finals run? Seething about it on the internet and carrying it around with me in my day to day life does no good for me. I genuinely feel bad for some of these people. Certain folks around here seem to have really unhealthy relationships with the sport and love the negativity loop more than the game. Users like MrBuckBuck really went out of his way to push and establish the narrative all of last playoffs, and it sucks seeing the top post on a basketball sub night after night be a compilation of fouls or one suspect call. I just hate that this has become the prevailing theme of basketball discourse, and I wish they made a separate sub for all the free throw and officiating talk.
Well anyone with functioning eyes and an understanding of basketball knows that they definitely do foul and foul frequently. So yea I don’t know wth he’s talking about.
I don’t care bro, this level of discourse is beneath me. Sorry, it’s not worth your time to try to change my mind.
My Lakers are going to get murdered. OKC is just a flat out better team, friendly whistle or not.
The thing that’s gonna get them wrecked is that OKC doesn’t play down to their competition. They treat each game seriously and they have the playoff experience to handle challenging situations. I think it’s going to be similar to the suns series where the lakers put up a respectable effort in most of the games but ultimately lose each game.
They might squeeze out one win if OKC has a particular off night.
We’re gonna win game one and be insufferable, which will make the next four games quite satisfying for hatewatchers
I think LeBron has one game in him where it’s just 2016 form unstoppable for no freaking reason and then he’s old so he can’t do it for 4 games.
I don’t even care if we lose in 5, my biggest fear is a team member gets injured. I don’t trust Lou Dort.
Im pretty sure you’ll have 1 game where you are hot from 3 and we go cold. Shai may still be able to ice the game, but i think Smart will do a better job on him than expected.
Im not counting out the Lakers. But yes, we are better on paper at every area – especially without Luka. I just know to not count out LeBron and a cast of shooters.
Same. That Rockets series was fun and felt good to win. But it’d feel like a minor miracle if the Lakers even got one game in this series.
Even then, the FT count is usually pretty close for both teams when OKC play so it’s not like they get 20 more FT’s a game too lol
In 4 games against the Thunder this year the Lakers have averaged 27.3 FTA and OKC have averaged 19.8 FTA.
Free throws are only a small part of the equation with officiating. OKC gets steals -> transition buckets by playing extremely handsy defense. Even if they don’t get the steal, they can still take away the dribble that way and force you into bad shots. When you don’t get the same whistle on the other end, players get frustrated and things can spiral fast.
That said, the Lakers can never complain about their whistle.
Lebron (a slasher/playmaker) averages less FTA than any top ten superstar for the past 10 years. Where is this lakers bonus lmfao
One thing Mark Daigneault should get more credit for is that he clearly drills the rulebook and makes his players study refereeing very carefully. They’re one team that’s very good at finding ways to play physical defense without fouling while getting a good whistle on the offensive end. It’s definitely how they are coached.
SGA is literally the only guy on the OKC roster that gets a good offensive whistle
Even this is overblown. SGA has lead the league in drives for over half a decade now and isn’t even, or has ever been, top 20 in fouls per drive. This means, the vast and overwhelming majority of every drive to the basket, inviting contact, ends in a shot or a pass, NOT a foul.
To emphasize further, SGA isn’t even in the top 10 for % of points from FTs. 32.6% of JB3’s points come from FTs. 30.3% for Avdija, 30.3% for Harden, 27% for Luka. What this means is, SGA doesn’t rely on free throws to score as much as media makes it out to be.
Social media edits a few plays and suddenly that’s the narrative. And I get it, that’s how media companies make money. Provocative takes generate engagement at the expense of dismantling genuine basketball fans takes. 10-15 years ago, there wasn’t this much outrage about players because people had to watch games to formulate their own opinion. Now people can just doom scroll for their opinions.
User name checks out
“The Internet even thinks for me too! This is awesome! I love brainrot!”
For reference since it wasn’t included in your list, 25.5% of SGA’s points come from FTs. This is despite being one of the most accurate from the line in the league - 87.9% compared to e.g. 79.5% from Jaylen Brown.
If the haters could read they’d be very upset.
Yeah. I think hand-checking is a good example of this. It’s technically illegal, but everyone does it so you can’t call it every possession (its like holding in the NFL). So they have to police it.
And I think OKC understands the refs “meta” about the “outside the rulebook” stuff. Especially SGA.
Luka, Reaves, SGA, Booker, Harden, Embiid, etc. These guys know what situations the refs will call a hand-check foul. And since they are unguardable, they can be active and attack the handcheck to force the issue and try to get a call.
How is this complaining? He’s complimenting the Thunder saying they play disciplined defense and telling his team to stop looking for calls and just play.
This doesn’t come across as complaining about the whistle to me, fwiw. I think he genuinely respects their perimeter defenders, other than probably Dort.
Being “handsy” is not always a foul though. If you’re in a good guarding position, they always let that slide - for everyone. If you’re in a bad position when impeding the offense, they call it. The difference between the Thunder and many other teams is just much better defenders that can at least appear like they’re in a solid position and not impacting the ball handler just because they’re losing their advantage.
Of course, the alternative is a great conspiracy to benefit one of the smallest markets for some reason.
You casuals never get tired of exposing yourselves no matter how many times people explain why free throw count doesn’t tell the whole story
In this case it can unequivocally tell you that the Thunder do in fact foul. You don’t get 30 FTs a game because the other team was playing by the rules all the time.
Its more funny when you have to keep digging to make your point. when one team averages almost 10 plus free throws a game it kind of makes the foul merchant shit seem really dumb. but us casuals don’t know anything
Anyone who talks ball on reddit enough to have 70k karma doesn’t have the right to talk down on actual nba fans lmao
How many are those coming after we’re blown out and OKC legitimately don’t have to be as aggressive because we’re gifting the ball to them every possession and they’re busting our head in transition.
I’m not even denying the Lakers whistle. But this particular season deserves context against the Thunder.
Wait… that’s not the narrative though
all 19 from SGA
Redick basically telling his team to stop hunting fouls against OKC before the series even starts is smart coaching, the Thunder are the best defensive team in the league precisely because they stay disciplined. Adjusting expectations early is the right call.
Can’t wait for Dort to clothesline Wemby randomly with no foul called
Especially since Wemby is a full foot taller than Dort. That would be a spectacle
I’m assuming he told them this before their previous match as well, only for the Lakers to get shellacked anyway and have their top 2 players knocked out.
Who knows, but he said it now and it makes good sense
Disciplined? They’re so handsy and physical it just doesn’t get called or everyone would foul out early
The J’s in Redick’s name stand for Jaylen
Jaylin and Jason Reddit
Thunder defense is cleaner than last year imo, they overall are an improved squad
Dort doesn’t trip anyone, they just fall on their own.
I took this is a compliment to the defense rather than criticizing the officiating of the league. But I already know where y’all were taking this.
it 100% is. Sure there are times when i watch that I am frustrated dort gets a call flying into a screen and flopping or something but there are 5x as many plays where cason or chet just absolutely takes the ball away plus they play 0 average let alone poor defenders
Kudos to JJ for entering this series with the right mindset, rather than following the lead of certain teams and players who seem to spend more time preemptively complaining about the officiating than focusing on the basketball.
I mean he is preemptively complaining about the officiating, while also communicating to his players to not expect calls and play through it
I think he’s preemptively getting his team prepared to play through any contact while not trying to foul bait with the Thunders ability to get out in transition
“They don’t foul … and we are fouling them right now.”
AI refs when
“They somehow do all of that without filing.”
Such a coded comment.
Do y’all think JJ knows his team is cooked? Or is he holding some hope?
Of course he knows. They were supposed to be cooked against the rockets. They are gonna come out the other side with a new asshole, but this is just playing with house money.
Its a Doctor Strange “1 in 14 million path to success” situation
Of course he does. But when you play a game, do you go into it not believing there is a way you can win?
All I can hope for is that no Laker gets hurt this series
Reverse psychology
Fined before a game is played
OKC is favored by 15.5 in game 1 lol. This is David vs Goliath.
Honestly this is a good mindset. You have to understand that they’re gonna get away with a bunch of bullshit, so you just have to do your best to not let it bother you.
its the same shit with harden’s houston. when one team is a foul god, you gotta expect that you are playing against the refs and not just the opposing team.
that said, its gotta be a 4-0 lmaoooo
Lakers get the best whistle and have been for years.
They are gonna average 130 for the series aren’t they
No luka, got absolutely thrashed every meeting in the regular season. This is gonna be JJ’s time to really show everyone that he can coach
“A hack is a foul”
10% is what happens to you, 90% is how you deal with it.
Gotta fight the frustration when you feel wronged and just play.
Love this approach for our guy, gotta play through any contact and not play to draw the foul
i think he means they don’t get called for fouls, they foul all the time.
Wait until JJ finds out he’s the coach of the Lakers
Smart. Austin gon be twerking for fouls just as much as shai so kind of lame of him
OKC has outlakered the lakers.
Lakers vs Thunder is like an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object in terms of teams getting calls. It’ll be interesting to see how the refs call it. I expect OKC won’t actually get all the knick-knack calls they’re used to getting in the regular season.
My hope for the rest of the team we all have to suffer through this OKC team is that every opposiing coach just goes full Chris Finch before game one. Just throw yourself right into the refs, put the issue front and center before anyone even touches a ball.
They do, but they just dont call them for some reason. I like the message though
Wrong. They foul. They just don’t get whistled for it.
That’s exactly what he was insinuating.
I’d like someone to play bully ball with OKC. Yeah the whistle won’t be fair but at least it would make the players more hesitant on their shot selection.
A little ironic when the Lakers have had the highest free throw differential in the league over the past decade by an egregiously large margin