4 games in, SGA’s +/- is -8. Wemby’s is +50.
Quite the difference in supporting casts.
For reference, the series is 2-2 and the Spurs have a +4 overall scoring margin.
+4 scoring margin with +50 is kinda nutty
They’re winning Wemby minutes massively and losing the non Wemby minutes massively
Thanks Magic
Welcome to the Embiid experience, Wemby. Hopefully it doesn’t last long since the Spurs are an actual competent organization.
It’s the super star centre experience because the drop off to a backup tends to be large than other positions.
Kornet is a NBA champion
The drop off speaks more about how insane Wemby is than Kornet’s quality, he could easily be a starter for some teams in the league
Easily? Who? The guy is 30 and before this season he has never managed more than 18.5 MPG and never averaged above 7 PPG..
Raptors will give a frp for a man of those talents
I have seen this plenty of time and he get super overrated. Nice backup and that’s it. He has played 30+ minutes 26 times, IN HIS CAREER. Surely he can start for some teams, but he wouldn’t be any good.
2 things can be true. Al Horford is an NBA champion too and I bet he won’t make much of a difference compared to Kornet.
We hate yall for giving them McCain. I just needed to get that off my chest.
Your hate for the 76ers pales in comparison to a 76ers’ fan’s hate for the 76ers.
This is so true lol.
you couldn’t possibly hate the 76ers FO more than we do, they wasted one of the best players of this century’s entire prime
How the hell is Elton Brand still around?
Wembiid
This is a conference final. It has nothing to do with the Embiid experience.
This is why the nuns intervened.
big if true
Wemby doesn’t even need to work on skills just conditioning in the off-season. Starting next season, play all 36mins of the first 3 quarters and the Spurs are basically guaranteed a blowout win.
Have players on recent dominant teams ever played all 12 minutes of a quarter, for three quarters straight? Jokic maybe?
If Wemby could get to that level of conditioning that’d be an even further level of insanity.
Steve Nash played KD on the Nets for all 48 minutes.
“Steve Nash played KD” nah they used Nash like a condom. KD subbed himself in
KD subbed himself in
And just like the Avatar, when things get tough he subbed himself out.
Harden played all 53 minutes of that game 7 on a torn hamstring, that was crazy
He’s alien tho, so anything is possible
certified Monstar
at most is low 40s mins. Around 42 but that’s 20 years ago and that was AI. Everyone else plays around 36-39 mins and that includes jokics.
Only exception is Wilt who did that for an entire season. 48.5 mpg including OTs
Jokic don’t play D so he can play those big minutes
Jokic is actually a fairly average defender simply due to being big, lol. The rebounding massively helps, too.
If you watched the Wolves layup line you’d know that isn’t true
Lebron been damn close. Believe one game he had 45 mins no ot
LeBron for his career over 300 playoff games averages almost 42 minutes a game in the playoffs. He’s had many where he’s played every minute.
Good plan if you want Wemby out of the league at 25
Nah. 8-10-12 for 30 minutes of pure domination might be better.
Nah it’s like he can do anything, but I think the magnitude of options he has gives him choice paralysis.
He gets into his bag and doesn’t know the way out.
Whereas dirk has like one move and fucks you up with just that.
Wemby doesn’t have an offense like that. Or even a set of moves like Hakeem.
So if they’re somehow keeping Wemby out of the paint he can’t post or spinning jumpshot or anything a lot cuz he just doesn’t focus in on the moves.
Perhaps he’s waiting for the defense to bite, but he’s 7’4 he should just be shooting/ doing moves above the defense.z
SGA slander posts are already coming out in full force 😭😭😭
Not even slander honestly. Wemby has just surpassed him and that’s ok
This is a future goat level player
I just want the Knicks to win a championship before Wemby enters his prime
Will take an all time offensive rebounding performance from Robinson and some OG bully ball
OG is scary right now though, not sure who the Spurs have to deal with that guy when he’s on. Not saying the Knicks will win especially if Wemby keeps this up - but OG is kind of a wildcard in that series imo.
Plus Brunson is always beatable until it comes time to beat him. I wasn’t really a believer either, but the way he’s been painting the glass from crazy fucking angles is otherworldly.
Brunson is a freak but the Spurs guards plus Wemby are going to at a minimum be able to force other players to beat them
I agree in principle. Castle, Vassell, Harper, Champagnie, etc should be able to give him trouble but fuck man you really never know til you see it in the playoffs. Brunson is literally a freak of nature. He might foul two of them out a game.
It’s more that Wemby is a cheat code that allows the Spurs to double without giving up too much
OG’s weakness has always been handles. Guard his shot and force him to dribble. He’ll still find ways to score 15-20pts without any plays called for him tho.
Try hitting free throws at over 50%. Imagine if he hit 75%
If the Spurs make the finals, the Knicks I think are the best team to beat them
Well it would be very hard for any other team besides the Knicks to beat them seeing as they are either no longer in the playoffs or are the cavs
I feel like you have one chance lol
The time is now.
Ironically I think the Knicks chip is contingent on Spurs making the finals. I don’t think Wemby can contend with both Mitchell and KAT
Im pretty sure the only team that won the wemby minutes this season was the knicks
imo a Knicks championship this year would be perfect for parity sake. Spurs next season.
But you’ve already won a championship this season. Save some for the rest of us
Glad that I saw my team won a lot before Wemby unlocks his powers further. We also have Cooper in this conference. Oh well
People were so excited to say the Wemby is the best player in the world discussion was premature
Nope, I’ve been saying it for months
It’s not even close.
I hope the Thunder fans are as gracious as they were when SGA “surpassed” Luka because his team is 2 times better
I mean, yeah, I’m not sure you’ll even see any thunder fan who isn’t a fucking moron argue with you on that. Wemby is literally built to be in the goat conversation.
So just to check, Wemby has surpassed Jokic and that’s ok right?
I mean, it’s not slander if it’s a factual statement.
Also SGA slander has been running at a consistent high for a while so I don’t know what “already” is supposed to mean.
Not high enough
I’m a lawyer. This legally checks out ☝🏼
That’ll be two free throws for SGA.
Oh man this feels familiar
Thru 3 games: shai + 10, wemby +21
They should be. He’s a punk bitch.
“THIS SLANDER IS SO GOOD I COULD DIE”
Is posting stats considered slander now?
Keep em coming boys
SGA about to get underrated
It’s not slander, Wemby is just clearly the most impactful player in the league
Spurs need Wemby more than OKC needs Shai. Both still great players
One greater than the other
One is just more important to his team. Actually, you could say out of all the players in the NBA, Wemby is probably the most important for his team. They should make an award for that.
Would one dare to say more valueble? 👀
Huh. That has a nice ring to it.
maybe they could call it like Most Important Player or something, idk
But there’s already the MIP (Most Improved Player) award. I would change “Important” to something else.
We can call it MVP (Most Vital Player)
I think we should make it more European sounding.
Valuable Player, The Most
Thats more like Yoda
He also is just better.
Jokic?
So Wemby is, and hear me out, the Most Valuable to his team?
Big if true
Literally the argument for why Wemby should be MVP
Was thinking the same😂
While true, OKC really needs Shai for his creation offensively, especially with Ajay and JDub out.
Real mvp
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander? More like Shai Labeouf.
Shai ain’t making the run across the battlefield to revive Optimus.
mfw Optimus dies because Shai didn’t get the call and Autobots were out of challenges.
FLYING THROUGH THE NIGHT
quiet, quiet
DORT CHOPS WITH ALL HIS MIGHT
deny it, deny it
THEY’RE SHOOTING MORE FREE THROOOOOOWS
FALLING, FLAILING, SHAI LEFLOP
More like Shai Leflop
Shai Anthony Bennett
last game everyone was laughing at him for 4 rebounds lol
NBA fans are special
You realize those aren’t the same people right?
Spurs lose, and all the Wemby haters flock to Reddit. Spurs win, and all Shai haters flock to Reddit.
I’m playing both sides
so you always come out on top
More people could just be in the middle and say they are both great.
Or they can hate both and still be in middle
People don’t know about the goomba fallacy
Don’t worry when Wemby has 23/8/2 next game on bad shooting, he will go from the best player in the world to overhyped fraud.
But he’s still a monster on defense even if he puts up 23/8/2
we are but prisoners of the moment
it’s incredible to watch game to game whichever team lost be crowned as frauds
Goomba fallacy
It’s only fair that people who pushed SGA mvp defend what we’re watching. It’s not close who’s valuable. And that doesn’t mean SGA now sucks, he’s obviously incredible but like come on it’s literally most valuable player award and SA is getting annihilated anytime Wemby rest
I’d say chain snatched but in reality that shit was still on Jokic’s neck when yall stole and laundered it to this fraud
This series is Caruso VS Wemby tbh. Caruso’s +/- is insane
I think he is next highest in the series at +24
Was insane
True until game 4.
+0 in 32min in game 1
+18 in 25 min in game 2
+28 in 24 min in game 3
-22 in 14 min in game 4
It’s Wemby vs the OKC bench. Someone from the bench has gone nuclear from 3 every game
Man, these Wizards/Spurs finals we will assuredly get in coming years will be doing massive numbers in France.
I’m rooting for you guys (and Bilal and Alex 🇫🇷). You’re gonna have a good team next season
I mean, I’m hoping for the Spurs / Wizards finals, but the games are happening between 2 and 5 am in France, so I doubt they make much… I’m a French fan and I haven’t been able to catch a single game this series yet, way too bad timing
Even with the week-end we just got ? It was on the Friday-Saturday and Sunday-Monday nights as lots of us weren’t working today.
Leonsis will find an inevitable way to fuck that up. He only cares about his hockey team
Would like to see Wemby win the WCF MVP even if they lose.
I’d love that too. He’d be so fuckin mad.
Would be hilarious if they have Chet give him the trophy too
Nah give it to chet for his great effort guarding wemby.
By great effort you mean hugging him every possession?
I think we can all agree giving chet the award is the funniest option.
And if igudala can win a fmvp we have a precedent
The closet we got to loser winning MVP was LeBron in 2015 finals, and I think that was even more dominant than Wemby in this series
They bout to pull up Shais report cards from the 3rd grade
Teacher remarks: Occasionally colored outside the lines, but Shai claims it’s only because his classmate bumped him, so it’s okay 10⁄10 ⭐️⭐️
Was laying on the floor 1⁄5 more than his peers
dude crushed nap time
Why doesn’t he just flop harder? Is he stupid?
about to get diabolically unethical
Coughing Baby, meet Hydrogen Bomb
They should give the WCFMVP to Wemby even if the Spurs lose.
sga -8. wemby +50. series tied 2-2.
the mvp is being outplayed by the guy who didn’t win mvp and somehow it’s still a coin flip because one of them has a bench and one of them has kelly olynyk
Let’s not act like the Spurs aren’t incredibly deep all of a sudden. They aren’t playing that great this series but the Spurs definitely are deep.
They both have good bench, however Thunder role players were shooting lights out from 3 first 3 games. They are shooting high percentage even for wide open shots that Spurs were giving them. In game 4 they also had easy 3, but just didn’t made them and they got blew out.
Wemby wasn’t that good either in the games they lost
he averaged 24/11/5/1/3 on 65%TS with all-time defense and was +5 despite the team by 24 giving Wemby a +29 point swing.
In what world is this “not that good”
You can either acknowledge he played well despite loss, or sure say that’s bad for Wemby and hand him the title of GOAT because if that “not that good” for him he must be the GOAT
the real MVP is showing
on/off can be very misleading but it isn’t here
“Back to back mvp” lmao everyone knew it was fake. No one respected it outside of Oklahoma.
My favorite part of the playoffs is reactionary comments like this where people discredit everything a player has done after one game. He had a perfect MVP case stop lying lmao
He deserved MVP but the actual thing that we’re seeing is there’s a difference between regular season dominance and postseason dominance. SGA still is very good in the playoffs. But he’s not all-time great level good the way his regular stats suggest.
Just as an example, Shaq only has one MVP but SGA doesn’t sniff Shaq’s level of dominance regardless of regular season performance.
Yeah I mean the MVP is literally just the best performer in the regular season, what you do in the post season doesn’t matter for the award, at most it will make a slight difference in future MVP voting. Kawhi has the best post season in 2019 and was arguably the best player at the time, but he was 9th in MVP. Should he have been higher? No, not really, his regular season doesn’t become better because of what he did after.
No one thinks Nash was better than Shaq just because he won MVPs over him either, and no one is gonna think Shai is on that level either unless he adds a lot more to his resume.
This year I do think he deserved MVP given the impact of injuries to both the Thunder and other candidates (just provided too much value by actually playing in games)
I think last year voters just got over hyped about team performance despite Jokic being more valuable
In the game thread someone said he’s not a real superstar and had like 1k upvotes lol
this year? yes.
Last year? nopes.
I know r/nba fans don’t understand basketball, and that this sub has goldfish memory and lives on reactionary takes, but c’mon. Shai might get a crazy whistle, but per 75 possessions, this dude averaged 33/7/5/1/1 on 67% TS (+9 rTS) and led his team to 64 wins. This was legitimately one of the greatest offensive seasons ever; he definitely deserved that MVP.
He also had the deepest bench, the best supporting cast in the league and a, lets say controversial, relationship with the foul line. He has a fantastic case for being the best regular season player this year but it’s pretty hard to make a case for him being the most valuable IMHO. To me these are two different things.
Most MVP winners have good teams historically.
Hell, the only players I can remember watching in my lifetime who didn’t have great teams (great meaning teams built around them that either had star talent or were built around their star perfectly and could compete in the playoffs) are Jokic ‘22, and Westbrook ‘17.
The Westbrook season was crazy cause people would be like “Andre Roberson is unplayable cause he can’t make three or free throws” and he was still our second best player that playoffs.
Yeag that team had no business being the sixth seed I remember the Thunder were giving heavy minutes to Enes Freedom he was basically the 3rd best player.
What’s wrong with being a FT merchant from a pure basketball perspective?
“He also had the deepest bench, the best supporting cast in the league and a, let’s say, controversial relationship with the foul line.”
Well, the last part of your statement is not really important since it’s not like breaking any rules. To the other points the nature of MVP has always rewarded players on great teams Russell, Bird, Magic MJ, Lebron, Kobe, Shaq, Nash, Curry etc all played great team’s win they won the award hell the MVP rarely goes to a player truly carrying their team. Jokic ‘22 is probably the last person who fit that criteria, and before him, it was Westbrook ‘17.
Well if ur using deep bench as an insult to SGA then that’s also why his +/- is getting dwarfed by Wemby. His bench is good whilst Kornet has been ass since the 2nd half of this season began
I don’t disagree, but the problem with acknowledging an extraordinary whistle is that it inflates your efficiency by 1 removing your misses from the stat sheet, and 2 requiring players to play looser defense on you to avoid fouls.
1
2
SGA is an all-timer with or without the whistle, but when he routinely gets the kind of call that sits atop this sub right now while also putting up outrageous FTMs any time he underperforms from the field (e.g. 1, 2, 3), a sizeable portion of the viewing public will inevitably deny the genuine excellence he displays otherwise.
You’re not wrong to call out that a lot of people here don’t seem to know ball, but is it that unreasonable for the casual fan to look at all of this and wonder how those stats would look if it weren’t for these calls – or whether he’d have managed to break Wilt’s streak without them, or pull out wins in some of the games that he did? That’s the problem with allowing the product to degrade the way it has: the understanding required to see past the whistle grows increasingly rare. I wouldn’t blame the casuals for this half as much as I’d blame the league.
Reddit echo chamber comment #1 ^
I would’ve voted Wemby for MVP this year but SGA is definitely not undeserving. Was your respect even worth anything to begin with? You’re a laker kpop gooner.
To be fair, it’s a regular season award
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/9fxgIREVg1
As much of a thunder hater i can be, this is just going too far Shai has his unethical issues on the floor, but when it comes to his actual MVP candidacy and deservedness its hard to really say he was a fake MVP man.
you can sure argue wemby maybe deserved it, but by the metrics we usually use to decide this stuff shai rightfully earned this years imo, that doesn’t mean he is gifted an NBA championship as well, but no way in hell was he a fake MVP this year or last year.
kinda easy to tell who the mvp is
Shai was -15 in a 7 point loss in game 1, +14 in a 9 point win in game 2, +11 in a 15 point win in game 3, and -18 in a 21 point loss tonight in game 4
Wemby has been positive in every single game so far in the series. People were raking Wemby over the coals after game 3 saying “-11 after the start” as if the beginning of the game somehow didn’t count
The Thunder bench and Tony Brothers are why this series isn’t 3-1 Spurs right now
People realise how little Wemby played this season? He would have clearly been MVP if he had similar minutes to the other candidates
There’s a reason he didn’t play those minutes, and you saw why in G2 and 3. The downside of being 7’5” with an 8’ wingspan is that you get gassed real easy. Wemby playing big minutes across a full season is unlikely to happen and really it’s not worth risking injury to do so. Better to develop a team around him that can hold the line and give him some rest.
If the Spurs can win 60 games with Wemby on a minutes restriction, they certainly won’t change their approach.
Yeah agree he’ll never be a high minutes guy but the gap will close given how aggressively he was managed this year
Best player in the world
Spurs, please try play wemby 48 minutes. Come on. I know it’s atleast slightly tempting to the Spurs coaches
They have, in game 1; and he was gassed the next games Maybe they will if a game 7 happens and they know it’s now or never… but for now I don’t think that’s the best strat
and they know it’s now or never…
I hate to say it but I don’t think the Spurs will be in a ‘now or never’ situation with Wemby on the team unless a decade passes and he still hasn’t got a ring. More like ‘now or next year’ for some time.
Some good embiid type shit
I can’t wait to see this sub switch up yet again after okc wins G5
Wemby the best player, the most impactful, the most valuable player, but clearly mvp award should be SGA
Insane how the playoffs and the regular season are two different things
Do you think wemby not the most valuable? Or not the most impactful because he play only 30 minutes in regular season?
No calls, no success for Shai
Wemby is so clearly the best player in the world
Wemby is better than SGA. Fight me, OKC fans.
Shaister indeed.
Wemby is only tall. If he was 6’3” he would be -6 maybe -7. OKC in 4
I know plus/minus is flawed but this is insane
Don’t look at SGAs net on-off for the playoffs
Plus minus isn’t a perfect metric but at this scale you can’t ignore it.
MVP MVP
Yet the series is tied 2-2. 🤔
Would you rather deal with the fish’s scoring, “playmaking”, or him being off the court?