[Highlights] Carter Bryant absorbing SGA’s arm contact on 3 straight isolations in the 2nd quarter (incl. him trucking the MVP)
I love playoff role players like this because one night of surviving 3 straight SGA isolations instantly turns you into a cult hero š
Iggy won fmvp for defending Lebron. Check those stats from that series lol.Ā
tbd if Iggy wasnf defending him Bron probably go 40-15-15. Man was insane that year.
I mean LeBron was averaging 36 13 and 9 he almost averaged that WITH iggy guarding him š
Oh I remember. Ijs I agree with the previous comment. Iggy played good def but Bron was still Bron lol
And Steph should have been the FMVP
In a just world, LeBron gets it
But yeah, Steph > Iggy that year
LeBron shouldāve been FMVP
Still shouldn’t be enough to get him the FMVP over the guy the entire offense is built around to function.
LeBron shouldāve got it that series.By far the best performance in a loss Iāve ever seen.
Nah, they haven’t given it to the loser since Jerry West and for good reason.
This is facts. Bron’s numbers are insane but Iggy held Bron below 40% fg%
NBA fans still love to ignore efficiency.
Giving finals MVP to a guy below 48% true shooting on the losing team is insane. Curry was above 58% for comparison. Iguodala was about the same.
Lebron not having much help in the series makes his bad shooting understandable, but it doesn’t turn it into a superhuman performance.
I wasn’t suggesting LeBron should’ve gotten the FMVP. Iggy got it the year I’m referring to for keeping LBJ under 40% fg% for the series, which ultimately led them to their first finals win of the dynasty. I was adding context to why Iggy deserved FMVP that series
You werenāt, but lots of people seem to want to
such a weird coincidence. literally listening to a pod as we speak discussing how egregious that finals mvp was
I’m bias. I do agree it’s egregious af, at the same awarding def is seldom and tbf hard to with the stars in the league and how offense is promoted. An offensive player who sacrificed their play to play good D on an arguably top 3 player OAT? Fuck it give Iggy some extra hardware š¤£
Steph got 0 votes lol, LeBron got 4⁄11 and shouldāve had more
Evan Turner said “Good shit holding him to that 40 point triple double bro”
Kawhi kinda did in 2014 as well. That MVP could have easily of went to Duncan or even Diaw. Kawhi got the bump due to his defense on LeBron. Kawhi did still have a good overall game though. But watching it, it felt like Duncan was still the best player on the spurs in that series.
U of A pumping out high quality role players
Curry was the clear MVP but had a bad narrative from being “shut down” by Delly in the first couple games and couldn’t recover.
CB truck sticking SGA made him a folk hero around some parts of the sub
He’s a role player, but he’s got a good starter ceiling if he develops properly which makes those kind of stint very interesting to watch as well, you can’t help but root for the guy.
his true ceiling is a star
lol I mean they still scored on two of the three
if you’re defending Shai in isolation and the result is him passing it away, I think you still get credit if somebody else makes a shot.
Yea they scored 5 point on 3 possessions, not sure how much he survived
He’s a rookie defending against the MVP lol, if you don’t think he defended well here you don’t know ball
Never said it wasnāt good defense but itās just funny to post defensive highlights where the opposing team still shot 66%
So true.
I still remember when Haywoode Workman came out of nowhere and can one game away from running point for a Finals team in ‘94.
Dude is really earning his entire salary on not letting SGA push off. Just kinda asorbs the arm and stays on him.
Reminds me of Will Klein last WS.
He played some small ball C in the regular season and now he’s getting minutes on the court as SGA’s main defender. If he keeps this stuff up, he’ll just be a hero
He’s the next Bruce Bowen.
OKC scored on 2 out of those 3 possessions. What is even happening on this sub.
By not letting a statistical sample size of 3 affect the judgement of very good 1 on 1 iso D.
If every Spur can D Shai like that every possession, they wouldn’t need to double sometimes quadruple team him. And OKC wouldn’t turn 67% of those possessions into buckets.
Plus itās the NBAā¦you can play near perfect defense and the guy might still hit a turning fade away shot that would be desperation anywhere else
‘arm contact’ to avoid saying push off is crazyš
keeping it non controversial but we all know whats up, cb is a stud
Let’s call a spade a spade
lets call a fish a fish
I thought the first two were more of push offs than the third
i can def see him extend his arm on all 4 push offs, it’s just that on the last 2 in the third clip, shai looks gassed lol cb isn’t moving at all on these
feel like this is kinda what the thunders strat was for wemby with their 3 bigs, constantly just rotate them out so they are crazy fresh for a handful of possessions to really fuck with him, seems they sorta got away from that or wemby just got used to it…
This is like CB here, he comes out for a quick 3 min run absorbs these hits, (also trucks the fuck out of him twice on defense), and then runs to the bench to recoup so he can do it again later to a gassed sga.
The announcers always say āehhhh, Shai creating a little space thereā¦ā Push off. Itās a fucking push off. An offensive foul. They think Iām dumb or what?
That screen by Wallace is egregious
Thatās why the GSW moving screen v. Thunder flopping discourse Iāve seen is pretty amusing.
As if the Thunder donāt use moving screens as well lol
The entire league uses moving screens, GSW may have innovated it and pushed the envelope on it but itās a league wide thing now
Exactly the reason we should instead be diligent when teams push the limits instead of poo pooing it
That’s why Thunders are pushing a bad precedent, because other teams are going to follow and the game will be a slop.
Sure. Iāll just go ahead and give Adam Silver a call then.
Which is why we have to nip the manhandling/flopping combo that OKC has mastered in the bud with before it gets normalized. I don’t want to watch 30 teams playing this style.
Youāre literally watching the Spurs do the same shit and you donāt care lol
It was a league-wide thing before GSW, too. It wasn’t as visible for the Heatles because they weren’t as screen-heavy an offense but Shane Battier and Birdman never once set a stationary screen.
screens don’t even exist anymore, now people can just sumo push the defender on a switch
Iāve said this so many times but no one tries to hear it.
Watched a fun interview with Steven Adams where he talked about the fact that he often levels other players on screens because they expect him to set a moving screen like everyone else, but because he keeps it solid they just run right into him.Ā
I remember the Mavs traded for bogut from the warriors specifically for his screens and they called like every moving screen on him with us š©
And the league didn’t want to enforce because of Steph
GSW were allowed to have moving screens because it was mitigated by the amount of contact they allowed defenders on Steph, it was always a thing they danced with the refs about. You give us this, we* give you that.
OKC just keeps getting the benefit of being super physical themselves with their on-ball defence and soft with touchy calls on offence and allowed to use off arms and flops on screen. It’s insanely unbalanced for them.
And the stats back this up. In the reg season they were called for the 7th fewest fouls per game. Before game 2 (I believe when I checked this last) of this series they were called for the 2nd fewest per game amongst all playoff teams.
Anyone who watches the games can see there is no fucking world where they should only be called for the 2nd fewest. Now they’re 7th again 6 games in, and still behind the Knicks with teams remaining.
edit: corrected the second you to we*
if you ever read comments in the game threads, there are so many Thunder fans whinging whenever Castle wraps a screener up because thatās apparently a foul
but heās only doing that because itās a moving screen and wrapping them up makes it look more obviousā¦ which is what guys in the NBA have been doing for decades
GSW basically created this level of moving screen, now itās a lot more prevalent
Hope the league doesnāt adopt OKCās level of flopping next
it was right after they called a relatively lightly push by the spurs too. trying to keep the game close imo
Non-bigs get away with the worst screens just because they are smaller.
Looks like he literally held his hand and took him for a walk wtf
The Cason Wallace special, dude loves to hold arms and hands and somehow gets away with it
Looked like an offensive tackle blocking the edge rusher around corner.
Looked like an average pick that happens every single game on every other play lmao
Average pick that happens every warriors and thunder game. You clearly are in a bubble bud.
Kornet pushed Shai from the 3 point line all the way into the paint last game lol I see this play every game no matter what teams are playing. No need to be delusional just to get some hate off
And they get away with that shit
That happens on like every other play for every team but with OKC itās āegregiousā Iām sure you point it out everytime a screen like that happens. Like when Kornet put 2 hands on Shai from the 3 point line and pushed him into the paint on a screen last game
The moving screen after Bryant is holding SGA by the jersey? That one?
where do you even see that
He’s going to be a beast. If he improves his shot, his ceiling is Anunoby.
His shot is really nice. Just needs WAY more reps.
I’m fully expecting him to be a key player after next season and for Mitch to play him a lot for the sake of development.
Really nice find in the middle of the First round. Kid looks like he loves to play defense, is ripped, and is only 20. Future is bright for him
OG is so underrated. If we get Anunoby at home off the 14th pick that was good drafting.
He’s been underrated before he was drafted. I think he was the 19th pick or something ridiculous like that.
He was absolutely deadly in the Hawks series. Watching him drain highly contested threes with the shot clock ending, multiple times in a game, was disheartening as a Hawks fan. As a fan of basketball though, it was some of the most impressive shooting Iāve ever seen. Much respect to OG
I think it was game 3 when he went off, reminded me of Kawhi. Just unstoppable on both ends of the court.
This comment brings a tear to my eye. How far we’ve come.
I think that was cause of his ACL tear and him being an awful FT shooter in college, raising questions about his shot. I remember him showing up top ten in mock drafts at some points during his final college season.
yeah, I wanted him so badly in that draft too. I would’ve taken him at 13 before we traded back, but Connelly tried to get too cute and Masai sniped the pick right before ours
This is actually a really good comparison
i donāt think weāve seen nearly enough yet to say that. OGās got a mean step back middy now and is an amazing driver in addition to the C&S threes
he has a mean step back middy NOW, but I don’t remember him having that in his first year in Toronto.
Yeah but he showed flashes of on ball stuff offensively early on that carter hasnāt
carter did show flashes of good offensive bag in the regular season but he’s just pretty raw right now
And that was Carter’s draft profile.
I think he might reach Kawhi-lite levels on defense. His athleticism is good and he can hit the three as well. Might turn out to be a unique 3&D player.
Kawhi was strong and mobile as fuck and so is CB, so i could actually see him reaching the same level defensively
and yeah, thatās DPOY candidate levels.
Not sure you can learn OGās cold bloodedness
Those are called push offs, sir. ESPN was forced to do actual analysis on them today.
Analytically it’s called arm contact š¤
Nonono, haven’t you heard that it’s called “creating space”?
In the NFL, it’s called a stiff arm.
Guy is just “creating space”
Forced? ESPN busts a nut at anything controversial lmao
Is the analysis that refs only call it when itās convenient?
How is that not a moving screen by Wallace on that last iso? Dude basically played right tackle against Carter Bryant there.
Because OKC turned the fouls setting all the way down.
They don’t call moving screens unless you sell really hard. That’s why okc does it so often and even then it only gets called like 30% of the time.
Somewhere in the world Dort is practicing how to optimally tumble after hitting a screen and then get up as fast as possible to prevent an advantage from forming in his absence.
My guy doing barrel rolls.
While accidentally tripping a player, donāt forget the most important step.
Dort hitting the blocking sled then hitting the ground for reps in practice.
Because okc
Warriors would be the kings without moving screens š
Yea because every screen set is legal and no one has set an illegal screen except gsw
Now reply to your other comment with this reply while replacing “gsw “with “okc”.
Moving screens are never called if the defender doesnt flop
Almost every screen nowadays is like this. NBA allows anything to help free up offensive players
Wallace is like Dort, Jr. out there playing like a linebacker from what I’ve seen of him this playoffs.
Bro, being honest, as much as I dislike him for flopping, dude has such a strong mid-range shot. He is having to WORK for those, but he hits them.
Heās a baller, covered up by the fact his flopping is simply atrocious.
Itās honestly why people dislike him as much as they do, lol. Could be the best player in the league without all that unethical shit, chooses to do it anyway.Ā
Tbh heās doing it more this series because it feels like heās lost a step due to the physicality. I hate the flopping as well and wish heād just go get buckets, but heās worn down it feels like.
Iāve never seen SGA miss as many transition layups Iāve seen him miss this series. Credit to SA. We desperately needed a healthy Dub/Ajay for SGA to find a rhythm.
Is he missing those layups because of him trying to embellish contact? Some of those layups he missed in game 6 were absolute head scratchers.
Ive never seen shai airball a wide open finger roll like that in my life, I watch like 60 of the thunder games a year and he is just shorting every single shot. Which is usually what happens when youre exhausted and worn out.
I knew it was wraps when he airballed that layup.
I think heās gassed. He makes those all season regardless if heās trying to avoid contact or embellish
I don’t think he lost a step. He’s getting past Castle and others. He’s just feeling Wemby’s presence and is hesitating near the rim.
Doesnāt explain the fast breaks
Is SGA secretly hurt or something? Did he get that banged up against the Suns? He really seems to be going through something.
He had a bad fall that bent his hand backwards. My guess is something will come out after these playoffs that he was hurt
No, i dont really know if he could. I mean its near impossible as a guard these days without being completely outlier in shooting like Curry. Shai felt close to that with his middie, but only in the regular season.Ā
In the postseason, defenders can contest his shots way more because theyāre less afraid of committing soft fouls that would fly in the reg season. So Shais superpower gets nullified and he doesnt look as good of a midrange shooter.Ā
At what point are players just simply incentivized to take advantage of flopping? Because if they get rewarded for it, then is it the playersā fault, or the referees/rules?
I mean most players have shame. And care if the fans and other players respect them.
Heās not even the best player in the league with this shit
Anyone who can’t admit this is not a serious person
He’s so good , super polished player.Ā His antics take away a lot of the respect he should be getting for being awesomeĀ
I feel in my bones that Carter Bryant is going to make an all-defense team in the next five years.
The All-Defense team is just going to be the Spurs starting 5, lol
It’s wild that Harper in a couple of years could legitimately be our worst defender in the starting 5.
Are you imagining a starting five of Harper, Castle, Vassell, Bryant, Wemby? That seems small to me. I think we still need our 4 of the future. But I’m not sure what profile would be best for the 4. Maybe we need two, a low post bruiser and a stretch four.
I was thinking Harper, Castle, Bryant, Morez, Wemby. With Vassel coming off the bench.
Feels like itās gonna take a miracle for Morez to fall to the Spurs but you know what, Iāve kind of gotten used to miracles for the Spurs in the draft.
Morez’ draft value increased, projecting him to be pick before 18. It’s either Dailyn Swain, Karim Lopez, or Allen Graves.
In the NFL for sure. Great linebacker
carter doing this on his rookie year is amazing. these pieces that spurs accumulated are really interesting to watch how they develop more.
The pass to Caruso should’ve been a travel. He landed with the ball still in his hands.
Doesn’t count. I saw Jordan get away with traveling once.
Also, someone on the Lakers traveled once so really no one can complain
Casuals think SGA invented traveling.
spurs court physical contact on the drive, 2 shots for okc.
brothers, probably.
CB is one of the biggest guys on the court it always looks like.
Bros head is always comically small compared to how broad his shoulders are š
Plus how young he is, looks like a baby in a trollās body
Heās got absolutely ridiculous athleticism combined with the enthusiasm (and spatial awareness) of a golden retriever puppy, lol. He is gonna be so good once he polishes his game a bit moreĀ
Bro is more like a Rottweiler
Amazing defense proud of Carter Bryant for staying on him but this is also illustrates how good SGA is I remember literally groaning and burying my head in my hands after that last shot like fuck this guy is still hitting these shots
Should have been a flagrant on the truck. Wasnāt even the first time he did it that game lol
As a huge OKC hater, youāre probably not wrong lol. That was bonkers.
I donāt care for either team lol, but that was absolutely not a basketball play
“Should’ve boxed out better” yeah if shai had his body turned, hes going head first into the floor at Mach fuck with unexpected force like that.
SGA deserved to be run over for that awful box out āattemptā on the last play.
He just fell down instead of trying to absorb it.
Just good physical playoff basketball
Cason Wallace lmao
thats a normal screen find a new slant
my goat
With the push off being one of the most prevalent and powerful moves in the NBA, that ability to defend a push off and keep balance is going to be a defining feature of who is an elite on ball defender and who isn’t
I hate when people try to post push offs like a highlight. You didnāt cross anyone over, you just shoved the opponent to the ground
I appreciate Mike Tirico acknowledging the flopper chants.
I like this Carter Bryant fella. I think weāll keep him.
Thatās that Jrue Holiday core strength
That Wallace screen on Bryant starts inside the three point line and Wallace hold him/moves all the way to the logo before Bryant breaks free. It wasnāt a moving screen. It was a transcontinental odyssey.
Cherokee Parks is the only acceptable response to this level of delusion.
Young fella stepped up. Mitch was pumped for him.
His recovery on that second push was sick. That one was so good it jumped out watching it live.
If Okc wins we will get to compare the 2025 pacers and 2026 Knicks
Push off king
He in him like butt pockets on pants.
Wallaceās screen starts below the point line and ends up near the logo. Also travel on the second one.
Idky but the gif videos on this sub never play on my phone. Anyone have a fix for this or is my phone as stupid as I am
Try a different browser?
Iād heed your advice but I use the Reddit app
bro can cook
Honestly I think this is how basketball should be played. Physicality on both sides.
I never thought OKC was going to win game 6 but OKC letting the 9th man completely truck your guy made me seriously question their chances in game 7. Not sticking up for their guy was like them not quite quitting like they have done in games but for real just quitting. It was a dirty play with the only purpose of hurting him. They do that to Wemby you think castle or Vassell arenāt starting a scum?
Is it me or do a lot of the guys on the Spurs seem beefy. I mean obvious top dawg is Big Body.
Also, anytime Castle is not guarding SGA, it must be Carter.
if this is tony brothers, 5 fouls
SGA owns him
Lopez is the most intriguing. But so raw.
This draft class had some DAWGS
Spurs got a good rookie on their hands. He’s on one of the best teams to develop.
you love to see it. “arm contact” aka offensive foul and if you think it isn’t then try on it on SGA
Still not over how the shot that gave them the lead in game 7 last year was an egregious push off
That pass out the second shot and the shot make on the third was nasty. Fuck SGA.
So yāall want SGA to play thru contact but Carter cant handle an elbow while playing defense. And then commits two flagrant fouls and only one common foul is called. Make it make sense.