[Highlight] SGA hits the contested stepback 3 to put OKC up by 3 with 32 seconds left
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Today felt like the game where SGA fully embraced the style he’s going to have to play with this team
OKC have no choice but to have him shoot 30 times a game now with how much depth they’ve lost I don’t think it’s his first choice to be that kind of ultra volume shooter but it’s their best chance now
He’s gonna average 35 on like 45% shooting at this rate
With 90% of the fucking team hurt he for sure is going into his Kobe mode
More like 37, he already averaged 32 on 20 shots
bro thinks hes darius acuff
I saw someone call him Shai Gilgeous Acuff Jr
My thoughts exactly. Ugly but if it works it works
I’m not sure it works long-term really. he looked exhausted.
System SGA is free, incoming Kobe SGA
Finna drop 82 later this year, 1 shy to pay respects to Bam.
Idk about ugly. It’s beautiful
Career high in attempts!
Honestly i’m excited to see the Shai carry job this season. It’s not fun from a team perspective but like 2021 Steph it’s fun to see what these guys are really capable of.
Pretty much lmao 🤣
His 06 Kobe Season
SGA about to enter his Kobe era to carry this OKC
He’s going to have to carry this team for real now
“We’d like you to take 10 shots and work to a system”
To
“Nvm were injured go full Kobe”
For real. Like I mean he’s got some teammates that can make the occasional shot and there but I feel that it’s definitely ride or die by Shai now
Its fun to see him with the keys and direction.
Hey, can you mamba?
I literally just said he was going into his Kobe mode with this entire team hurt lmao! Crazy to read your comment seconds after I posted basically the same thing
you’re surprised by other people drawing kobe comparisons with a player spamming midranges and drives and late game chucking with a full green light
Even in those stacked OKC teams from 2023 to 2026, he had to carry them far too much. Just a lot of injuries in OKC all the time.
Why didn’t Cleveland send a double? It’s Shai and the Pipps right now, make one of them beat you
They’ve been sending basically a triple the entire game but it’s when he gets within 20 feet of the basket, just stayed behind the line here
I’m not leaving Sam Merril on an island w/ the MVP of the league.. that’s just poor coaching
If you watch it again though, all 4 other defenders are all helping way off. If Shai goes at the basket in any direction they collapse.
The only available shot is a step back 3 which Cleveland will live with
I mean the refs let merril grab jersey and shove and bear hug the entire game without worry, so like, why wouldn’t you let him 1v1 if he gets to just hand check the entire time.
SGA was looking tired and they thought a contested shot from him would be better but hes cold
He was making like 4-11 at the end. Cavs couldn’t get a bucket to save their lives
Because he’s always going to make the right read anyway and who wants to give up a wide open shot in a tied game
Think you let anyone else take that shot besides Shai lol
If Enrich williams beats me, God bless him.. i’m not letting the MVP play 1 on 1 in crunch time.
They allowed Merrill to get burnt over and over by Jaylen Brown as well against the Sixers. I know he’s one of their best shooters but with the way he gets hunted I wouldn’t play him in clutch situations when you’ve already got to cover for Mitchell and Harden.
We traded him for fucking nothing
Sure you could look at it that way, but you also traded 5 unprotected firsts.
I would say nine, plus one protected.
But the trade was basically for Kawhi too!
shais better off away from that trash heap
I wish my work paid for me as if Kawhi came with me.
$66 million to not plant a tree.
yea it looks like that now but you were also getting an MVP caliber pg13 and kawhi who just led the raptors to a chip, everyone thought the clippers were winning it that year at the start, they just choked all the time and got injured
The franchise would have fucked up his development anyway, it’s for the best
Y’all stupid
Dumb as fuck actually, but they would fuck his development up anyway. Did him a favor trading him
We did him a favor, we would have fucked his development up anyway and stunted his growth. This Shai would never be the clippers Shai.
And he never played with cp3 his rookie season lmao
MFer said fuck this I’m going full Kobe mode
Put some respect on SGA’s name. Kobe could have only dreamt of his efficiency.
tbf he did shoot 40% tonight. ultimate kobe reference
SGA had a Kobe-esque night lol
Minus the wild life too.
Not tonight
Oh my dude still has the clutch gene. If we can pull out a win against a good team on the road with half our roster missing that’s huge
Missing half our roster for the next few months mate
I’m all to aware. So every win we get it great to keep us afloat
“Half our roster” but in terms of money isn’t it like >70% or something?
It’s not “half” of their full roster; it’s half of the players on the roster that meaningfully and most significantly contribute to the team. There might be 13 on the roster, but 9 who contribute in varying proportions. So they did lose players, and the most important of them. Which is why the >70% makes sense
70% of the cap. They are just well over the cap
People really thought refs calling push offs would turn SGA into a bum.
He Runs straight with his Elbow out into the defender
he’ll still put up numbers this year but will almost certainly be less efficient than last year
He had the most efficient season of a guard ever last year. So easy call that with half his team gone he will have a less efficient season this go around.
maybe bc half his team is out? Not bc of pushoff rule
People don’t realize he had the most efficient year from the mid range by a guard and the most effecient 30 points per game ever at 55%. Beating MJ
a combination in all likelihood
Wait you think he’ll be less efficient than the most efficient guard season in NBA history? Bold take man
ty, time will tell if i turn out to be a true visionary
It’s not just last year. SGA has shot 65% ts averaged for like 4 straight seasons
what do you think his ts % will be this year?
Idk probably like 58-59
He’s so good but he gonna have to do this every night this season
And that’s why he’s threepeating
That’s the only way I can see him winning his third MVP is by carrying this team.
I have him locked down as the third or fourth best player in the NBA, and 2nd best PG. but he carries this team to at least second in the West. He deserves his flowers.
Third or fourth! ? Behind who lmao? Jokic?
Slow down there. It is my opinion after all. And this isn’t r/NBAtalks. Shay is the best player for our team. And I do think he deserves the MVPs that he has.
My opinion about who is the best player doesn’t change how he wins the MVP. Or if he should or shouldn’t win it. He will have to keep this production up while staying healthy. Lifting a hurt team to the playoffs is a strong narrative that we haven’t seen in years. If he achieves that. Than he deserves his flowers. That is what makes a great player into a legend. And that is a high bar and it should be high.
For someone to be awarded a third MVP in a row you NEED narrative, and a crazy one at that.
Losing your next 3 best players at the beginning of the season and dragging a team to 4th place might actually do it.
4th place wouldn’t be enough.
Exactly, you NEED a narrative. People who say “MVP are for the best players” don’t know how this works. It is a popularity contest. And Shay getting that clutch 3 to finish the cavs is one way to do it.
Bullshit - I was recently informed that he’s not good anymore because of officiating changes
Well haven’t you heard? He’s a serial traveler now. The worst offender by far
Raised his season average from 26 to 28.5 tonight!
Shaivonte Aician Gilgeous-Alexander
The SAGA continues
Step back Good, Again
Who is the Smush Parker to Shai’s kobe this season?
Josh Dix
There’s not a single player on OKC as bad as Smush Parker, Kwame Brown or Chris Mihm and those 3 guys started for that team that somehow made the playoffs.
It’s easily Josh Dix.
Smush Parker was an above average player despite the slander by Kobe fans.
He was not an above avg player. He was ass, but put up half decent numbers because defenses did not guard him at all on those Kobe teams. He shot 35% from the field after leaving la and was out of the league. Before LA he shot 40% from the field in 2 years and had as many turnovers as assists. Anyone who actually thinks Smush was an above average nba player knows jack shit about ball.
A career 39% fg and 29% 3 pt shooter outside of those lal years. If he was even avg he would have lasted at least a few years post LA instead of being out of the league at the age of 26 after 1 season.
Well we are talking in the 06 season. He was above average and had a good on off and advanced stats and was a pest on defense. Playing with Kobe or not doesn’t matter. Look at THJ who was getting crucified when he played with Luka then he left Dallas and played great on Denver. Are you gonna suggest that Luka’s attention made THJ worse but Kobe’s made Smush better? Go look at other stars playing on bad teams, there is no correlation with bums playing better or not and if their ppg goes up, their efficiency is trash which was not the case with Smush who was +2rTS with alright volume in 06.
He and Kobe combined for 92 in one of those games. Absolutely elite
If yall like Kobe, you’re going to like Shai.
Minus the faults hopefully
Didn’t have to go there lmao
I meant the over shooting…
I thought you meant his personal faults
empty the clip
Okc is literally Shai and bums lol
Eh it’s only half bums. But yeah seeing meaningful Josh Dix minutes is not great.
Nobody needs to see this many Dix
I hate that dix is getting in so much but any port in a storm
His name sounds like a guy named Josh Cox had to quickly come up with a fake name
Well, to be respectful of his teammates, I wouldn’t call Ajay Mitchell, Hartenstein, JWill, Jared McCain, and Kenrich Williams “bums.”
SGA still gonna have to hard carry tho ofc without JDub/Chet/Cason/Caruso.
I mean I agree overall but since all the injuries, at least scoring wise they’ve been bums. Ajay’s been good but inconsistent, IHart is a great playmaker but provides 0 scoring, JWill is traditionally our 3rd string big and has gone complete cold from 3 (21%), and McCain has gone completely cold as well (36% FG and 32% from 3)
Which is why its kinda funny people are trying to convince us this is still some great team even after the injuries
We lost 4 of our main players [who happen to be our best 4 defenders] and our 3rd stringers are now our bench so no depth to fall back on either
Pretending the team is still strong is delusiona
yea it’s sga, role players, rookies, and bums. Those guys are great nba players. But they aren’t all star/all defensive guys right now. And having only 1 player of that caliber is rough
That is a poor poor team regardless
The problem is that that is the best we have to work with and we can’t run them all 48. So when they’re sitting, it’s rookie/G-League minutes.
Then what about Acuff, Lavine, Sabonis? These don’t sound like Bums to me yet the Kings are bums.
Put all those players with Ajay, Ihart, Jwill, etc. as a team and they would probably be competing with the Kings as the worst team in the league.
lavine and saboner are bums though
You really picking Ajay, Ihart, Jwill over Acuff, Lavine, Sabonis?
It’s a not a great team and it’s made worse when you realise there is a ton of daylight in talent before you get to the bench. Like the bench will literally be raw rookies and unpolished sophomores
Good ass player
Yeah SGA team is ass now, he should average 40 fga a game
Still better supporting cast than the 2022 nuggets.
Nuggets fans the 2nd most insecure fanbase itl.
Jokic fans gotta mention him whenever they can I guess
Nah. Btw SGA outplays Jokic all the time.
This guy is quite good at basketball
I’m here for the birth of SGA-Kobe
SGA will take another leap man. Let’s not count him out yet on MVP talks 🫡
Talented
Fuck it embrace your inner Brodie 2
MVP MVP MVP
750 upvotes… Fucking haters
Fuck yall. He him
we’ll see what shai gilly’s truly made of this season eh
is that Kobe
BITW
Doesn’t need FT all the time to score lol
Well, he did get more than 2x his season fta avg tonight with 12
I mean, he deserved even more than he got. There were like four no-calls that went the other way in the first half alone lol
He shot 12 this game and he averages 5.7 on the season. Luka averages 10 and AR 7.
Thunder fans downvoting facts while defending SGA by comparing him to Megaflopper Luka are funny
Luka is also extremely good at basketball. You’re here complaining about free throws when there’s 2 guys on 1 team shooting more than the guy you’re complaining about. Just pointing out how casuals hate the game of basketball. Your name checks out you miserable fuck.
And what’s that, 2 more than Lukas average night?