Why don’t we assume that we all watch the games?

“He lives on the mid range and constantly goes for the foul instead of trying to make the shot. Constantly. It works all the time.”

This is not true and if you actually watched the games you would know that.

“AND because shooting fouls don’t count as FGA.”

Really??? Thanks for pointing that out! PS SGA has fewer shooting fouls than Paolo, Luka and Deni, and slightly more than Brown. None of those guys make shots in the rage of SGA.

“Hope he tears an ACL on his next flop attempt”

Really? Shame on you.

It’s clear that you watch very little of this guy, at least with objectivity. In my opinion, he’s way easier on the eyes than many players in the MVP class. He’s a truly exquisite shot-maker. He easily draws fouls mainly because not fouling him is extremely likely to result in a made bucket, derived from one of the best bags in NBA history. The vast majority of his points are scored on made buckets. The vast majority of his fouls calls are legit fouls. Nearly all the great players embellish. He’s better at it than most because there’s no way to defend him without either fouling or sending multiple guys at him.

Re: peak James Harden, his bag was much more limited and imho much harder on the eyes. He would hold the ball at the 3pt line, jab-step and dribble for much/most of the clock, and either step-back or straight-line drive while dragging his arms through defenders arms and flail like one of those gas station things. And he would miss way more shots than he made! He was the ultimate ball hog, even with the high assist numbers. He also was at best an indifferent defender. He’s not all that likable off the court.

SGA goes into his moves quickly and efficiently. He passes not as a last resort but in the flow of the game. He plays D and is good at it. By all accounts, he’s a model citizen.

Honestly, we’re probably in for a large amount of OG at center if Mitch misses time

We obviously can’t know what will happen going forward, but I can’t imagine being more happy with the way things have gone in both conferences. I can’t imagine us being in better position than we are right now.

They know what I wanted, and they’re just doing it.

Avoiding the #1 and #2 seeds, getting home court throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs as a #3 seed, and now having the two best teams in the Western Conference beat the shit out of each other for seven games before playing the Knicks….it’s all happening!!!

I don’t mean to diminish the impact of a broken pinky but there’s no way in hell you can’t play with it. Even if it makes him 50% of the player he normally is, that’s still a million times better than Ariel Hukporti.

Mitch is not missing the finals.

Here’s to hoping! But “there is no timetable for his return” isn’t the sort of thing reporters say about a guy who is not going to miss any time.

But, again, this is a weird point in time when the only games left are the Finals, so let’s hope that “there is no timetable for his return” doesn’t mean what it normally means.

Everyone knows what the numbers say. He is a great player. Being great doesn’t make it ok that he constantly tries to cheat. Just because Harden constantly tries to cheat while being less great doesn’t make it okay.

He lives on the mid range and constantly goes for the foul instead of trying to make the shot. Constantly. It works all the time. In this series OKC wins when his cheating works and loses when it doesn’t. It fucking sucks.

His efg% is great because he is great AND because shooting fouls don’t count as FGA. He’s bad for the game and makes it unwatchable. It’s frustrating because he could just be great without cheating.

I think OKC plays a very strong brand of basketball overall. Ironically, they were 17th in both total FTAs and FTr this year. The Knicks were 24/25, so there’s that, but it doesn’t make sense to me that some seem to be implying that OKC is grifting its way to a championship run via SGA’s flailing. Again, SGA had a .597 eFG% this year. No player at his position at anywhere near his usage came anywhere close to that. He had almost Jokic’s eFG% at a higher usage. Shai was also only 3rd in FTA per 36, behind Luka and Deni, yet he has a much higher eFG% than either of those two.

I get that folks are not a fan of his game, but it seems pretty over the top to me to not recognize how great he is, or to dismissively compare him to foul grifter extraordinaire James Harden. In Harden’s MVP season he was 43rd in eFG% at .541. and lead the NBA in FTA by a country mile.

Shai averaged 9.8 FTAs per 36 this year, again 3rd behing Luka and Deni That is comparable with Durant, LeBron, and Wade in their peak years, and yet with a much higher eFG%. Do those guys get a pass because they were either 6 inches taller than SGA (Durant) or had 60 Lbs more muscle (LeBron)?

None of the guys from the past 20 years who drew fouls at a high rate put up SGA’s eFG%, not Dwight Howard! Or Shaq! Or Duncan! Or Amar’e!

The only guard who has been consistently better than SGA in terms of shot-making at high volume without drawing tons of fouls is Steph Curry. I will gladly concede that Curry was better than SGA, both as a shotmaker and aesthetically. But beyond that, there’s really no one at the combo guard position who had done what SGA is doing without the fouls.

Hope he tears an ACL on his next flop attempt

Mitch is not missing the finals.