How can a team that shoots 30FT/g be the most exciting team in the NBA? I'll get bored watching a team go to the line every other play🤦♂️
NBA - Main
Game analysis, highlights and everything else that is happening in the NBA.
I haven't watched the Bucks this year but I swear every game people bitch about calls on Giannis, its always a situation where he's absolutely getting fouled (He's a hard guy to defend!)
It's like prime LeBron. You get whacked in the head and there won't be fouls called but if you barge into the defender you're drawing a blocking foul.
Feel like last night was a prime example of this.
He forces contact at times but last night they had no answer and just kept hacking him every time he drove and he kept getting and 1s
But this sub sees high FTA and automatically assumes the player is a ft merchant (even the bad ft shooters lol)
As for Dame, I figure his attempts will go down he’s gotten a softer whistle this year but he’s usually around that 6-7 mark
Bigs are generally expected to take a lot more contact than the Morant's of the world. Shaq would have fouled out entire teams if every time he got hit it was called a foul.
The physical abuse Shaq took should raise his stature in peoples eyes. Like yeah he got fat, but if you were taking the kind of beating he was, you'd want some extra cushion on you too. If he was white and the bruises/cuts showed more clearly, he'd have made Jokic's arms look like a stubbed toe.
It’s because he forces contact. He’s so good at putting defenders in a position where they either have to foul or get out of the way and give him a free lane to the basket, and what that generally looks like is a defender getting called for basically just trying to stay in front of his man.
There’s always people who whine about calls going against their team when their team is clearly hacking the fuck out of someone, but for a whole lot of fans it just doesn’t feel right when someone’s getting a call after initiating contact despite that being 100% within the rules.
Fouling him is one of the best ways to guard him one on one, it's either damn near a guaranteed bucket or you take your chances with a 70% ft shooter.
This is the the answer with Giannis. Dude is a physical player who requires physical D so he’s going to get fouled. And it’s also good D to put him on the line since he’s such an inconsistent FT shooter. The problem is if he shoots 80% from the stripe he ends up with 45+ on the night.
honestly it's the plays where Giannis is going full speed that feel so controversial. plenty of those could go either way, but it does feel like he gets the benefit of the doubt most of the time
he also trucks people all the damn time though
The new Harden/Embiid, lel
Nah we had post-patch Harden.
I don't know about Giannis but Lillard is getting prime Harden wistle for a while now without anyone noticing.
dude has been a lowkey high end FT merchant for years now, he just played in Portland so no one cared
Dude runs over someone and gets a foul called in his favor like 5x per game.
Those foul calls against Detroit the other day were crazy
Thank you lmao. Though they lost Giannis so I can't complain too much 🤷♂️. Those calls down the stretch still gave us no shot.
Now? He always got a favorable whistle
That’s pretty much Dame’s whole career. He’s always been allowed to do what other players get dogged on for without catching heat. It’s what made some people turning on him this off season kinda surprising for me.
Giannis is an amazing talent, but for the past few years the refs have let him play football while the other team gets called for touch fouls.
I don’t think he’s “dirty.” He seems like a really good guy, and I know he’s competitive. But the refs swallow the whistle a lot.
Though the ejection was bs.
NBA's doing their part.
Harden wasn’t getting special treatment, he just knew how to draw fouls and was virtually unguardable 1 on 1 so players had to resort to fouling
Free throw attempts are fine as long as it’s not Embiid or Harden
No Luka or Shai? Interesting
They aint calling shit on Luka most of the tjmes
Luka has for some reason decided to become a 3 point specialist this year. And it’s irritating.
You try and guard Giannis without fouling
This. It’s like prime Shaq. Take the foul because he’ll average more points per possession if you don’t lol
Sixers fans are at that time of the season where they start talking shit about other Players/teams and buy into “the we are better this year” that the team says only for the eventual second round exit.
They average 3 more than the sixers, the only guys that get calls are dame and Giannis. Embiid will get his up in the next few weeks. Dames will 100% go down, he’s never averaged 10 fta he’s usually 6-7 ish
It’s entirely possible it evens out as the year goes but Embiid does not look like he’s trying to draw fouls nearly as much this year
Woah. I didn't realize Dame made it inside the paint so much. Interesting.
He has been attacking the rim a lot because his 3 point shooting has been pretty bad in a lot of these games.
Does anyone track breakdown of FTAs to include intentional fouls (ie end of game clutch time)? I always wonder how those scenarios skew volume
For reference, here's a table of players with 150+ minutes played, sorted by their freethrow rate:
Jokic 63? Just wow.
Highest Raptor is Barnes at 65
LeBron at 48 is criminal
so rudy’s the real free throw merchant smh
It almost feels like the NBA is pushing for this duo to work better than it has. Without freethrows Dame would be absolutely awful this season
Giannis Attemptafreethrow
Always weird to me that people fixate on ft numbers without watching the games. Giannis always has a ton because his entire game is attacking the paint, and teams throw bodies at him because he's not a great FT shooter. Dame has been attacking the rim a ton this year because his 3 pointers aren't falling.
When you spend all your time attacking the rim you tend to draw a lot of fouls.
Very hard players to guard so make sense
Giannis runs at you 30 MPH with his elbows flared forward like it's a fucking sword giving you chest pains for days and yet it'll still be a defensive foul
Bucks suck to watch.
Lets not try & frame this like Giannis is a free throw merchant. He is ass at fts, no way hes trying to get them on purpose 💀 he just the most physical player in the league
embiid on the other hand...
What a fun and exciting team to watch
No wonder Lebron is whining.
It's really funny to sort this list by /100 possessions.
Don’t hear y’all call SGA a free throw merchant now. He’s still putting up 28 ppg on +50% FG and 60% TS while only getting 6 free throw attempts per game (while still leading the league in drives)