Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is ‘right to exploit the loopholes’ around flopping
Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz are joined by NBA contributing writer Tom Haberstroh to discuss claims that Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is flopping after the majority of his shot attempts. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV .
Video Transcript
Are the SGA flopping criticisms fair or are they totally blown out of proportion?
Well, they're fair to the extent, Caroline, that he falls more than any other star in the league.
Now, I tracked this, for Yahoo Sports on Friday, because on Thursday I, I went on Kevin O'Connor's show and I said, "Look, all the complaints that he's flopping on every single shot are unfounded."
There's lots of social media around this, and I looked at the numbers and I watched, I chart, hand-charted everything, for his, his game i- i- right before that on Wednesday night, and it wasn't the case that he was flopping on every time.
It wasn't the case that he was falling on the majority of his shots, much less on all of his shots.
But then I decided, you know what?
I'm just gonna track every single shot that he has taken in this postseason, and not only that, all the shooting fouls that he's drawn that aren't counted as field goal attempts but are shots, you know, essentially.
And what we found was, in that charting, that he not only fell more than Jalen Brunson and Donovan Mitchell and James Harden and Victor Wembanyama.
I tracked four other players to have proper context here for when I was seeing so many of these falls for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Is it high?
Is it low?
And it turns out it was exceptionally high.
And it makes sense because it works.
Like, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander now has 48 falls this postseason, on his shots, including his, the shooting fouls that he's drawn.
That's more than Victor Wembanyama and Jalen Brunson combined this postseason run.
So when you look at is he flopping?
Well, I'm not saying he's flopping more than everybody else, because that's a subjective thing, right?
What I wanna make clear is that he is falling more than anybody else.
And so if you're a Thunder fan, I can understand why that is not the most fun storyline to have to deal with, but these are facts.
It's objective.
And this is something that NBA teams have been talking about internally, about how often he falls and how often he is being rewarded with referee whistles.
And that is the second follow-up I did, Caroline.
I looked at, of the portion of those falls, how many of those are getting foul calls?
And what we find is that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander gets a higher proportion of f- foul calls on his falls than any of those other guys I mentioned.
When we talk about Jalen Brunson, James Harden, and, Donovan Mitchell, they do not get rewarded with a whistle nearly as much as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who gets 50% of those falls ending up with a foul call.
And for Jalen Brunson, Donovan Mitchell, and, and, and James Harden, that number's around 20%.
So he's getting twice the rate of those foul calls on those, when he hits the deck.
So I think that's what people are upset about, is that not only is he falling, but he's getting rewarded for those.
And to me, if I'm Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, I continue to do it because I'm getting more shots at the free throw line.
I'm getting rewarded with those.
Stephon Castle, D- Devin Vassell, they're getting more fouls against them, getting in foul trouble quicker.
And if the NBA is not giving them a fine, then I think Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is right to do this.
Exploit the loopholes, and if the referees and the NBA aren't gonna do anything about it, then just keep doing it.
So Thunder fans who are very upset with me that I did this analysis and tracked it, I would say to them, he's getting away with this and it's helping him be more efficient on the floor.
So as long as the NBA does not hit him with a fine, which they can, they have not done that since 2020 in, in the playoffs.
They have not issued a flopping fine in the playoffs since 2020.
I don't think they're gonna do that here, but I do think what, what the San Antonio Spurs would like to see is he not get rewarded with the foul calls, rewarded with the charity stripe trips as a result of those falls
