He is the MVP and yet, three different words have followed Shai Gilgeous-Alexander around in the best season of his young career: free throw merchant.
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They rang out in State Farm Arena every time Gilgeous-Alexander went to the line in the Thunder’s 135-119 win over the Hawks, that game coming days after Timberwolves coach Chris Finch called out the “frustrating” double standard in the way his team was officiated.
“They foul all the time,” Finch said at the time. “And then you can’t really touch Shai.”
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault, however, had a very different opinion on the ‘free throw merchant’ chants after the Hawks game.
To him, it was a sign of what was to come. The MVP chants that would soon follow. The moments of greatness, both in the regular season and playoffs, that would help Oklahoma City to a 68-14 record and then its first Finals appearance since 2012.
“Hate is the highest of compliments when it comes to the great players,” Daigneault said.
“Comes with the territory.”
It is something Gilgeous-Alexander has quickly learned too. That everything he does on the court, both good and ‘bad’, is now in the spotlight — and the only way to deal with it is by running straight into. Embracing it.
“I think because we’re on top of everybody’s radar, it’s a little bit more noticeable,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals.
“Now people care about it. I kinda see it as a compliment.”
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander celebrates with teammates after winning the Western Conference Finals MVP. William Purnell/Getty Images/AFP
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander celebrates with teammates after winning the Western Conference Finals MVP. William Purnell/Getty Images/AFPSource: AFP
Which is the right way to look at it, even if the debate that dominated social media circles takes away from what makes Gilgeous-Alexander the main attraction in this year’s NBA Finals.
Ask Gilgeous-Alexander’s greatest critics and they won’t, or at most reluctantly will, call him the MVP. Instead, they’ll chose free throw merchant. Foul baiter. Grifter.
The numbers, however, tell a very different story.
NBA statistician Tom Haberstroh made the most compelling argument against the Gilgeous-Alexander ‘free throw merchant’ narrative before the Timberwolves series.
While his numbers are obviously not completely up-to-date now, they still speak to just how fanciful it is to suggest that Gilgeous-Alexander is any different to ball-dominant superstars of both the present and past, especially when you consider how much pressure he puts on the rim.
Speaking on Yahoo! Sports’ ‘The Big Number’ podcast with Dan Devine, Haberstroh revealed where Gilgeous-Alexander’s 110 playoff free throw attempts in a 12-game span ranked all-time.
But first, he asked Devine where he thought the Thunder guard would come in. His guess? Maybe even cracking the top 20.
The reality? Gilgeous-Alexander ranked 406th, with Haberstroh going on to name a number of other superstars throughout time — from Michael Jordan (179), LeBron James (174) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (145) to James Harden (122) and Jalen Brunson (113) — who have recorded more attempted free throws in a 12-game span than Gilgeous-Alexander.
“That’s incredible,” Devine said.
Despite the perception, Gilgeous-Alexander only has taken double digit free throw attempts in consecutive games just once this postseason. Perception, of course, is different to reality.
And the reality, as Haberstroh pointed out, is that once again history shows Gilgeous-Alexander’s free throw rate is far from unprecedented.
In fact, Kevin Durant had seven games in the 2019 playoffs with double digit free throw attempts while Kobe Bryant had seven in 2008, including one with 23.
Dwyane Wade was another one that Haberstroh mentioned with five double-digit free throw attempt games in the 2005-06 Finals alone.
“This feels like maybe what we’re learning is high-volume ball handlers, high-volume shot creators, high-volume drivers often generate a lot of free throws attempts and that maybe it’s not necessarily an indication of a lack of ethics or a recent cooking of the game or a product that is stepped on... maybe it’s just that this kind of thing happens sometimes,” Devine said.
OK, well maybe it’s been more of a regular season thing? After all, the ‘free throw merchant’ tag didn’t just come out of nowhere. SGA was getting to the line plenty all season.
Well, according to Amin Elhassan, Gilgeous-Alexander’s best season when it came to free throws attempted per 100 possessions ranks outside the all-time top 30.
Meanwhile, looking at this season alone, Gilgeous-Alexander led the NBA with 601 made free throws, well ahead of Harden (505) in second.
But his 669 free throw attempts were actually behind leader Antetokounmpo (707).
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dribbles the ball against Donte DiVincenzo. (Photo by William Purnell/Getty Images)
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dribbles the ball against Donte DiVincenzo. (Photo by William Purnell/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
Plus, as Gilgeous-Alexander pointed out in his press conference after he was relentlessly hit with ‘free throw merchant’ chants every time he stepped up to the line in Minnesota, he is actually averaging fewer free throws than he had in 2022-23.
Gilgeous-Alexander got to the charity stripe 8.8 and 9.2 times in the regular season and postseason respectively compared to the 10.9 free throws he was averaging in 2022-23.
The difference? Now, the Thunder are winning games, and so people are looking for a way to discredit what he and Oklahoma City are doing.
Maybe it’s because they’re a small market. Maybe it’s because the Thunder, with Gilgeous-Alexander at the forefront, have so quickly developed into an NBA juggernaut that those who are only now catching up on the hype train are trying to find any way to derail it.
Whatever it may be, Gilgeous-Alexander is embracing the narrative and the hate.
“Whenever I wasn’t sending their best player home, when I wasn’t sending their team home, no one cared that I was shooting 11 free throws a game and scoring this many points,” Gilgeous-Alexander said according to Richard Jefferson.
“Now that I’m doing it and averaging nine free throws the whole world is exploding about it... I love it. It just means they’re thinking about me.”
Now, while the nickname ‘free throw merchant’ would usually suggest that the gripe with Gilgeous-Alexander is the fact that he gets to the line so often, that isn’t really the case here.
So, as much as all the above numbers prove that Gilgeous-Alexander gets more whistle than most superstars in the game, the issue seems to be more with the nature of the foul calls.
But a lot of that comes down to the way Gilgeous-Alexander plays the game, starting with the fact that he scores the majority of his points off drives.
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The Thunder superstar averaged a league-high 20.2 drives in the playoffs and 20.6 in the regular season, scoring 67.8 per cent and 75.3 per cent of his points off them respectively.
In contrast, 26.5 per cent of his playoffs points came off free throws, which is less than Luka Doncic, Antetokounmpo and Jimmy Butler.
Meanwhile, 24.2 per cent of his points in the regular season came off free throws, again trailing three ball-dominant players in Damian Lillard, Trae Young and Harden.
Sure, again, this doesn’t necessarily answer to critics of the way Gilgeous-Alexander draws fouls but it helps contextualise the fact he is consistently putting himself in a position to get calls by being aggressive.
Then there is the way that Gilgeous-Alexander moves, because that in itself is different and defenders don’t know how to handle it.
As Haberstroh put it: “I understand why people are frustrated with all the foul calls that he gets because I think it’s unusual the way he gets these calls. He’s so laterally unpredictable.”
The Ringer’s Danny Chau, meanwhile, eloquently described the way Gilgeous-Alexander “relies on more skill and athletic prowess” to draw fouls than his critics give him credit for.
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“At his size, the degree to which he can angle his lower extremities to be nearly parallel to the floor while still maintaining his dribble is unprecedented,” Chau wrote.
“Basketball is a game of space, but it is also a game of angles. Gilgeous-Alexander’s body can access angles no other player can at his size. And as he rides that edge, he often leaves himself in precarious positions, heavily influenced by contact.”
When you hear a description like that of the way Gilgeous-Alexander plays the game and manipulates defences, then the ‘free throw merchant’ nickname really starts to sound like an insult.
A reductionist way of digesting SGA’s game and the fact he has turned one of the more mundane and, at times, maddening parts of the sport into an art form.
But like any good artist, Gilgeous-Alexander does have his fair share of admirers.
“This is just the movement that he gives,” Jefferson said during the broadcast of Oklahoma City’s series against Minnesota.
“A little bit of hesitation. He puts defenders in tough spots. Say what you want about the free throw attempts. He knows how to make defences foul him.”
The way Gilgeous-Alexander moves is different. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
The way Gilgeous-Alexander moves is different. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)Source: AP
Even Doris Burke, who went viral during the Timberwolves series for mentioning in the broadcast that Gilgeous-Alexander is a free throw merchant, seemingly thinking it was a compliment instead of an insult, understood the genius of the Thunder star’s ways.
“What do the best offensive players in the history of the game do? They understand how to put you in compromising situations, how to force officials into decision making” she said.
“Does he get some? Absolutely. Does he earn most of them? 100 per cent.”
Now, some of the disdain towards the calls that Gilgeous-Alexander receives may be related to the fact that Oklahoma City as a whole plays a particularly physical style of defence and one that in comparison maybe doesn’t get the same level of attention from the referees.
For example, as effective as Alex Caruso was limiting Nikola Jokic’s impact in the Denver series, he was also able to get away with a fair bit of contact because of how much smaller he is than the three-time MVP.
That, of course, had more to do with visual indicators and the way referees let smaller players get away with more.
But even speaking more generally, Timberwolves superstar guard Anthony Edwards, who said during the regular season that it is “hard to (win) with the calls Shai gets”, spoke to just how impressive and in-sync Oklahoma City’s defence is, comparing it to “15 puppets on one string”.
“They’ve got a small line-up they through out there with Caruso at the five,” Edwards said after Minnesota was eliminated.
“Just a bunch of different line-ups that you don’t really see, kind of like the old Warriors would do. Go small, put Draymond at the five.
“They’re super handsy. They pluck at the ball all night. They pressure the ball to get you out of your comfort zone... they do a pretty good job.”
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Now, Edwards was being complimentary in this occasion. He wasn’t being overtly critical, as was the case in January when he said “you can’t touch” Gilgeous-Alexander “at any time of the game”.
But the fact the Thunder are “super handsy”. The fact they “pluck at the ball all night” and “pressure the ball” so consistently gives the impression that they get away with more than other teams, and sometimes they do. Especially in the playoffs, when more of that is allowed.
The contrast, of course, is that Gilgeous-Alexander never has to go up against that Oklahoma City defence.
But even when he isn’t driving to the rim and drawing fouls, he is finding other ways to impact winning.
Specifically, Gilgeous-Alexander’s midrange game has long been his bread and butter. All the talk about free throws, calls and non-calls — it is distracting everyone from the true beauty of his game.
From the moment when Gilgeous-Alexander is in his usual groove, the kind that gets him to 32.7 points per game, and he stops to pull up from midrange. Again and again and again.
It gets to a point where there is an inevitability to it. When SGA has that midrange going, there isn’t any need to watch the ball go through the net. It is just assumed. Automatic.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is automatic from the mid-range. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is automatic from the mid-range. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)Source: AP
And Brendan Haywood said it best when he put the ‘free throw merchant’ talk to bed once and for all on NBA TV last week.
“Can we stop with the foul merchant narrative? Can we stop acting like he’s only this cold because he’s stealing free throws?” the former NBA champion said.
“I understand there are some calls that are going to go here or there. There are some calls that might go in his favour and some that won’t. That’s not new to the game of basketball. Star players always get foul calls.
“... I just hate the fact he’s played so great and on so many different networks we’re talking about the fouls... when we should be talking about the mid-range game, the footwork, the dedication to excellence, the growth of his game.
“... I’m tired of people putting this foul merchant narrative on his name.”