Well, thanks for that. So why are you arguing then? KD gets incredibly biased treatment from the refs. There. Debate over.
And that's fine. I would have expected as much. The rub here is that OKC is a great team. Even with no officiating help at all they would be a really tough out for any team in the playoffs. Notice how neither SAS or Miami are listed in that rundown of teams they beat when calls were even? Yeah, there's a reason for that. I don't think even the most blind OKC hater would say that if officiating were exactly 100% accurate that there would be more than 3-4 teams in the entire NBA capable of beating them in 7. They're a great team that gets a ton of favorable calls, and that's why they're starting to lose the respect of a lot of fanbases, because whether it's true or not, it's giving the appearance of a team that is completely reliant on favorable officiating.
The fact alone that OKC plays 50%+ of it's games with a 5+ free throw advantage is pretty ludicrous. I'd be willing to bet that it's far ahead of every other team in the league, save maybe the Lakers because of the hack-a-Howard.
Kevin Durant is a great player. He is like neo-Nowitzki with an array of post, elbow moves, jumpers, etc. I am not surprised that his rim attempts per game are significantly lower in comparison with other "superstars"/ "heavy scorers". I suppose that is due to the nature of his game.
And yes, while he does get "superstar" calls, he also knows how to draw those fouls. An athletic, high shooting and scoring big man who has the ability of a guard should od that. I don't understand the fuss.
The fuss is the consistency. Remember how Bruce Bowen used to play defense? If the refs called fouls on him like they do for Durant, Bowen would have averaged 5 minutes per game for his career, because he'd pick up 4 fouls in the first 3 minutes of the game and foul out within the first 2 minutes of the second half. You HAVE to give defenders a certain amount of room and leverage to play defense, otherwise it would be absolutely impossible and we'd see games of 150+ points per team again. Durant is impossible not just because of his skillset, but because he has a halo around him that defenders are allowed to do nothing about. Can't touch him, can't be in his space, can't go near him without free throws.
While he might not get calls quite this egregious every game, this kind of phantom foul happens at least a couple of times per game, especially in OKC.
No, it's not 50% of games with a +5. They play over 50% with a MAX of a +4. +4 given OKC's style of play is insignificant. Only 6 of those games are a +4. Looks like 7 at +3. 1 game at a +2. Two +1's. One at 0. 18 games with a FT DEFICIT. To me, these stats speak to the fact that SOME people (not pointing at you) get a little ridiculous with their exaggerations. To them, honestly, OKC is a +15 nightly and if they're not a +15, they can't win, and without the refs, they're an average team. There's actually people on this board that think OKC is a 5 or 6 seed team without the refs, which is just laughable. I really have no idea why you find these numbers ludicrous. Over half their games they're no more than +4 in FTs!
I'll recount, but I counted the same games for SA - games where they were no more than a +4 in FT and I got 41. Really, is that all that different from OKC? No. 41 SA, 35 OKC. Fairly close.
What's interesting if you look at KD's game log is there's 26 games this season where he's shot double digit FTs in a game. There's a handful (8-9 games maybe) of crazy attempts like 16, 17, 18, 22, etc. Now 26 games is a lot, but given the fact the guy nearly AVERAGES double digit FTs in a game (he's at 9.4 now, I think was at 9.7 or something), you might expect more than 26 out of 67 games to be double digits in FTs. The 5, 6, 7 FT attempts in a game FAR outnumber anything else. I think there's definitely games where refs set a certain tone and set out to call a game a certain way in terms of what they'll allow defenders to do...will they let them "Play" or not? The games where the refs "aren't letting them play" I think KD is getting the stupid FT numbers. These anomaly type games, I think, are ing KD's average by 1.5 FTs or so. I think these games are where fans get pissed and play the favoritism card. I can't say I blame them. As I've said before, I want the refs to let them play too.
The fact that you think it's remarkable that in 18 of the 67 games the Thunder have played that they've shot fewer FTs than their opponent is proof of anything is absolutely ludicrous. 75% of the time you are being given more free throws than your opponent, in and many of those games it's a significant margin.
More than 50% of the games OKC plays, they have very little, if any, FT advantage. I don't know how else to put it to you. Over 50% their games, they have NO MORE THAN a +4 FT advantage. There you go again, putting words in my mouth. Where did I say it was "remarkable" that OKC was at a FT disadvantage in 18 of 67 games? I never even IMPLIED it was remarkable. I simply stated that those posters here who completely go overboard with their exaggerations on OKC's FT disparity would probably tone it down a bit if they found that out. Honestly, if you asked some of the posters on here at random how many games OKC is at a FT disparity they'd probably tell you 1 in 10. Just saying some people exaggerate what actually occurs. I'm not trying to paint a picture that OKC is in anyway not at an advantage in FT attempts. I'm well aware they are. I'm simply trying to point out to some posters that its not a nightly occurence. Yeah there's games where they're +10 and so on, but I guarantee you some posters here would NEVER guess OKC is at little, if any, FT advantage in over 50% of their games.
durant would be nothing more than a glorified novak w/o calls imho. dude is an elite shooter and happens to be gifted with good agility as well, but his fundamentals ain't all that good. dude has little-to-none low-post game despite being 6'10 something because he's thin as , and if the refs allow defenders to get close to him i don't think it would be possible for a 6'10 guy to dribble past 6 footers.
WOw. You're not any smarter than that? Really?
Lebron bumped every time he goes to the rim...but only 6 FTA tonight. If Durant played this exact same game he would have at the very least 12 FTA.
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