RJ in R1:
24.1 PTS. 1st ITL in >20 PT, 70% TS gms
1st Raptor EVER w/ 20+ PTS in each of his 1st 3 PO gms
1st ITL among non-bigs in rim FGM. 8.4 POT AST, 2.0 ORB, 1.3 STL
1st GW3 w/ <1.5s left in an elimination gm in the PBP era
Held JH/Spida to 42.6% TS w/ a 12-10 A/TO ratio
Wemby, Giannis, Jokic etc recieve lots of support in their countries bc those fans ACTUALLY CARE abt the NBA, otherwise they wouldnβt watch it due to time zones. Whereas the NBAβs a lot easier to keep up with in North America which creates lots of fake fans/non-ball knowers (2/2)
Almost all of the ACTUAL Canadian NBA fans (not casuals & keep up with the whole NBA) have been OG SGA fans. Itβs the ones who didnβt keep up with SGA during OKCβs subpar years that received a similar upbringing to his name as the corny fans that have tried to diminish him (1/2)
Canada doesn't support Shai the way France supports Wemby, or even Greece supports Giannis.
Rarely see OKC #2 jerseys here. Rarely see online rallying for him.
Why is that? I have theories.
@isojay914@na7ural_ heβs shown over extended stretches (especially at his peak) to be levels ahead of a guy like harden off ball. but ya in mil a lot of the time in the rs he was just sitting afk on the perimeter & in that case, the only off ball value that a guy can truly add is their floor spacing
@isojay914@na7ural_ ^^
and this was AFTER he seemed not to care in the rs
HOWEVER, this is lots of speculation & excusing, and i also canβt give him full benefit of the doubt simply bc we never saw it actualize in a po run. and also the rs still matters ofc (esp w/o a po sample)
but j my thoughts
@isojay914@na7ural_ agreed but motor related imo. youd see glimpses of insane off ball scoring in big games (like the 2024 ps & cup). felt like he was playing cautious in the rs bc it was obvious he wanted a ring, returning a few days after a blood clot & an achillies strain to play ps ball is crazy
@isojay914@na7ural_ disagree with the off ball take. he didnt showcase it as much w stotts since they ran a pretty vanilla offense, but when he was off ball good things were happening
then under billups he avg 32 on 65 ts with a lot of it stemming from killing defenses in a variety of ways off ball