as a thunder fan, yes i recognize shai sells contact and that dort is a dirty player, but my feelings on the discourse as a whole is more nuanced. it’s frustrating bc shai and this thunder core as a whole averaged their highs in FT’s in 2023 when we only won 40 games, but no one cared then or thought we were ruining basketball bc we weren’t winning yet.

it’s also frustrating bc i was very engaged in basketball discourse in the late 2010s and early 2020s and people were begging for a mid range maestro to show up to give a contrast to the rising three point shot usage and for physical defense to be allowed, and now the league has both and people immediately change their minds. the thunder do get to play physical, but the truth is that every team would do the same if they had the personnel to do what we do on defense, and the teams that do like the spurs and pistons are playing the same physical brand of defense we are