Directly following their NBA Championship run, the OKC Thunder have come out of the gates to the 2025-26 campaign blisteringly hot. Needless to say, so, too, has their superstar, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Yet, despite their undefeated 3-0 record and the reigning MVP's elite plus-minus rating of +9.3, all anyone can seemingly talk about is his free-throw activity.
Thunder star's free throw frequency is blown out of proportion yet again
Admittedly, a frequent visitor to the charity stripe, the Thunder cornerstone has ranked in the top two in foul shots attempted in each of the last two seasons and, as a result, has garnered the reputation of being a "free throw merchant," someone who's believed to be heavily reliant on generating point totals off favorable calls from the refs.
Despite the constant surfacing of evidence suggesting such a label is undeserving, pundits and keyboard warriors alike have still not refrained from using the term in relation to Shai.
In fact, just recently, ESPN highlighted how the guard's 40 free throw attempts during the club's first two games of the year are the most taken by any player in league history through such a span, a metric that has social media users hot and bothered in the comment section.
Of course, as has always been the case with this subject, context is undoubtedly key and, when added to the conversation, it becomes painfully obvious that Shai's visits to the line are truly nothing out of the ordinary.
Through three games played so far, the Thunder star has attempted a league-leading 44 foul shots, seven more than the second-placed Austin Reaves.
However, it's important to realize that this activity has only contributed 37 points out of his league-leading 120 scored, equating to roughly 30.8 percent. Take away these points, and we find that Shai's 83 would still rank in the top 12 in the entire league, similar to how, if you did the same to his entire 2024-25 season, his calculated 1,883 points would still have ranked seventh in the NBA.
To put this into perspective, last season, Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo had hoisted just one fewer foul shot (43) in roughly 21 fewer minutes played through this exact same game span, which accounted for 25 of his 85 points scored.
Take these away, and the Greek Freak wouldn't even have ranked in the top 30 in points.
Where were the calls of "free throw merchant" then?
For some reason, because he's simply a better free-throw shooter than Giannis (86.1 percent shooter for his career compared to only 69.3 percent) and, frankly, a majority of the league, people seem to believe that Gilgeous-Alexander's scoring approach is somehow more reliant on favorable calls than any other player.
Time and time again, this has proven to be a complete and utter farce, and yet, we still find this narrative being shared at full volume here in the early stages of 2025-26.