The NBA is trying to change the narrative...

Everyone's favorite part of basketball season is almost back, and that's the world of officiating. Obviously creates the grifting around SGA and the Thunder, creates all the media narratives, all the fan speculation, and you want to guess what it did actually this past weekend? It created another narrative around the Thunder and around SGA, not in the form of resurfacing, rehashing old things, but actually in what the league officiating office does every single year, which is put out a points of emphasis video, an instructional video that you can actually watch yourself that I'm going to put bits of clips into this video for, giving some updates into the things that they're going to be really, really very keenly looking at here this season, things that they're going to be calling more fouls on, things they're going to be letting go a little bit more often than what they have been in the past, so things that basically they're saying we're going to change the game a little bit with some of this stuff. So in today's video, so it begins, and what we're going to talk about is how this new officiating point of emphasis video has raised questions surrounding SGA specifically more than really anybody else that I have seen on my timeline, and of course, me sitting ready always perennially near my computer to get ready to record a video when I see anybody come after the Thunder and SGA. Here we are, this referee points of emphasis video, and before we get into that, here's a quick word from our sponsor Anson, then I'm going to show you all of those points and exactly how this relates to the Thunder. 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Now back to the point of emphasis that we've got from the NBA officiating office, and what they have said is going to be looked at heavily, and number one is right where we're going to start with this whole breakdown, and it's offensive push-offs having more of an added emphasis here this season. They're going to be calling more offensive fouls when ball handlers use forceful off-arm contact to create separation. You can pause this and read the other three that I've got on there. I'm going to break them down at the end of this video very briefly, but the point number one right there, offensive push-offs. Let the grifting begin, folks. I saw about a dozen graphics like this online, people saying, oh that's it for Shay, career over, he's not going to be able to do what he does now and go drive and shove a guy into the baseline. People are dumb, you guys know this, right? So first what I'm going to do is I'm going to let Monty McCutcheon, the head of officiating development, the VP of the officiating office, he's the one who narrates all these videos, he's had a long and storied past in the league, he's been an official, he was an official for 25 years before he took over as that VP role. He's done over 1400 games and he was actually on that crew of the legendary 2016 finals game with the Cavs and Warriors, the blocked by James game, you all know what I'm talking about. The dude has been around the NBA for a long, long time and he narrated all of these videos. So the push-offs, that's what everyone's talking about, the offensive push-offs that are going to be looked at very heavily. Well what I'm going to do now is I'm actually going to let Monty McCutcheon just narrate this for you guys so you can listen to what he had to say. Here you go, this is what he had to say, part one of this officiating video. It's forceful, it is not just firming up and the offensive foul was correctly called by the slot official, his opponent, Keldon Johnson. Then Carroll does a full extension with his off-arm shot. This contact initiated by Mitchell is more than marginal. So you're going see a lot of forcible contact leading directly to foul calls in those breakdowns from Monty McCutcheon and the way that that's going to be applied to what people are saying online is that Shea only uses that move to get separation, it's over for him. Well, part two of this breakdown from Monty McCutcheon actually tells a very different story and it also tells me that most of the people that were reacting to this video didn't actually watch it at all because check this out. He pushed off his legal defender, Brandon Williams, in a forceful manner. This is marginal contact by subs and although an offensive foul was called on this play, it should have been ruled a no confirming up and does not commit any illegal contact. This is a legal play and steps back to take a three-point shot. George does not fully extend his off-arm. So they're not going to call it every time an offensive player leans in with his shoulder, gives a little bit of space with their forearm, and gets into their jump shot. They're only going to be calling it when it is forcible, excessive, and egregious and Shea is a savant of the mid-range. This dude has better feel for the mid-range than anybody since Kobe Bryant when he was in his prime and I will die on that hill. I've made videos breaking down those two's parallels for as long as time. Shea is one of the smartest basketball players in the league and this dude already knows how to use his upper body to give himself some space in a legal way and Monte McCutcheon said that we're not going to be calling offensive fouls every single time you lean in for contact, you give a little bit of the forearm. It's if you give a full shove, a full extension, and an obvious and aggressive move that gives you separation that you would not have had and this goes just hand-in-hand with the free throw merchant claims that have been thrown Shea's way. Now it's pointless to argue with the critics right and even show them a graphic that shows that Shea has the most points by over 300 of any player without free throws over the last three seasons. It's pointless to even try to go into those narratives. So with all that in mind, there's actually a third part to this points of emphasis video that I think is going to be really useful for the Thunder and it's the number four point on this graphic. The straight line pathway plays and here's how Monte McCutcheon summed it up. The illegal contact by Christie clearly affects McCollum's balance and rhythm and the defensive foul was correctly called here and the defensive player Jake LaRavia moves into Mitchell's path and he makes contact that is clearly more than marginal. We know that contact alone does not constitute a defensive foul and while there is marginal contact on this play, there is no defensive foul. This is an offensive foul on Harper and it was correctly called by the slot official. And honestly for me that part of the video was the part that I found the most interesting by far not the part that everybody was breaking down of the off-handed push-offs that got the most attention but these straight line pathway fouls I think the Thunder could actually be an incredible benefactor of when you consider the way the guards on this team play. The Thunder go downhill with their guards more than nearly everybody in the NBA and the Thunder guards don't play like how most guards around the league do. They're more inside out as opposed to outside in and you see on this graph they attempt the second most shots in the restricted area and they make the most shots in the restricted area amongst all guard units in the NBA last season. They are living in the paint and the way they're going to get there is by getting a touch, getting a stream, getting a whatever, some off-ball movement and as soon as they get that ball they're going to drive the lane line and attack downhill in exactly what was described as those straight line pathway plays. The Thunder could be in a spot to benefit just from a bulk standpoint the most from those points of emphasis all season long and you include Shea in with that and people that you know say that he gets to the line more than anybody else they refuse to ignore they refuse to acknowledge the fact that he has the second most drives per game in the NBA. He has the most points on drives per game in the league and he was third amongst guards and points in the paint per game all last season and on top of all of that Shea actually didn't really get any extra help from personal fouls drawn per game. You'll see that Shea was actually eighth in the league last year in fouls drawn per game. Pretty much everybody that is considered to be a free throw merchant in the league is on this list and Shea is right there at eighth and personal fouls per game at two pretty much right on with all the rest of those guys as well. People are hoping that this is going to negatively impact Shea's game but I'm here to give some bad news to the non-Thunder fans, maybe even the Thunder haters that stuck around for this video, it's not going to do that. If anything the Thunder and how savvy they are, how smart Shea is, how good he is at conveying extra little nuances to guys like AJ Mitchell and Kayson Wallace and Jared McCain who he's taken under his wing this offseason, the Thunder are going to use this to their gain to be even more potent offensively and if they're going to have some protection on the straight line pathway drives that's going to be something to watch more than anything else for me. The offensive push-offs we'll see how serious they are about that and again I don't think this is going to negatively impact Shea in the way that some people out there are hoping that it does preying on his downfall because that's just how people are nowadays but I want to get your guys' thoughts on this now down below in the comment section. Let me know if you had any interesting takeaways or things that I didn't really get to on those points of emphasis. Do you think that Shea is going to have more trouble than what I'm putting on adjusting to the off-arm push-offs? What do you think about the straight line drives? All the stuff that we're going to obviously get to get worked up together about throughout the course of the season. I'm so excited to overreact to heat of the moment stuff going on in the second quarter and third quarter of a game. I'm so excited to you know be on the verge of throwing something in my room watching a stupid offensive foul call or a non-call that I think should have been called. It's just all the little things that we've missed over this offseason but it's about to be back. The Thunder are going to have their preseason game tomorrow so we'll have all the breakdowns on that. I'll be watching it. Don't you worry and you can stay here on ThunderDigest to see it. We'll see you guys tomorrow. Appreciate you for watching here on the channel.