Minnesota Sports Forum

I've heard that Wembanyama learned how to fall on the court to help protect himself. Might be true.

But it has another pretty big impact, too. It gets calls. Everyone here knows that (ethical hoops be damned) I think learning how to draw fouls (or trick officials into calling fouls) would be the single greatest thing for Anthony Edwards to learn... for both himself and the franchise. The Timberwolves would win more games. This is indisputable.

22-year-old Wemby and 21-year-old Castle already know this stuff. Between that and their talent... DAMN.

But here's the thing... we all hate it. Even Spurs or Thunder or James Harden fans, if really being honest, would admit that they like the results A LOT more than the antics. Flailing for fouls is simply not a preferred watch.

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Before the game, I was going to count how many times Wembanyama hit the floor last night. Unfortunately, I forgot. And then I deleted the game.

I am curious though how often today's bigs like Wembanyama and Holmgren hit the deck compared to the bigs most of us grew up on.

For reals... how many times would Kareem Abdul Jabbar hit the ground during a game? Robert Parish? David Robinson? Tim Duncan?

I know the young stars are slight. BUT... is that enough to explain this phenomenon? I'm about 99.9% convinced it is not.

Anybody wanna do some simple counting?

AbeVigodaLive wrote: ↑Wed May 13, 2026 11:27 am Anybody wanna do some simple counting?

Ok I'll do my best

One... two....three... Cancun.... Fuck

Ok one more try

One.... Two....three.... Four....five.... We're gonna lose in six!

Damn.... This is hard

AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Wed May 13, 2026 11:31 am

AbeVigodaLive wrote: ↑Wed May 13, 2026 11:27 am Anybody wanna do some simple counting?

Ok I'll do my best

One... two....three... Cancun.... Fuck

Ok one more try

One.... Two....three.... Four....five.... We're gonna lose in six!

Damn.... This is hard

Ha.

Now I regret not adding something about haikus.

Did anyone hit the ground more than KAT? Not so much on his jumper but nearly every time he drove to the basket he would end up on the floor. It didn't help him get any calls though.

Coolbreeze44 wrote: ↑Wed May 13, 2026 1:03 pm Did anyone hit the ground more than KAT? Not so much on his jumper but nearly every time he drove to the basket he would end up on the floor. It didn't help him get any calls though.

Towns is another one who hits the ground a lot. But yeah... mostly on drives. And that's so common nowadays (with some guys falling down on many of their jump shots, SGA ahem, ahem). That's all baked into all his time on the ground.

But it's also after being discarded for rebounds, after losing the ball dribbling, after bumping into someone while setting a pick...

I'm not a draft expert, but I remember making an immediate declaration on Hashem Thabeet being a bust when I saw him hit the ground like 12 times in a college game. I remember thinking that any big is far too soft if he can't keep his feet on these plays. How wrong I was about big 7+ footers staying on their feet.



[Note: To be fair, Thabeet wasn't on the ground because of embellishment. He just had terrible footwork, wasn't strong enough, unathletic or whatever.]

I brought up Wemby falling during game five. He seems to fall with any contact. He got hit across his forearm on one play and it sent him spiraling to the floor and it made me wonder if he is just incredibly weak or if he is a false prophet of ethical basketball.

Phenom wrote: ↑Thu May 14, 2026 9:16 am I brought up Wemby falling during game five. He seems to fall with any contact. He got hit across his forearm on one play and it sent him spiraling to the floor and it made me wonder if he is just incredibly weak or if he is a false prophet of ethical basketball.

When you're 9 feet tall and 175 pounds, a light breeze might knock you over...I don't see this as grifting, although it does work in his favor.

KAT is a different story, as Cool pointed out. It's incredible how often he ends up on the ground after a drive to the basket, whether he gets fouled or not. Again, I don't think this is grifting...just lack of balance after getting hit on an aggressive drive to the basket. My problem with it is he is usually slow to get up, often because he is asking the ref for a foul, and the result is a lot a 5 on 4 chances for the other team. Wemby seems to recover from his falls much faster so this does happen very often.