One of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s teammates thinks that he deserves [checks notes] more free throws.
Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams, a 2025 NBA All-Star, appeared this week on “The Young Man and The Three” podcast. During the show, Williams spoke about his Thunder teammate Gilgeous-Alexander and incredibly said that he believes Gilgeous-Alexander isn’t getting rewarded with enough free throws.
“He honestly should go to the free-throw line more,” said Williams of Gilgeous-Alexander, per Awful Announcing. “He leads the NBA in drives, and we’re like the lowest free-throw shooting team in the NBA. I think there are like six or seven people ahead of him that shoot more free throws. But because the media doesn’t like certain ways he gets fouled, that gets pushed. Just watch the games.”
Williams’ comments came as part of a greater discussion about how the national NBA media supposedly doesn’t watch enough games and instead just pushes popular narratives about certain players and teams. You can watch the full clip here.
That take by Williams about free throws is pretty ludicrous though because the MVP frontrunner Gilgeous-Alexander is already known as one of the most notorious foul-baiters in the league. Gilgeous-Alexander has seemingly perfected the art of drawing whistles, sometimes under dubious circumstances, and is averaging a hefty 8.8 free throw attempts per game this season.
While that is still down from the career-high 10.9 free throw attempts per game that Gilgeous-Alexander averaged in 2022-23, he ranks second in the league this season in total foul shots (after Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 10.5 per game). Thus, Williams’ assertion that there are “six or seven people ahead” of Gilgeous-Alexander in free throw attempts is just demonstrably untrue.
Williams did get it right that Gilgeous-Alexander leads the NBA in drives this season with 20.6 per game. But considering that it is a massive accomplishment these days when teams don’t allow Gilgeous-Alexander to get to the free-throw line, Williams’ comments here will likely be falling on deaf ears.
