As the NBA playoffs kick into high gear, much of the attention is on the big dogs in the Western Conference: the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The reigning champions are the first team to make it through to the second round, picking up the lone series sweep in this year's playoffs over the Phoenix Suns. With their stifling defense and playoff experience, it's going to be hard to defeat them this year.

Beyond even those two factors, perhaps the biggest catalyst for their success is a single man from Toronto, Canada: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The reigning MVP and Finals MVP is gunning for a repeat this year in both categories, but with his astounding success comes the requisite discourse around his play style.

SGA has been given the title of "foul-baiter" by media members and social media alike. It's gotten to the point where even other players are commenting on it, and that, of course, includes Draymond Green on his podcast.

However, on the latest episode of The Draymond Green Show, the Warriors legend defended Gilgeous-Alexander and his play style.

"Quite honestly, Shai is great at drawing fouls. He uses your leverage against you. He has mastered the art of drawing a foul. If you watch them, most of them are fouls. And when I say most, I'm talking 90-plus percent of them, they do be fouls. Like he has mastered the art of drawing a foul to the level that James Harden had the art mastered before, but in a different way. For a great scorer, I think that's a great thing to master, and he's done that."

Green still acknowledged the frustrations that people have with how Gilgeous-Alexander draws some of these fouls, but stood pat with his point of view and complimented SGA elsewhere, too.

"Now, some of them, I think back in the old days, officials would see that and be like, 'I'm not calling it.' And I think that's the frustration that some people have is it seems that he gets so many of these calls and just some of them the way they look, the way they happen, officials just, they wouldn't used to call it. Especially in the playoffs, they wouldn't call it. And so I can understand the frustration. However, I do think a lot of them be fouls. He does a great job at drawing fouls. And so, make no mistake about it. Shai can score with the best of them. With the foul, without the foul, he can score with the best of them. He is very capable of putting up 40 and having five free-throw attempts, six free-throw attempts. He is capable of doing that. So, make no mistake about that."

Green does have reason to believe that Gilgeous-Alexander is elite without the fouls.

In the 17 games that the pair have matched up against each other in their careers, Gilgeous-Alexander averages 25.1 points per game on only 7.4 free throws per game. If you remove the four games that featured SGA as a Clipper, that number rises to 28.5 points per game, while the amount of free throw attempts only goes up to 8.5.

SGA has never led the league in free throws attempted per game, though he has led in free throws made for three seasons in a row, and as evidenced by the stats and the dagger stepback three he made over Green in the most recent Warriors-Thunder matchup, he truly doesn't need to be at the foul line to devastate opponents.