Who Leads the 2026 NBA Playoffs in Falls? Ranking Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Brunson & More

The 2026 NBA Playoffs have been exciting so far, with 22-year-old Victor Wembanyama proving to be a dominant force in his first career playoff run. The Cleveland Cavaliers have also been able to make it to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since LeBron James in 2018.

The New York Knicks have a shot at redemption after falling to the Indiana Pacers last postseason in the ECF. Then there's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who has won his second consecutive league MVP award and could lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to their second-straight NBA Finals.

While those are all positive notes to look at, it appears that NBA journalist Tom Haberstroh managed to come up with an odd statistic, which shows something less impressive.

Haberstroh went out of his way to track how often some of the star players in the 2026 NBA Playoffs have fallen on the floor after taking a shot.

According to Haberstroh's list, Gilgeous-Alexander leads the playoff field in shot attempts that result in falls. SGA has notoriously earned the moniker "Free Throw Merchant" by NBA fans. This is because of how often he gets to the charity stripe despite sometimes not getting hacked. Seeing him on top of Haberstroh's list is not a surprise.

The journalist mainly wanted to see how often Gilgeous-Alexander fell compared to his fellow stars currently in the postseason. This was Haberstroh's way of determining if SGA flops or not.

Full Breakdown of Players Who Lead the 2026 NBA Playoffs in Falls

As mentioned earlier, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the playoff leader in falls this postseason. So far, SGA has fallen 39 times out of 224 shot attempts, falling 17.4% overall. This is a combination of both non-fouled and fouled shots.

Tom Haberstroh's list also showed that Gilgeous-Alexander has fallen 51.4% when getting fouled, somehow proving that the Thunder star flops a lot. His fall percentage when fouled is drastically higher compared to the second guy on the list, James Harden.

Over the course of his 17-year career, Harden has built a reputation for being one of the biggest floppers in the league. With that in mind, it's unsurprising to see him rank second on Haberstroh's list.

The list shows that Harden has fallen on the ground 31 times out of 260 total shot attempts. When fouled, his fall percentage is only at 29.3%, which is nearly half of what SGA averages. With that in mind, it's quite apparent that Gilgeous-Alexander does tend to flop a lot.

Third on the list is Jalen Brunson. He has a fall percentage of 9.0% overall. Then there's Donovan Mitchell, who's ranked in fourth, with 8.4%. Finally, last on the list is Victor Wembanyama, with only 4.2%. It's safe to argue that these three don't necessarily flop to get to the line.