OKC Thunder: Are pundits sleeping on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander?
OKC Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is gaining some media recognition but are national pundits sleeping on his talent?
In his first season with the OKC Thunder, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has everyone sitting up and taking notice. An impressive rookie campaign in LA earmarked him as an untouchable. Wisely, Sam Presti forced the Clippers hand marking SGA as the essential asset exchange in the Paul George trade.
Gilgeous-Alexander was tapped to become a star but while the analysts noted his talents they put more emphasis on his ceiling and eventual ascendance over time. Buoyed
by an impressive postseason, the Canadian showed up in OKC proving the projections correct but the timing inaccurate.
Playing alongside Chris Paul and in the clutch time lineup in OKC has meant the youngster is playing much more off the ball and primarily in the shooting guard position. He’s leading the Thunder in scoring and putting up impressive numbers across the board and proving to be adept in all the major categories.
Additionally, he’s a player who Billy Donovan trusts to do more and willing to ask more of. Case in point, the bench boss felt Shai could be pulling down more rebounds and asked him to be more aggressive on the boards. Gilgeous-Alexander responded with an unfathomable 20 rebounds in the very next game.
And, it wasn’t just that match against the Minnesota Timberwolves where he dropped his first career triple-double of 20 points, 20 rebounds, and 10 assists. Prior to that match, in 39 games he was averaging 5.3 rebounds. From the Minnesota game through to the season suspension (20 games) SGA increased his rebound average to 7.3 per game.
Are pundits sleeping on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander?
This week Andy Bailey and Dan Favale of Bleacher Report released their top 15 shooting guards from this season. Gilgeous-Alexander is seeded seventh, ahead of Donovan Mitchell (8th) CJ McCollum (9th) and Buddy Hield (10th).
Yet not all pundits are as smitten (or perhaps less aware of his talent). Basketball Insiders completed the same ranking exercise for the top ten. SGA not only doesn’t make the cut he’s not listed in the honorable mentions. The aforementioned players do make the list though wit Mitchell ranked sixth, McCollum ranked seventh and Buddy Hield listed in honorable mentions.
Hoops Hype also had a similar ranking article but the focus was on the top 25 under 25. Gilgeous-Alexander made the list but was way down in 16th. Mitchell got big time props in this article ranking third.
Rookies Zion Williamson and Ja Morant both placed ahead of SGA in the Hoops Hype article as well, however, their placement was seemingly based more on ‘potential’
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After months of no sports, all games in the Disney bubble will draw sports fans’ attention. While the entire OKC Thunder team will be on display the cornerstone of the franchise will undoubtedly get more focus.
With this spotlight, Gilgeous-Alexander has the opportunity to showcase his talent and the work he put in during the hiatus to improve and grow. The Canadian spent time working on shooting off the dribble and creating space off the dribble.
Let’s remember he’s the one of the Thunder point guard trio who has shifted his game the most. Despite having to adapt the most he’s still leading the team in scoring (19.3 points), is second in rebounding (6.3) and third in assists (3.3) with the ball in his hand less than Chris Paul or Dennis Schroder.
A solid run in the playoffs combined with SGA delivering quality performances could vault him up the postseason ranking lists.
The final seeding is yet to be determined with eight seeding games to be played. But, if the current four-five seeds hold steady fans would get the direct showdown of Mitchell versus Gilgeous-Alexander.
And with no disrespect to Mitchell — my money would be on the OKC Thunder winning the series and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander stealing the show!