6 OKC Thunder players to keep an eye on during scrimmages

How much of a leap has Gilgeous-Alexander taken?

With the youngsters on the club all receiving praise for the growth they made during the hiatus we’ll definitely get a chance to witness for ourselves.

Several OKC Thunder players have raved over how much Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has grown and the Canadian confirmed he worked on specific areas of weakness throughout the hiatus. Noel said you can see the game has slowed down for him.

Remember, the offseason is when young players put in work to improve their games. Gilgeous-Alexander is a bit of an outlier (excluding the Wonderkid Luka) in that he made steps in his sophomore season.

Most sophomores, even those who work to improve their games return to find all the opponent coaches have also designed game plans to take away their strengths. Couple that with SGA playing off-ball much more this season and primarily as the shooting guard or small forward and his growth is atypical.

In the limited images, we’ve seen via social media or the Thunder website it’s clear he added some bulk as well.

SGA is firmly entrenched as the cornerstone to build around. However, if Noel is correct and the Canadian has drastically improved his game while awaiting the season resumption it could have overarching effects.

Another precipitous leap will bolster the clubs shot of a deep playoff run and could impact Sam Presti’s decisions this offseason on roster compilation.