OKC Thunder: 3 stars Shai Gilgeous-Alexander should mold his game after

Heading into the 2020-21 season, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will take over as top dog for the OKC Thunder. In preparation for this, there are a few players he should try and emulate.

With Chris Paul now a member of the Phoenix Suns, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander heads into the 2020-21 season as the unquestioned number one option for this OKC Thunder squad.

After a breakout season where he posted averages of 19 points, 5.9 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 1.1 steals per game on 47 percent shooting from the floor and 35 percent shooting from deep, the league has officially taken notice of the talent that is the former Kentucky product, and his role with the Thunder is sure to mirror this.

That said, still only 22-years-old Gilgeous-Alexander is far from a “finished product”, as he is just entering year three of his NBA career and possesses many more with which he can use to mold his craft & skills.

While the rising star is coming into this upcoming campaign as his team’s top-dog, this is not to say he doesn’t have areas of his game in which he needs to continue to develop.

Currently in the league, there are quite a few studs with similar games to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander that he could look to emulate to help expedite his development.

Here are 3 players we believe the young talent should look to mold his game after:

Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander should mold his game after No. 1) Jaylen Brown

Sure, many will immediately jump and say that Jaylen Brown‘s star status is essentially the same as that of Gilgeous-Alexander’s.

That said, with the fact that the Boston Celtics star is already a rightly-deserving $100 million man ($115 million to be exact), it should come as no shock that we believe the OKC Thunder stud should try and follow in the footsteps of Brown, specifically with the progressions in which he made during this past campaign.

Through 57 games played the 24-year-old posted career highs of 20.3 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 1.1 steals per game on 48 percent shooting from the floor and 38 percent shooting from deep.

The comparison of games between both Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jaylen Brown is actually pretty sound, as both are great two-way players with the ability to score in many different ways, be it with the ball in their hands or while roaming the court without it.

One of the main ways we hope SGA emulates Brown’s progression from 2019-20 is in the form of an uptick in 3-point attempts.

In comparison to his 2018-19 stats, the Celtics wing increased in long-range attempts by more than two a game. With this increase in shots came an increase in his conversion rate, as he splashed his 3-pointers in at a 4 percent higher clip than he did the season prior.

Gilgeous-Alexander did manage to shoot a respectable 35 percent from deep on 3.6 attempts per game in 2019-20, but this was while sharing scoring duties with CP3, Danilo Gallinari, and Dennis Schroder.

Now, with all three of these aforementioned players gone, there are about 16 attempts-per-game that need to be taken over (combined number of 3-point attempts from each of these players last year).

While we don’t expect SGA to take even half of these attempts over for the OKC Thunder, perhaps adding about two or three of these to his arsenal — similar to how Brown went about things when Kyrie Irving and several others left Boston last offseason — could wind up benefiting him individually in the long run, as well as the rest of the offense, as it would create other opportunities inside the arch for his teammates should the opposing defense be focused on stopping the long-ball.