OKC Thunder: 2 players who must step up in SGA’s extended absence

Despite being a franchise in the midst of a full-fledged rebuild, the OKC Thunder already seem to have their star of the future in combo guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

An arguable snub from this past ASG — he was –, SGA finds himself leading the way for this Oklahoma City squad with impressive averages of 23.7 points, 5.9 assists, 4.7 rebounds, and just shy of a steal per game on 51 percent shooting from the field and 42 percent shooting from deep.

Because of his excellence, the Thunder have managed to surprise the masses with their current turnout on the season, boasting a record of 19-25 while finding themselves right in the mix for playoff contention during what was supposed to be a tank job of a season.

Unfortunately, however, his per-game production will have to be put on hold for the time being, as the 22-year-old is expected to miss a ‘significant amount of time’ with a foot injury.

OKC Thunder players will need to step up in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s absence

Wednesday, OKC Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault announced that their stud guard is expected to be sidelined for quite some time as a result of plantar fasciitis in his right foot.

"“I don’t want to use ‘long-term’ because it’s vague,” Daigneault said. “But it’s not ‘day-to-day’ — it’s going to be a more significant amount of time than ‘day-to-day’."

Now, with this massive absence within the rotation, it’s evident that other players will need to step up to take over the workload in which SGA is leaving behind.

As for who these players could wind up being, we at TI see 2 in specific that should be in line to step up their games: