Turns out OKC Thunder cornerstone Shai Gilgeous-Alexander doesn’t seem to like tanking very much. While he didn’t win the award for Western Conference Player of the week he put on some star-wielding performances this past week.
Pull up any Monday morning podcast reviewing the events from last week/weekend and everyone mentioned SGA and his star ascent.
Three teams including today’s opponent (plus Rockets, Pistons) have only collected a single win to this point but the Thunder have three wins including back-to-back games.
We’ll have to keep an eye on what decisions Sam Presti elects to make but if the Thunder keeps winning and SGA keeps improving garnering that bottom three seed is going to be tough.
Everyone enjoys winning so it’s impossible not to revel in the victories, but for the OKC Thunder to collect on their horde of draft picks it’s going to require tanking.
OKC Thunder face desperate 1-10 Pelicans club in first meeting this season
With that in mind, the Thunder will host the Pelicans who are desperate to get their second win. New Orleans is one of the teams hit hard by injuries to start the season with Zion Williamson sidelined after suffering a foot fracture that required surgery this offseason.
Video of him on the court doing some light workouts prior to a game last week had the Twitterverse blowing up commenting on his appearance.
Even if he’s given the green light by the medical team in a few weeks it’s clear it will be quite some time before he’s into game shape.
Adding to their woes the Pelicans have been without 2019-20 Most Improved Player Brandon Ingram for the last five games as he deals with a sore hip.
The Pels have been competitive even without their two stars but they entered this season with hopes of being a playoff squad and the longer the losing continues the least likely that is to happen. With the loss to Dallas on Monday, they arrive with a 1-10 record.
Following this contest, six of their next eight opponents feature the Nets, Grizzlies, Wizards (twice), Heat, and Clippers (plus the Pacers and Wolves). That will bring them to the quarter pole and frankly unless they catch fire the play-in might be out of reach by November 24th.
Thunder Nation should expect an inspired Pels crew and with that let’s get into the comparison.