The Oklahoma City Thunder are only one NBA Draft class into their rebuild, trying to pave the road back to title contention. With already a max point guard in place, Thunder General Manager Sam Presti has a historic pile of draft picks to surround Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with talent in the coming years. All he needs is the lucky bounce of a few ping pong balls. OKC got no such luck during the 2021 NBA Draft Lottery and ended up with the sixth overall pick, a selection used to shock the world as Presti picked Josh Giddey, an NBL standout.
While the pick of Giddey came out of nowhere, as we later found out of private Vegas workouts and the fact the Warriors would’ve swooped up the floppy-haired wonder with the next selection, Giddey has turned the 2021 NBA Draft into a home run by Presti. This week, he became the youngest player in NBA history to record a triple-double, he has recorded a double-double without scoring a bucket one of just two players in the history of the league to do so, and currently averaged 11 points, seven rebounds, and six assists per game.
Josh Giddey wins the NBA Western Conference Rookie of the Month award for December
At the age of 19, Josh Giddey has already accomplished being a top-ten pick in the NBA, recording a triple-double in the association, and now two straight Rookie of the Month awards for the Western Conference.
Giddey has outdone every other Western Conference Rookie, winning both Rookie of the Year awards handed out by the conference, while the Eastern Conference has seen the award change hands between Evan Mobley and now Franz Wagner for December. The Melbourne, Australia native is the second player in OKC Thunder history to receive two Rookie of the Month awards in one season. The only other? Oh, just future Hall of Fame, top-75 player of all time, triple-double machine, Russell Westbrook.
While Josh Giddey was tabbed rookie of the month for back-to-back months, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was a nominee for the Western Conference Player of the Month award eventually losing out to Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz. The future is extremely bright for the Oklahoma City Thunder, and this draft class that features four really good selections reaffirms the trust Thunder fans should have in Sam Presti at the helm.