The Oklahoma City Thunder have been hit hard by the injury bug this season. The team has eight active players currently, all due to basketball-related injuries. The OKC Thunder have already shut down Lu Dort, Mike Muscala, and Ty Jerome for the season, and on Saturday did the same with their prized rookie Josh Giddey. It seems as if that is the same direction Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is heading for the second straight year.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander missed the second leg of the 2020-21 NBA Season with plantar fasciitis which also held him out of the Olympics for Team Canada, an event he said after the season was over he would love to attend if he was 100-percent. That leaves us to believe, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander did not reach 100-percent physically until later in the summer.
During the offseason, the Oklahoma City Thunder inked Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to a max contract extension, and now he will likely see his third season in Bricktown cut short. Once due to a pandemic, once due to a pandemic shortened season (with the NBA schedule just 72 games during the 2020-21 season) and foot injury, and now it seems as though a lingering ankle injury will cut his season short by eight games.
The Oklahoma City Thunder list Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as out against Portland could mean the end of his 2021-22 NBA Season
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been listed as questionable with an ankle injury for the better part of three weeks now, with him missing three games this week twice against Orlando and Denver.
Before tip-off against the Nuggets, Mark Daigneault told the media that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander would not play against Denver, and the organization will have a “conversation” with their star point guard on how to continue this season saying that being questionable each game “is not sustainable.”
As the Oklahoma City Thunder get set to take on the Portland Trailblazers on Monday, the Thunder have already marked Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as out against the Blazers. We will hear from head coach Mark Daigneault before tip-off to clarify if this marks the end of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s season following the organization’s conversation with their star.