Grading the Oklahoma City Thunder season: The starting five

The Oklahoma City Thunder guards are led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who continues to ascend to superstardom

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had an interesting path to averaging 24-points, five rebounds, and six assists per game on 45-percent shooting from the floor, 30-percent from three, and 81-percent at the line. The max contract point guard in his age 23-season played just 56-games the second-fewest games in his career and he has not reached above 70-games played since his Rookie season in L.A. where he played all 82 for the playoff-bound Clippers. A lot of factors go into that such as the pandemic which shorted his second and third NBA seasons and injuries hampering his third and fourth years.

SGA inked his five-year no opt-out max extension the last offseason which kicks in during the 2022-23 NBA season, and the Toronto, Ontario native is starting to enter his prime, one that has superstardom written all over.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander played 13-games after the NBA All-Star Break and averaged 30-points, nearly six rebounds, seven assists, a steal, and almost a block per contest on 54-percent shooting from the floor and 39-percent from three-point land.

The 23-year-old guard is an elite scorer and has the potential to lead a championship-caliber team in that department mostly thanks to his rim finishing which he earned a career-high 62-percent at the cup ranking himself in the 70th percentile.

His career-low in shooting from distance can mainly be chalked up to the difficulty of shot which differs from his previous seasons and this year Shai Gilgeous-Alexander tried his hand at more stepbacks triples.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s rim finishing helps him dominate in the mid-range in which he ranks in the 72nd percentile shooting 44-percent according to cleaning the glass.

Grade: A, OKC has a pure bucket getter on the verge of stardom.