The Oklahoma City Thunder are set to start their season on Wednesday, on the road against Minnesota taking on the new look Timberwolves. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who has been dealing with a grade two MCL sprain that has held him out of the entire preseason schedule, is on track to be a game-time decision on Wednesday.
This will be a big season for the Kentucky product. Gilgeous-Alexander enters his fourth season in Bricktown and five in the NBA still looking for his first NBA All-Star nod at age 24. After a fantastic summer playing for Team Canada, which followed up his insane end the season that saw Shai Gilgeous-Alexander average 30 points, five rebounds, seven assists, a steal, and a block per game while shooting 54 percent from the floor and 39 percent from deep.
The Oklahoma City Thunder look to get Shai Gilgeous-Alexander his first all-star nod this season, but will they be good enough?
The Oklahoma City Thunder are in the midst of a rebuild, with two drafts under their belt and a loaded 2023 NBA Draft class on the horizon, this season does not project to be a year full of winning in Bricktown. Most project OKC to win around 24 games this season.
With a stacked Western Conference that features a ton of jaw-dropping talent, especially at the guard position, how can Shai Gilgeous-Alexander squeeze into the Salt Lake City spectacle? At media day, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was asked if team success should factor into the decision-making process for voters.
Can Oklahoma City win enough games to get Gilgeous-Alexander the nod? Well, things will have to break their way for sure. Sadly, there will be All-Star players hurt, or just not feeling good enough to participate in the exhibition which opens up replacement slots to people like SGA.
A year ago, Dejonte Murray made his first All-Star game on a San Antonio Spurs squad that was the tenth seed and finished with 34 wins a year ago. Murray averaged 21 points, eight rebounds, and nine assists.
Could the OKC Thunder reach that mark this season? When it is all said and done, likely not but by the time All-Star voting opens up around Christmas Day, and wraps up around early February could OKC be around the 11th or 12th seed in the Western Conference before ultimately settling closer to the bottom of the standings after the all-star break? That is a real possibility.
The Oklahoma City Thunder just wrapped up a 5-1 preseason slate, the lone loss by two points to the Dallas Mavericks, and a lot of young players look better than expected. Mark Daigneault has a lot of interesting weapons at his disposal and I believe with a stellar and healthy first half of the season Shai Gilgeous-Alexander could garner enough votes to get into the All-Star game.