Shai Gilgeous-Alexander gets brutally honest about his up-and-down shooting

Despite putting forth a major performance and, in fact, serving as the driving force in Oklahoma City's 128-104 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday night, Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander still isn't completely satisfied with his on-court efforts.

Registering a true studly showing, as he wrapped with a near triple-double of 35 points, 11 rebounds, and 9 assists, the 26-year-old finished the contest with by far the best plus-minus rating out of all who logged substantial playing time on the night at +24.

Yet, even with his objectively impressive outing, Gilgeous-Alexander still managed to find a way to humble himself when reflecting on the contest and looking back to the stat-sheet.

Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander talks ebbs and flows of new shot

This offseason, it became clear that the star guard was looking to become a more high-volume scoring threat in year seven, and displayed both his uptick in volume and, impressively enough, efficiency in this area of the game throughout the preseason.

However, now three games into the regular season, while his shot attempts still remain high (currently a career-best at 23.0 per game), his efficiency has regressed a bit, as he has dropped from converting on 61.9 percent from the floor and 63.6 percent from deep during the preseason to 44.9 percent shooting and 30.4 percent shooting from deep in 2024-25.

During his post-game media session on Sunday, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was asked by reporters how he manages to deal with the "ebbs and flows" of his high-volume mixed, now, with low conversion rates. In brutally honest fashion, the Thunder cornerstone opened up on how "annoying" it can be from a mentality standpoint.

"You obviously want to make every shot, but it's part of the process. Success isn't linear... I know there's going to be ups and downs. I also know how hard I work. If I'm gonna go out I'm gonna go out trusting my work if that's what it comes down to," Gilgeous-Alexander said.

In 36 minutes played, SGA paced all players on the night in both total shot attempts (24) and long-range shots (8). While he did finish the game with respectable conversion rates of 45.8 percent shooting from the floor and 37.5 percent shooting from deep, he did so while shooting a mere 41.2 percent as a whole through the first three-quarters of action.

Frankly, it wasn't until the fourth period when the game's fate was truly hanging in the balance (the game score read 89-86 heading into the final period) that the Thunder stud finally got into a rhythm with his shooting, as he would go 4-for-7 from the floor and 1-for-2 from distance, with his lone long-ball coming at the 4:33 mark to put OKC up by 16 to, ultimately, put the game somewhat out of reach.

Gilgeous-Alexander admitted post-game that cashing home on this crucial bucket "felt good" considering he "shot some earlier in the game that I thought were gonna go in and didn't."

The Thunder star admitted that, perhaps in the past, his lack of success from deep may have "deterred" him from even going for what he qualified as a game-sealing basket, but he's "trying to look past that" in 2024-25 as he continues to grow as an overall scoring threat.

Sunday night was a tremendous example of his new-found confidence in the shooting department. Hopefully, he continues to grow as the season progresses.