The NBA recently revealed that its officiating teams will place greater emphasis on penalizing players who commit "Off-Arm Push Offs," and OKC Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been identified as someone who could be negatively affected by this shift in focus.
Of course, what's shockingly not universally understood is that the two-time MVP isn't afraid to shake things up to improve both his play and his team's overall success.
During his media day presser, Gilgeous-Alexander revealed that he looks to sharpen his on-court tools and tries to "find ways to become a more well-rounded basketball player" every offseason.
This summer, it conveniently seems he's been honing his craft in specific areas of play that could end up helping him work around the league's new push-off crackdown.
Thunder star adding traits that should help navigate push-off crackdown
There's no denying that Gilgeous-Alexander has used push-offs to his advantage throughout his career. Given how often he drives the lane and then stops on a dime to create space for a clean scoring look, it's only natural that he extends his arm once or twice a game to his advantage.
Of course, he's far from the only player to pull such a move. Frankly, everyone in the league is prone to doing so.
The Thunder star, however, is seemingly the only one attempting to add skills to his repertoire that could directly help him navigate such actions.
On top of already having a tight handle and strong hesitation moves in his bag of tricks, SGA has also been working on his quickness, both on the ground and in his shooting motion.
Adding more speed, especially off the dribble, should make it even easier for Shai to breeze by his man. Having your assignment behind you inherently lessens the need to use your off-arm.
On top of this, he's recently been seen working on his release when shooting. This could specifically coincide with his well-documented desire and offseason work to become more of an off-ball offensive player.
By operating more frequently without the rock in his hands, Gilgeous-Alexander won't be in such close contact with opposing players, as he'll benefit from off-ball screens from guys like Isaiah Hartenstein and his eye-popping, newly developed quickness.
In many ways, SGA leaning into off-ball actions on a more consistent basis should only further distance him from being at risk of drawing fouls for his off-arm usage.
All things considered, given the work he's put in this offseason, the Thunder star seems poised to overcome any disadvantages many may think he could face with this new league-wide initiative.
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