After trading Chris Paul and Steven Adams, the Oklahoma City Thunder officially began their rebuild.
They have 15 first-round picks in the next five drafts and a pool of young talent on their hands. Darius Bazley and Luguentz Dort have proven to be solid role players who will continue to develop, but it’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander that Thunder fans should be really excited about.
Under the guidance of CP3 last season, he showed massive improvement. With Paul now in Phoenix, SGA can expect to see a lot more of the ball. The question is, will his increased usage rate be enough for him to make his first All-Star team? There might not be an actual game this season, but the league will name All-Stars as usual and Gilgeous-Alexander will be vying for a place amongst the select 12.
Scoring
One aspect that comes easily to the Canadian shooting guard is scoring. In his sophomore year last season, he averaged 19.0 PPG – up from 10.8 PPG in his rookie season. His 19.0 PPG came on just 14.5 FGA per game, the third-highest scorer in the league of those who averaged 14.5 FGA or less per game.
He can expect at least half of Chris Paul’s 12.7 field goal attempts to drop to him, which is an extra six shots a game. This will give him the chance, with his eFG% at 51.4% to average at least another 5-6 PPG. Last season, he had a career high of 32 points multiple times and has shown that he can do it in the biggest stage. Two of these games came in wins against the Clippers and his hometown Raptors, in Toronto.
Playmaking
Another area of his game Gilgeous-Alexander will be looking to improve next year is his playmaking. He only averaged 3.3 APG last season, so there is a lot of room for growth. If he can successfully do this, it will show voters that he is developing all aspects of his game.
Last season, the Thunder had two other excellent guards in CP3 and Dennis Schroder. Both handled the ball a lot hence forcing SGA to play off the ball a lot more. As he handles the rock more, he’ll inevitably have the chance to pick his teammates out and feed them easy buckets.
He has shown flashes of having incredible court vision, most notably when he grabbed ten assists in his first ever triple-double against the Minnesota Timberwolves– an incredible 20-20-10 game.
Competition for Places
One thing that can’t be overlooked is the competition for All-Star spots. The Western Conference is extremely stacked at the guard position. There are four names, given they remain healthy, who are guaranteed to be picked– Steph Curry, James Harden, Luka Doncic and Damian Lillard. After that, you only have two more spots and a handful of talent all fighting to earn their place. Devin Booker, Jamal Murray and Donovan Mitchell – just to name a few.
SGA was a popular pick with the fans last season, gaining over 300,000 votes — but he’ll need all Thunder fans to go even bigger this season to ensure he is in the running to make his first All-Star team.
Can SGA make the leap?
There are several factors outside of SGA’s control that affect whether he is named an All-Star or not. Will Harden be traded to the East and release one of those ‘guaranteed’ guard spots? Could this be the season that the league finally counts LeBron James as a guard in the voting?
Most importantly, will OKC be anywhere near good enough to get the fans and the media excited enough to throw some votes at Shai? These things probably won’t be on his mind. As long as he uses the invaluable game time to improve his game on a nightly basis, there is no doubt that he has the pure talent to be amongst the league’s finest. All-Star or not, expect the young guard to put the league on notice this season.
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