Sports

Thunder Shouldn’t Move Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
image: beautiful pictures

Of the eight players who are currently averaging more than 30 points per game, one is unlike the others. In addition to Luka Dončić, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, Jayson Tatum, Donovan Mitchell, and Shai Gilgeous-AlexanderI think it’s easy to pick out who I’m referring to.

The Oklahoma City guard is scoring 31 points per night on a 54/39/94 split shot, and it’s unclear if he’ll make the All-Star team. The West has a lot of talent, he’s constantly rebuilding the Thunder, and you need a League Pass to see him play.

We don’t know if he’s a good stat or a bad team player, because every time OKC plays unexpectedly, GM Sam Presti reports an injury to keep going. lottery. Who knows what the ultimate goal from Thunder’s draft stockpile is, but having that many assets doesn’t mean it’ll be convincing enough. Brick for Vic winner to trade down.

Well, this season would have been different if Chet Holmgren hadn’t been sidelined through injury. However, the SGA timeline seems to have begun. Every other guy who scores more than 30 points in 2022 will be angry for missing the playoffs and probably still upset if they have to be relegated in the play-ins.

If the Thunder earns nine seeds, they will be delighted, although they have the means to trade responsibly and challenge more. While I wouldn’t encourage Presti to throw away the big pile to chase the guts, at least he can bully for money.

Right now the most significant OKC trade headlines revolve around moving Gilgeous-Alexander. I’m not going to propose deals for the guard because that’s what casual NBA fans do on IG in their spare time. Plus, SGA is excited for the future.

I empathize with Thunder beat writer Brandon Rahbar’s agitation because that’s what pundits have been doing with Damian Lillard for years. The difference between the two organizations is Portland seemingly maxed out its roster around their franchise player, and OKC is actively sandbagging promising seasons of SGA’s young career.

And that’s my concern. The Thunder’s current tanking isn’t as bad as peak Process, which is good. Joel Embiid has shown us that great players can overcome poor culture. The 76ers will be a top four team in the East as long as he’s surrounded by serviceable talent.

The side effect of Philly’s asset-forward approach is that even though the team had the capital to broker trades to improve the roster every offseason, there’s little to no continuity. Very rarely is a collection of talent good enough to win a championship without collectively experiencing playoff failure first.

Wouldn’t you love to see how the Thunder look if Gilgeous-Alexander, Josh Giddey, Lou Dort, and Tre Mann are given a real rotation power forward and center. Aleksej Pokusevski and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl are ostensibly G League players at this point in their careers if that’s not Poku’s ultimate destination.

I doubt Presti would even notice the missing draft picks that it would take to acquire Miles Turner from Indiana. A veteran center could improve a defense that’s giving up 54 paint points per game, ranked 4th worst NBA. And it would be nice to have some form of interior infrastructure in place to ease the workload on Holmgren’s lightweight chassis when he returns next year.

Let’s say they miss out on pick 1 and go for Scoot Henderson instead. Do they switch from Giddey in hopes of yet another guard that is likely to get 30? Where does the Chet fall in the rating order if that happens?

These aren’t bad issues, but they’ve got a great problem solver and one that’s being appreciated because the GM that counts more picks wins.



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