Welcome to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's superstar coronation
Oklahoma City Thunder guard, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has reached a new level in the 2022-23 NBA season, and brings a plethora of questions with him.
June 21st, 2018: The Charlotte Hornets select Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and trade him to the Los Angeles Clippers on draft night.
Shai, a guard out of Kentucky, started as a bench player in his first and only year in college. He had landmark performance in December against Louisville where he scored 24 points, grabbed 5 rebounds, tossed 4 assists, and snatched 3 steals. He ended his college career with averages of 14.4 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 5.1 assists. He lead Kentucky on a deep run to the Sweet-16 in the NCAA tournament before he declared for the 2018 NBA Draft.
He was selected with the 11th pick in the first round by the Charlotte Hornets who then traded him to the Los Angeles Clippers for the 12th overall pick, Miles Bridges, and two future second round picks. We’ll be back here soon.
July 18th, 2018: Adrian Wojnarowski reports a blockbuster trade between the Toronto Raptors and San Antonio Spurs.
Kawhi Leonard, a key role player turned into 2013-14 Finals MVP star, has been the center of trade talks for some time now. Kawhi’s camp has been reportedly upset at the San Antonio Spurs medical staff’s decision to diagnose him with what was essentially a degenerative knee disorder. This came after a mysterious quadriceps injury that held him mostly out of the 2017-18 NBA season, that then led to connective knee tissue hardening after repeated bruising.
The Spurs then got upset as Kawhi’s distrust between him and the medical staff led to him taking his medical care needs out of the organization which left the Spurs feeling out of the loop. Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich wouldn’t ease tensions either, with the following infamous quote essentially painting the Spurs as helpless and Kawhi as the hold up.
"You'll have to ask his group" following reminders that the Spurs cleared Kawhi for game time activity months beforehand.
The Spurs feelings were summed up by a source close to the situation, referring to the discomfort between medical choices involved with Kawhi and his knee.
"The Spurs feel that they hire the best, that they do it better than anyone else. They deserve to have that reputation and that kind of ego. But they're just not very open-minded. They don't like others messing with their players."
Eventually, the Spurs cut ties with Kawhi and in a blockbuster deal with Toronto, sent Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green to the Raptors for franchise cornerstone DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl and a protected 2019 first-round pick.
For Toronto, the deal signaled the end of an era dominated by two lovable franchise faces in DeMar and fellow guard Kyle Lowry, after years of repeated playoff shortcomings. The Spurs looked to enter a re-tool period that would be lead by DeMar and his new team, in the wake of the often absent star Kawhi.
June 13th, 2019: The Toronto Raptors defeat the Golden State Warriors in 6 games to become the new NBA champions.
The Kawhi lead Raptors went on a tear in the following regular season, finishing 2nd in the Eastern Conference with a 58-24 record. Leonard broke out, averaging 26.6 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 1.8 steals over 60 games.
The Raptors dominated the Orlando Magic in the first round of the playoffs, after losing the first game of the series they proceeded to win the next 4 in a row to complete the gentlemen’s sweep.
They then advanced to the second round where they would play the Philadelphia 76ers in an epic back and forth series. The Raptors won game 1 then lost games 2 and 3, finished off a win in game 4 and then blew out the 76ers in game 5. They took a 3-2 lead into Philly where they lost 112-101 as the 76ers forced a game 7. Game 7 is one of the most iconic in NBA history, a 92-90 Raptors win capped off by one of the greatest game winners ever, go ahead and see for yourself below.
Toronto advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals against the first seeded Milwaukee Bucks. They lost games 1 and 2 against to Milwaukee, and proceeded to rattle off 4 straight wins for the second time in the same playoffs to defeat the Bucks in 6 games, advancing to the NBA Finals.
The 2019 NBA Finals are full of controversy for a multitude of reasons, mostly for Kevin Durant rupturing his Achilles in Game 5 of the series which rendered the opposing Golden State Warriors nearly helpless. The Raptors proceeded to win in 6 games, as they became NBA champions behind one of the greatest individual playoff performances in NBA history, and Kawhi won his second Finals MVP.
Fantastic, one problem, Kawhi Leonard is now a free agent, hold your champagne Toronto.
July 5th, 2019: Adrian Wojnarowski breaks another league shifting trade, this time between the Los Angeles Clippers and Oklahoma City Thunder.
Behind the scenes, the race for Kawhi Leonard has been frantic for many franchises. The Clippers have extra motivation, as the Los Angeles Lakers sit across the street and the table as superstar Lebron James has been ACTIVE in attempting to recruit Kawhi.
Leonard held his final 3 meetings before his final free agency decision, one with the Clippers, one with the Lakers, and his last with the Raptors.
In a shocking last gasp move to recruit Kawhi, the Clippers unloaded a treasure chest of assets for star, two way forward Paul George. Kawhi and George had reportedly wished to play together, and combined with Kawhi’s want to walk into an instant contender, a deal was quickly put together. The Clippers sent the following package to the Oklahoma City Thunder for PG:
LAC 2022, 2024, and 2026 first-round picks, all unprotected
2021 unprotected first-round pick via Miami
2023 protected first-round pick via Miami
Rights to swap picks with Clippers in 2023 and 2025
Forward Danilo Gallinari
Point Guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (SGA)
So in a weird butterfly effect way, the Thunder have…the Spurs doctors and frustrations to thank for a long path to acquiring SGA through Kawhi’s want to play with a friend, awesome.
October 23rd, 2019: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander makes his Thunder debut.
Shai wasted no time imprinting his name on the future of the Thunder franchise. In LA, he averaged a solid 10.8 points and 3.3 assists per game over the course of his rookie season. He even ended up earning All-Rookie team honors for the 2018-19 season.
On night one for Oklahoma? He scored 26 points on 10-of-23 shooting to introduce himself against the Utah Jazz. In his Oklahoma home debut just two days later on the 25th? He scored 28 points on 10-of-17 shooting with 2 steals and 3 blocks.
The 2019-20 season landed SGA next to an unlikely teammate with the power to greatly influence his early development, Chris Paul. The consensus first ballot Hall of Famer, was busy in OKC revamping his value as a point guard following a horrific hamstring injury with the Houston Rockets. Just a year after the injury and a dip in production, the Rockets traded Chris Paul to the Thunder for a package centered around fellow star guard Russell Westbrook.
The Oklahoma City Thunder entered the season with a less than 1% chance to make the playoffs, and in shocking fashion proved the models wrong. Chris Paul led a young talented Thunder team to a 44-28 record, good enough for a 5th seed in the west. The Thunder then drew a first round series against the Houston Rockets (crazy how these lines keep running into each other) to 7 games against a much more talented roster which they ultimately lost.
The following off-season, the Thunder traded Chris Paul to the Phoenix Suns for a package centered around a first-round pick, Ricky Rubio, and Kelly Oubre, the keys for the first time are officially Shai’s.
Shai finished his second season averaging 19.0 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 3.3 assists as well as over a steal and nearly a block a game. His efficiency stayed the same as he took on more volume and the Thunder looked to him to create more and more.
In his third season, Shai proceeded to take more of a jump as an offensive creator. To this point he’d been an average shooter, sitting at around 35% from deep for two years, and in 2021 he jumped to 42% from deep on his highest volume yet. His scoring took another jump as he reached heights of 23.7 points and he began to make the play-making jump as well as his assists began to rise to nearly 6 a game.
In this season and the following, Shai would fall into a similar pattern. Play well into the All-Star break, get snubbed from selection, then disappear onto injury reports as the Thunder tanked their team for high draft picks and elite prospect talent. Shai played just 35 games in his third year, and just 56 the next.
October 19th, 2022: Shai breaks out, and begins his superstar campaign.
In the opening game of the 2022-23 season, Shai compiled a complete stat line of 32 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks. He simply hasn’t stopped as he’s compiled point totals of 28, 33, 24, 38, 34, 37, 18, and 33 points in order through November 8th, 2022.
He’s been nothing short of electric, the lightning to Oklahoma’s Thunder if you may. He’s averaging 30.5 points (6th in the NBA), 4.3 rebounds, 5.9 assists, 2.3 steals (3rd in the NBA), and 1.1 blocks a game. He’s routinely been nothing short of elite on both ends of the floor this season, leading a not so great Thunder team in spite of the front office looking forward to the next draft. And for what it’s worth, the 4-6 start for OKC has been better than expected with the lineups it’s put out.
He’s dominating advanced metrics surrounded by superstars as well, he’s 7th in Box Plus/Minus, 10th in Offensive BPM, 13th in Defensive BPM, 8th in VORP (Value over Replacement Player), and 11th in total win shares. The numbers agree with the eye test that Shai has been nothing short of amazing.
Even in a year where Shai is once again shooting poorly from 3 at 30.4%, he’s managed to be ridiculously efficient. Within 0-3 feet from the basket, he’s finishing 72.1% of his shots. Within 10-16 feet? He’s hitting 53.8% of his mid range shots. And within 16 feet all the way out to the 3 point arc? He’s shooting 57.1% on his deep 2’s.
There’s absolutely no telling how the rest of the season will go for Shai. The Thunder lost their 2nd overall pick in this years draft, Chet Holmgren, to a pre-season foot injury, and are actively looking to get a high pick in the historic upcoming draft.
What does this mean? Will Shai get shut down for a 3rd straight season? Is the window for the now 24-year-old Shai and the extremely young Thunder closing? If so, could that mean he’s dealt in a trade elsewhere?
Outside of that, when is it finally appropriate to look at the Clippers and wonder if they made the wrong move? They gave up a generational haul for Paul George and in return have gotten about a year and a half out of a constantly injured Kawhi. They’ve reached just one conference final with their star tandem and eventually, the time will come to truly rule in on if it was all worth it.
For Shai, there’s finally some certainty. He’s a hooper, no way around it, an electric bucket getter who can get it done on both ends of the floor. Perhaps this is the year where he finally gets his first career All-Star nod.
Kevin knows ball