Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s skilled profession thus far has been a testomony of arduous work and consistency. The rampage he’s been on to begin the 2022-23 season is sufficient to make NBA junkies rethink each the trajectory of the Oklahoma City Thunder, and his overarching profession.
The rising star’s physique of work began lengthy earlier than he arrived in Oklahoma City, although. It began even earlier than he was chosen by the LA Clippers with the No. 11 decide in the NBA Draft. From Kentucky, to Los Angeles and lastly to OKC, each cease Gilgeous-Alexander has made has redefined his ceiling and introduced out extra qualities that make the 24-year-old so particular.
“When I first saw him, the length, the absolute stillness to his game… In other words there was no up-and-down — he just kept coming,” Kentucky head coach John Calipari instructed Inside the Thunder. “His ability to finish at the rim, his floater — his jump shot needed just a little bit of work.”
As a faculty identified to ship elite guards to the NBA, Calipari and the Wildcats teaching employees knew they’d one thing particular early. They had to determine methods to use him, although, as Gilgeous-Alexander’s sport possesses a novel type and tempo. If the uniqueness of SGA’s sport wasn’t sufficient, it certainly didn’t assist that he ran the Kentucky offense only a 12 months after De’Aaron Fox did.
If you aren’t tremendous conversant in Fox’s sport, it’d genuinely match the comparability for Gilgeous-Alexander’s exact opposite. Fox is one of the quickest, most explosive gamers in the trendy NBA, whereas Gilgeous-Alexander performs at his personal, slower tempo always.
While his tempo and type could appear slower, Calipari credit the level guard’s thoughts for the phantasm. Gilgeous-Alexander’s thought-process is all the time one step forward, maybe what makes him so particular.
“The thing with his pace of game — he can play fast, but his mind never plays fast,” Calipari stated. “His mind was always slower. Some guys have a burst, and then their mind is moving a thousand miles an hour — not his. He’d have a burst and be able to read and see and make plays late, which are the hardest ones to guard. The skip, the lob, the float and the pull.”
When he arrived at Kentucky, Gilgeous-Alexander was half of the 2017 recruiting class that included six five-star prospects. He was a four-star, although, tabbed by ESPN as the thirty fifth greatest participant in the Top 100. Even although he wasn’t the prime prospect of the class, Calipari and assistant coach Joel Justus knew what they had been getting when recruiting him: a relentlessly arduous employee with a powerful want to be the greatest. There’s a cause they fought arduous to safe his dedication.
As the season continued, Gilgeous-Alexander’s sport matured and his isolation skillset started to evolve. In late December, he recorded the first 20-point sport of his younger school profession, which simply so occurred to be the first evening he tried greater than ten photographs. By the time convention play rolled round, he had absolutely earned the belief of the teaching employees. Similarly to how evident it was throughout his recruitment course of, Gilgeous-Alexander’s work ethic helped him all the time keep a step forward.
“So much of what sets him apart is the way he studies you know, the way he approaches the game,” Justus, who’s now an assistant coach at North Carolina State, stated. “I mean, we would play a game on the road and he would come and sit next to me on the plane and re-watch the game on the iPad on the way home. As an 18-year old freshman in college, you know, a lot of these guys take their pizzas and go back there and fall asleep. He was the guy that routinely would come up and sit with me and re-watch the game on the iPad. You know, he just had a bit of an old soul, and a very serious approach to basketball at a very young age.”
When interviewing each coaches about Gilgeous-Alexander’s season at Kentucky, Calipari and Justus every particularly introduced up the West Virginia sport on Jan. 27 as a stand-alone second in Gilgeous-Alexander’s evolution. Down the stretch, it doesn’t matter what, the coaches needed the ball in his fingers.
That didn’t essentially imply Gilgeous-Alexander was going to take each single shot, however it meant they trusted him to make the proper play each single time. It’s a mirror-image of the clutch-time participant Gilgeous-Alexander is at the moment.
“I keep in mind at West Virginia, we simply put him in a excessive pick-and-roll and stated ‘Figure it out’,” Calipari said. “We won by 17.”
While the Wildcats only beat West Virginia by seven, Kentucky came back from a 15-point deficit and outscored the Mountaineers 50-28 in the second half. Calipari’s memory of the final score was a few numbers off, but his recollection of Kentucky’s style of play down the stretch was no exaggeration at all.
Gilgeous-Alexander figured it out.
“Obviously for us and Coach Cal, like, we knew that we wanted the ball in his hands,” Justus stated. “You can go back to our game at West Virginia. I mean, he didn’t score a ton at the end, but he got the ball to Kevin Knox. He got the ball where it needed to go and he played with tremendous poise the entire night. You know, when we were down by 17 (points) he was great in the huddles, settling everyone. He was never fazed that entire night.”
Justus would go on to describe how special Gilgeous-Alexander is.
“And you just knew that everything was going to be okay with him out there.” Gilgeous-Alexander’s former assistant said. “When you give him the ball, two-and-a-half hours later, he gives it right back to you and there’s no scratches, no dents, and no dings on it.”
Those phrases may very well be used to completely depict Gilgeous-Alexander’s present sport in the NBA — solely now, he’s mastering it. With the Wildcats, Gilgeous-Alexander’s flashes had been sturdy and in direction of the finish of the season, he was one of the group’s greatest gamers. But in Oklahoma City, he’s scoring at an MVP-caliber stage evening in and evening out, which is one thing no one noticed coming.
Later on throughout his lone-season in Lexington, as he blossomed right into a starring function in Calipari’s system, Gilgeous-Alexander’s finish of the 12 months stretch helped his case for a lottery choice. No sport was larger than the SEC Championship towards Tennessee. With Kentucky peaking at the excellent time, a win over Grant Williams, Admiral Schofield and the Volunteers would assist solidify a better seed in the NCAA Tournament and a convention championship.
Gilgeous-Alexander took benefit of the nationwide highlight and turned in his greatest efficiency of the season, pouring in 29 factors, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals. He completed the sport 10-of-16 from the ground and 2-of-3 from 3-point vary.
“He was he was really, really good in that game,” Justus remembered. “And there were other games, too, that he just willed us to win. You know, even like the Vanderbilt game at home, I mean, he just willed us to victory in that game. You know, there was that game in the SEC Championship, or the NCAA tournament against you know, Davidson and then Buffalo, like he was phenomenal in both of those games.”
His late-game tendencies took over at the finish of the season and helped Kentucky win 5 straight video games, an SEC Tournament and attain the Sweet Sixteen. The clutch gene has been evolving ever since.
In hindsight, it’s odd that no one noticed it coming, although. Every single 12 months of Gilgeous-Alexander’s basketball profession, from 2017 at Kentucky and now 5 years later with the Thunder, he’s gotten higher. Every 12 months, he’s improved exponentially from the season earlier than. It’s an inclination that’s solely noticeably evident in greats.
“I think that the best thing that I always noticed about Shai, and even from yesterday to today, is every time you see him he gets better,” Justus stated. “I mean, that’s been consistent from the first time I saw him until, you know, last night, I mean he’s always getting better. I’m not shocked because I know how hard he works and I know the mentality that he has. I know he has the drive. But at the same time, the humble nature about him is going to always know that there’s more out there for him to achieve and that’s just what I’ve always noticed about him.”
His relentless work ethic is uncommon, and one of the predominant causes we’ve seen such regular enchancment. He identifies what he wants to enhance, and makes it a degree of emphasis to get higher.
Even over the previous few seasons, Gilgeous-Alexander has needed to modify and adapt his sport to excel each on-and-off the ball. Oklahoma City’s lack of perimeter capturing has compelled SGA to work arduous on his long-range jumper.
“No one was working harder in the weight room than him, he was our hardest working practice player, and he worked harder in the classroom than any of the other guys,” Calipari instructed Inside the Thunder. “And that’s why he became a lottery pick. And that’s why he’ll become an All Star — I can’t imagine if he’s not in the mix right now… Somebody better be playing really good if they get in there before him because he’s been unbelievable.”
Now, quick ahead to Gilgeous-Alexander’s fifth season in the NBA, he’s producing All NBA chatter behind his greatest season but. Sitting at 31.6 factors, 5.7 assists and 4.8 rebounds per sport, how a lot better can he even get?
Oklahoma City’s star buried a triple at the buzzer to sink the Wizards on the highway, and adopted it up by nailing a step-back jumper to beat the Blazers as time expired only a few weeks later. If it weren’t for a Brook Lopez miracle alley-oop, Gilgeous-Alexander would’ve had one other game-winner so as to add to his tally.
After Lopez’s lone make at the free throw line, Oklahoma City ultimately fumbled the lead in extra time. Gilgeous-Alexander’s shot was relegated from a game-winner to an elite spotlight, however a telling quote from Thunder guard Tre Mann nonetheless stands out from that evening in early November.
“It’s just crazy,” Mann stated with a light-weight snigger following that contest. “I knew he was going to make it. I didn’t know it was going to be a three, but I just knew he was going to make it. When games come down like that, I just look at him. He just has a look in his eye, his demeanor. I told him it’s winning time. He went out there, hit a shot, big shot, but that’s what he does. He’s that player.”
That phrase from Mann, “Winning Time,” has been evident all through Gilgeous-Alexander’s sport since his school days. Both Calipari and Justus clearly noticed precisely what his Thunder teammate was speaking about.
The subsequent step, of course, is main the Thunder to postseason wins when the timing is true. Suddenly, Gilgeous-Alexander is surrounded by lottery picks as a substitute of filler gamers, and the roster seems to be extra and extra full with each passing sport. As he continues to redefine expectations, for each himself and Oklahoma City as a group, Gilgeous-Alexander’s ceiling is now nonexistent.
“I don’t think that he does [have a ceiling],” Justus stated. “And that’s why I said I feel like he’s a guy that puts that pressure on himself to work and to get better. You know, he’s never been a guy that has allowed other people to judge his performance. He’s been a guy that’s judged his own. And that’s why I think you see a guy like I said that that continues to progress the way he does because he’s always wanting to do something better. He’s wanting to learn how to do something different or if there’s a better way. That’s why you just continue to see the rise as a player like we’re seeing.”
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