In an era when everybody fires from deep, the old-school elegance of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Oklahoma City Thunder’s fifth-year guard, stands as a refreshing anomaly. He hoists fewer than three 3-point attempts a game, a miniscule number for a starting NBA guard, and attacks the rim with alacrity, an approach for which he has been amply rewarded. SGA, who stands 6-6 and came to OKC from Canada via Kentucky and the Clippers, is making over half his shots this season, averaging 10 free throws a game, making over 90 percent of them and putting up 31 points a night. Only three players in the league are more prolific.
He is the main reason the Thunder appears to have a bright future, the others being the presence of a 6-8 ball-handling Australian (Josh Giddey), various Williamses (there are three on the roster) and the promise of their injured first-round draft pick, Chet Holmgren. Not to be forgotten, either, is that general manager Sam Presti has stockpiled no fewer than 13 more first-rounders over the next four years.
“I think we’re gonna be a really good team a lot sooner than people do,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after putting up 37 points, including 16-for-16 foul shooting, in Thursday’s 133-114 thrashing of the Sixers. “I see the growth every day. I’ve seen the growth in the last five months, year, two years. And I’m super excited about it.”
Before tip, Philadelphia coach Doc Rivers had made similar promises about his own club.
“I think we’re gonna be really good,” he said.
This season, he meant.
At the same time he noted that the Sixers remain a “work in progress” after weathering various injuries. Tyrese Maxey has missed 18 games and James Harden 14, both with foot injuries. Joel Embiid, bothered by foot problems of his own, has been forced to sit out 11. Given that, the team’s 25-16 record at the season’s exact midpoint has to be viewed as a positive development.
But as Rivers said, “That’s not what we’re in this for. We’re in this to just keep getting better and be ready for the playoffs and be healthy, hopefully, for the playoffs.”
While it is always a mistake to read too much into a single NBA game, the one that followed appeared to show one of the Sixers’ Achilles Heels – perimeter defense. SGA and his buddies romped to the rack again and again, and the Sixers had no answers, despite Embiid’s looming presence in the lane.
“They got everything they wanted,” Rivers said, adding that his team didn’t come with “the right spirit.”
“We’re a good defensive team,” he said, “but we didn’t defend tonight.”
The Sixers are, in fact, fourth in the league in defensive rating. But the starting backcourt of Harden and Maxey is unlikely to lock anybody down, and the team’s best defenders, Matisse Thybulle and P.J. Tucker, struggle to score. The only guys who are good at both ends are Embiid and reserve guard De’Anthony Melton, begging the question as to what might happen when the Sixers, currently fifth in the Eastern Conference, run into an explosive perimeter team in the postseason. (Footnote: That’s basically everybody.)
There is always the possibility that team president Daryl Morey will tinker with the roster before the Feb. 9 trade deadline – you might have heard that he’s known for that – or unearth somebody via the buyout market. Some soul-searching on the part of the players could help, too.
“You don’t want to have too many of these games,” backup forward Georges Niang said Thursday. “I don’t want to say they happen. I mean, these are self-inflicted wounds.”
Maybe, he guessed, they can be healed over time.
“You’ve got to go through some shit to grow through some shit,” he said.
Forty-one games to go. The first five of those are on the road, beginning Saturday in Utah. There’s plenty of time. But there are also plenty of SGAs out there, ready to pounce.