Tag: HoopsHype

Josh Giddey ranked as 19th-best point guard in the league

What are your thoughts on Josh Giddey’s ranking?

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The NBA is in the deadest period of the calendar. The draft and most offseason moves have been made and preseason camps are many weeks away. All 30 teams are resting and preparing for the 2023-24 season.

This also gives experts a chance to reflect on the state of the league as rosters are mostly set. HoopsHype’s Frank Urbina decided to use the downtime to rank the 24 best point guards heading into next season.

The Oklahoma City Thunder had two entrants on the rankings. After a career season that saw him finish fifth in MVP voting, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander unsurprisingly was ranked the third-best point guard in the league.

His backcourt mate Josh Giddey also made the list. He was ranked 19th. The 20-year-old enters his third season after averaging 16.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and 6.2 assists last year.

“A young and exciting point guard, Josh Giddey is already one of the best rebounders for his position in the league, averaging nearly eight boards nightly for his career thus far. He’s also a flashy playmaker, with a great knack for finding open teammates and a creative ability to get the ball where it needs to go. The one area in which he’s lacking is as a shooter, though he has shown some improvement in that facet, going from a paltry 26.3 3-point percentage as a rookie to 32.5 percent from deep as a second-year player in 2022-23. He also doesn’t have elite burst but makes up for it thanks to a crafty ball handle and good instincts for navigating picks.”

The Thunder have two of the best guards in the league. If he continues to improve at the rate he’s shown in his first two seasons, Giddey should be a mainstay when it comes to discussing some of the best point guards around the league for the foreseeable future.

The full 24-player ranking can be found here.

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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander ranked as 3rd-best point guard in the league

What are your thoughts on SGA’s ranking?

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The NBA has hit the slowest part of its calendar year, giving experts the perfect opportunity to reflect on the league’s current state.

With most rosters settled, we have a pretty good idea of how rosters for all 30 teams will look when the 2023-24 season starts.

HoopsHype’s Frank Urbina used the downtime to rank the 24 best point guards around the league. The Oklahoma City Thunder had two entrants on the list. All-NBA first-team member Shai Gilgeous-Alexander ranked third on the list.

The 25-year-old is behind Steph Curry (No. 2) and Luka Doncic (No. 1). Gilgeous-Alexander is fresh off a career season in which he averaged a career-high 31.4 points on 51% shooting.

“25-year-old Shai Gilgeous-Alexander heads into 2023-24 with a lot of momentum, coming off of an All-Star season – the first of his career – and 1st Team All-NBA honors after leading the Oklahoma City Thunder to within one game from a very unexpected playoff berth. Gilgeous-Alexander is one of the craftiest scorers in the league, often leaving opponents guessing as to which way he’s going to move next. He’s also elite at getting to the foul line, ranking third in nightly free-throw attempts (10.9) last season behind only league MVP Joel Embiid and All-NBA forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, two big men who bully their way to shooting free throws. With such an elite short pull-up game and a solid-enough three-point stroke, Gilgeous-Alexander has become of the NBA’s very best players at just 25 years old. More big things should be ahead for the Canadian ball-handler in 2023-24.”

This is a pretty fair ranking for Gilgeous-Alexander. He asserted himself as one of the best guards in the league last season with one of the most efficient 30-plus scoring campaigns by a guard. At the ripe age of 25, he is in the middle of his prime and should continue to improve.

The full 24-player ranking can be found here.

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Report: Thunder sign Olivier Sarr to two-way deal

The Thunder bring back Olivier Sarr, per @hoopshype

The Oklahoma City Thunder are back to a full 17-man roster.

The Thunder signed Olivier Sarr to the vacated two-way spot on the roster, per HoopsHype NBA insider Michael Scotto.

Following the trade deadline, the end of the Thunder roster has been shuffled. On Friday, Eugene Omoruyi was converted to a full-time roster spot, filling the open roster spot created by Justin Jackson’s release.

The G League’s OKC Blue signed Sarr on Jan. 11. Sarr returns to the Thunder roster after appearing in 22 games for them in the 2021-22 regular season.

In his last Thunder tenure, Sarr averaged seven points and 4.2 rebounds.

The two-way players on the roster are Sarr and Lindy Waters III.

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HoopsHype: Where Shai Gilgeous-Alexander went in 2018 NBA re-draft

The @HoopsHype staff conducted a 2018 NBA re-draft, here’s where SGA went:

The 2018 NBA draft is nearly five years old, which means enough time has passed to give a proper re-evaluations of the class with the benefit of hindsight.

The HoopsHype staff decided to conduct a re-draft exercise for the class, which includes undrafted players.

The Oklahoma City Thunder, fresh off a first-round exit handed to them by the Utah Jazz with Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Carmelo Anthony, did not own a first-round pick in this class. The only picks they owned were two late second-round picks: the 53rd-selected Devon Hall and the 57th-selected Kevin Hervey.

Someone who was a first-round pick in this class was Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who went 11th overall and was subsequently traded to the LA Clippers.

Gilgeous-Alexander enjoyed a solid rookie campaign before being traded to the Thunder in the notorious 2019 Paul George trade. Since then, he’s blossomed into a legitimate star and is on his way to his first career All-Star appearance.

Let’s take a look at where Gilgeous-Alexander landed in the re-draft.

HoopsHype: Where Thunder players went in 2019 NBA re-draft

The @HoopsHype staff decided to conduct a re-draft for the 2019 draft, here’s where Thunder players from that class went:

It has been nearly four years since the 2019 NBA draft took place, which means plenty of time has passed to look back upon the class with proper hindsight.

The HoopsHype staff decided recently to conduct a re-draft of the class, including players that went undrafted.

As a quick reminder, the Oklahoma City Thunder were fresh off a disappointing first-round exit at the hands of the Portland Trail Blazers.

The draft took place a couple of weeks before the Thunder shocked the NBA world and blew up the core headlined by Russell Westbrook and Paul George.

While the Thunder technically drafted Brandon Clarke, his rights were immediately sent to the Memphis Grizzlies. In terms of actual drafted player who ended up with the Thunder, Darius Bazley was the lone selection.

However, the Thunder did find an undrafted gem, Lu Dort, who has played his way into being a key piece of the current rebuild.

Let’s take a look at where current Thunder players went in the 2019 re-draft.

Study: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Josh Giddey have the best value contracts on the Thunder

The Thunder are getting their best bang for their buck with SGA and Josh Giddey.

The Oklahoma City Thunder backcourt are the team’s best value contracts, according to Hoops Hype’s global rating metric.

Global rating is a metric created by Alberto De Roa. It combines players’ and teams’ statistics to rank players according to their productivity on the court. The number of games played also factors into the equation. A full explanation can be found here.

For the Thunder, two players are mentioned among the best-valued deals in the league: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey.

Gilgeous-Alexander’s inclusion is not surprising; the 24-year-old is having one of the best seasons in the league and is averaging 31.1 points on 61.7 true shooting percentage. The massive jump aligns with Gilgeous-Alexander entering the first year of his five-year extension that sees him making $30.9 million this season.

Among players who are making more than $25 million this season, Gilgeous-Alexander is ranked ninth in best value with a 22.59 global rating score.

Meanwhile, Giddey is on his second year of his rookie deal with a $6.3 million salary this season. Among players who are making between $5 million to $10 million, Giddey is ranked 19th in best value with a 9.59 global rating score.

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Study: Jalen Green, Kevin Porter Jr. are Houston’s best financial values of 2022-23

#Rockets guards Jalen Green and Kevin Porter Jr. are among Houston’s best value contracts this season, according to the Global Rating metric by @HoopsHype.

Second-year Rockets shooting guard Jalen Green and fourth-year point guard Kevin Porter Jr. are among Houston’s best value contracts this season, according to Hoops Hype’s global rating metric.

Global rating is the metric Hoops Hype uses to track the performance of basketball players all around the world. Created by Alberto De Roa, it combines players’ and teams’ statistics to rank players according to their productivity on the court. The amount of games a player has missed in a certain season or competition is also factored in. A more extensive explanation is available here.

In a recent post, Hoops Hype ranked the best performers this season relative to how much money they are making.

Among players making between $5 million and $10 million this season, Jalen Green ($9.4 million) ranked as the fourth-best value, trailing only Brooklyn’s Nic Claxton and Cleveland’s Evan Mobley and Darius Garland. Green came in slightly ahead of two fellow 2021 draftees, Toronto’s Scottie Barnes and Orlando’s Franz Wagner.

Meanwhile, Porter ($3.2 million) came in as the third-best value among players making under $5 million — though it should be noted that Porter will be getting a sizable raise in time for the 2023-24 NBA season, thanks to his recent contract extension.

Second-year center Alperen Sengun ($3.4 million) finished at No. 10 on that list of players making under $5 million.

The complete list of best contract values across the league is available here. Keep in mind that Hoops Hype’s global rating metric is updated regularly based on a number of factors, so the individual player rankings may shift slightly, depending on the time of viewing.

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What would an Aleksej Pokusevski extension look like?

Discussing a potential Aleksej Pokusevski extension with @HoopsHype cap expert @YossiGozlan

Outside of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Aleksej Pokusevski has made the largest leap on the Oklahoma City Thunder so far this season.

Just how large of a leap? Well, he’s averaging career highs across the board both with his traditional stats and advanced metrics.

After being one of the worst and rawest players in the league his first two seasons, Pokusevski has suddenly developed into a lanky defender with elite blocking skills and a threat from the outside.

On the season, Pokusevski is averaging 9.7 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.6 assists. After shooting 37.6% from the field and 28.5% from 3 in his first two seasons, Pokusevski is shooting 47% from the field and an eye-popping 39.4% from 3 on 3.3 attempts this season.

Pokusevski is also racking up blocks, averaging 1.6 a game. The 20-year-old is tied for 11th in the league in total blocks.

Among Thunder players, Pokusevski has collected the fifth-most win shares at 0.8 and is third in VORP at 0.2. Both of these mark as career highs for Pokusevski as he was in the negatives in each of these categories his first two seasons.

It’s hard to pinpoint the exact reasons Pokusevski has made such drastic improvement. Perhaps after two NBA seasons, his skills and body are growing accustom to the game. Perhaps undergoing his first normal offseason of his career gave him the proper time needed to improve. Perhaps him averaging a career-low usage rate has helped simplify the game and make it to solely focus on his strengths.

Or maybe what we’re witnessing with Pokusevski is the normal career trajectory for someone who was viewed as a long-term project when he entered the league two years ago.

The wobbly clay dough Pokusevski was his rookie season is hardening in his third season.

Regardless of the reasons, if Pokusevski continues to play around this level for the rest of the season, it’s hard to argue against the Thunder extending him to a second contract this offseason.

Which would’ve been nearly impossible to fathom just two months ago! After a poor Summer League stint, it looked like Pokusevski was on his way out of the Thunder. To his credit, if he was ever going to turn it around, it needed to happen this season and that’s what’s happened so far.

The Thunder are notorious for not allowing young players they really like to hit restricted free agency. The Thunder will have a chance to avoid that this summer when Pokusevski will be eligible for a rookie extension.

With that said, what would a Pokusevski extension look like? It’s difficult to play out because of his unique career arc. There’s really no precedent.

I spoke with HoopsHype cap expert Yossi Gozlan to try to play out what a potential Poku extension would look like if the Thunder choose to go that route.

OKC Thunder make Isaiah Joe addition official, HoopsHype reports contract details

The Thunder signed Isaiah Joe to a three-year deal.

The Oklahoma City Thunder officially announced they signed guard Isaiah Joe to a multiyear deal on Sunday.

The full details of the contract were reported by HoopsHype NBA writer Michael Scotto.

It is a three-year, $6 million deal, which is fully guaranteed in the first year, non-guaranteed in the second year, and includes a team option for the third year.

The former Philadelphia 76ers guard participated in practice on Monday as the Thunder prepare to start their 2022-23 regular season against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

In two seasons with the Sixers, Joe averaged 3.7 points and shot 34.9% from 3 on 2.5 attempts per game.

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76 greatest NBA players ever: Where Rockets rank in HoopsHype’s updated list

For the NBA’s 76th season in 2022-23, @HoopsHype has a fresh update of the top 76 players of all-time. Here’s where former Rockets came in, starting with Hakeem Olajuwon.

Edition one of the HoopsHype 75 went well enough that many people liked it better than the official NBA one, so our sister publication is doing another round. The catch is that they’re adding another player to make it a 76-deep list, since this is the league’s 76th season.

The main difference between this list and the official NBA75 one is that HoopsHype is giving modern-era players their flowers, to a larger extent. Egregious omissions from the official list, such as Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol, easily made it onto this ranking.

As was the case last year, HoopsHype held a team vote with the opinions of eight staff members, removed the highest and lowest rank for each, and awarded points from 76-1 for the rest.

Scroll on to see where former Houston Rockets were ranked, along with voting details, player accolades, and analysis from HoopsHype. You should check out the full HoopsHype list for all 76 updates.