The Athletic published an article recently that listed the players and coaches with the most to prove for each NBA team heading into the 2022-23 season.
For the Oklahoma City Thunder, the answer was Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who will be entering his fifth season in the league and his fourth with the team.
“Let’s be clear: The Thunder are still in the middle of a full-fledged rebuild. There isn’t a lot to prove yet for this young squad. However, if anyone has something to prove, it’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Post All-Star break, he averaged 30 points, 5.7 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game on 54/39/80 shooting splits. Those are All-Star numbers. He’s starting the first year of his max deal, and adding an All-Star berth to his resume would prove him worthy of the deal he signed last summer. With that said, it’s a tall task for a guard in the West. He will need to play the necessary amount of games and perhaps play in some meaningful ones to make it to Salt Lake in February.”
Gilgeous-Alexander has been hampered with injuries over the past two seasons, playing in 91 out of a possible 154 (59.1 percent) of games. But when he’s played, he’s been one of the more efficient scoring guards in the league.
It all comes down to availability for Gilgeous-Alexander and if he has a relatively healthy season then he should start to gain some national recognition of being one of the top-scoring guards in the league.
[mm-video type=video id=01gaw730ggme29frdfc7 playlist_id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01f5k5xtr64thj7fw2 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gaw730ggme29frdfc7/01gaw730ggme29frdfc7-b7a6c6bc54889abe4e1a9dace66bc8cd.jpg]
[listicle id=460322]