Thunder Guard Duo Could Make Noise This Season
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The Oklahoma City Thunder should be very excited for their future, as they’ve drafted well while having a franchise player in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
When Thunder General Manager Sam Presti was making the trade that sent Paul George away, Gilgeous-Alexander was the prize piece of the trade. Of course, five first-round picks were involved, which has seen Tre Mann and Jalen Williams drafted to the Thunder, but Gilgeous-Alexander’s surge makes the trade well worth it, regardless.
This season has seen Gilgeous-Alexander playing at the level of MVP-caliber players, and often being the best player in big games that feature some very, very solid players.
While developing the 6-foot-6 guard, the Thunder drafted at sixth overall in the 2021 NBA Draft, which ended up being 6-foot-8 point guard Josh Giddey.
The two spent Giddey’s rookie season together, but both saw injuries so the sample size of the two wasn’t quite big enough. Now, in Giddey’s second season, the two should be able to share the court enough in competitive games to build solid chemistry.
In a matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the two players combined for 54 points in a win. Gilgeous-Alexander scratched his 16th 30-point game on the season while Giddey scored 21 points efficiently, while knocking down three 3-pointers.
To see the two guards succeeding at the same time has to be highly encouraging, as they’ll be adding Chet Holmgren into the mix next season. If they can continue to play to their strengths while complimenting each other, the ceiling of this team becomes much higher than people may set out for them. They have quite the deferring skill sets, but put together, they could provide a very solid offense.
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