The Athletic published an article recently that listed out 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 just 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.
