It’s always kind of sad when a young player is touted by an organization as a big part of the future, their face is plastered everywhere, the commentators are instructed to hype them up as much as possible, and then the second a chance to make a superteam arrives, they’re kicked to the curb like they were never any good in the first place. That’s what happened to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and I don’t like it.
One day, he’s a surprisingly poised rookie on a very fun Clippers team, the next, he’s sitting in Oklahoma City, just another player on a tanking team. I hope Kawhi Leonard and Paul George feel good about themselves when they’re comparing the size of their rings. I hope they take a moment to stop and think about what had to be sacrificed.
It’s not all bad though. Positive thing numero one: apparently SGA gets to shoot all the shots he damn well pleases and no one is going to tell him not to. With the Clippers, there were aspirations, and those aspirations couldn’t necessarily be reached by having him chuck the air out of the ball. With the Thunder, he almost has to shoot all those shots otherwise those shots will simply go unshot. If he doesn’t put all those threes in this games, half of those possessions end with Steven Adams holding the ball until the shot clock runs out.
Positive thing numero two: now SGA gets to live in Oklahoma which is sweet because if he wants to he can be a total badass and be a stormchaser during the offseason. In Los Angeles, tornadoes don’t really happen, like, ever. But in Oklahoma, you stretch your leg out while watching TV and there’s a good chance that you’ll hit a tornado or three. I’m so jealous right now.