Usually, press conferences with the Oklahoma City Thunder this season are pretty diplomatic and uneventful in terms of content. Which is a good thing for the team as it goes to show that the team is on the same page and everybody is clicking with each other. Now while nothing crazy was said, Thursday’s postgame presser following a loss to the Phoenix Suns was probably the most eventful presser of the season.
Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault started things off by confirming that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will play more off-ball the rest of the season with Josh Giddey on the floor. During Gilgeous-Alexander’s 10-game absence, Giddey played his best stretch of basketball this season as he averaged 16.2 points, 7.5 assists and nine rebounds.
“I’m not gonna guarantee a number of possessions, but yeah, (Giddey’s) gonna (play more on-ball with SGA),” said Daigneault. “He’s a really good player, and to be a great team, you have to have multiple really good players working together.”
Following Daigneault, Giddey was asked about the on/off-ball plan with Gilgeous-Alexander moving forward and said it is a collaborative effort between the two of them and Daigneault.
“A lot of it is Shai gravitates so much attention to him that sometimes playing off the ball is going to free him up even more,” said Giddey.
Giddey also said playing on the ball is where he is most comfortable and that he thinks it’s going to allow Gilgeous-Alexander to get easier scoring opportunities and notes how excited he is for the duo to continue to grow and get better.
Giddey also praised Gilgeous-Alexander’s ability to try out this new role and says it speaks a lot about his willingness to sacrifice some of the individual glory in exchange for team success.
“He’s really unselfish. As you said, he could have 30 (points) whenever he wants. He could play iso ball and he could have 50 (points) a lot of nights if he just wanted to go iso every possession, but he’s unselfish. He buys into what we’re trying to build here,” said Giddey
Gilgeous-Alexander himself also said that he thinks Giddey playing more on-ball is for the betterment of the team’s long-term success but also admitted that playing more off-ball isn’t his top choice.
“Josh was really good the last few weeks, obviously. Me as a player, I don’t wanna hinder that at all,” said Gilgeous-Alexander “I know to be one of the best teams in the league, which we want to be very soon, you’ve gotta have multiple guys that can play on the ball.”
Gilgeous-Alexander also said that playing more off the ball isn’t anything new to him as he spent his first two seasons playing in that role with the LA Clippers his rookie campaign and being part of the infamous three-guard lineup his first season with the Thunder that included him, Chris Paul and Dennis Schroder.
“Obviously it’s still not my Plan A, but it’s something that you have to sacrifice to be a really good team,” said Gilgeous-Alexander.
For those who want to read the full quotes from all three, The Oklahoman’s Joe Mussatto did a great job at transcribing all of their answers:
Mark Daigneault pic.twitter.com/MwAJQpqM8t
— Joe Mussatto (@joe_mussatto) February 25, 2022
Josh Giddey pic.twitter.com/XxzojIrVMn
— Joe Mussatto (@joe_mussatto) February 25, 2022
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (audio cut in and out) pic.twitter.com/U6GE2eEzYU
— Joe Mussatto (@joe_mussatto) February 25, 2022
In terms of league-wide drama, this really isn’t much. But in terms of the Thunder, this is probably the spiciest drama the team has had this season. And it’s really hard to consider it drama since there’s no tension involved and all Gilgeous-Alexander is doing is being a little bit more brutally honest than usual when it comes to speaking with the media about his preference to play more on-ball. But it is significant to note that Gilgeous-Alexander is willing to be a team player and give this approach a try to see if it works out.
It is also important to point out that Gilgeous-Alexander did score 32 points on an efficient 13-of-22 shooting his first night back — who knows if that’s a result of his new off-ball role or if it’s just Shai being Shai. But regardless if the 32 points are a causality or a correlation of this new approach, it’s still a good start to see for the backcourt’s new roles. If Gilgeous-Alexander and Giddey are going to be the backcourt of the future, this type of stuff is going to need to be figured out sooner rather than later.
