Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 52 points in a 116-109 loss against the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday. Below is a statistical breakdown of just how much of the Thunder offense he was responsible for.
- Gilgeous-Alexander made 22.2% of Oklahoma City’s 3-pointers (two out of nine).
- He made 45.2% of Oklahoma City’s 2-pointers (14 out of 31).
- He scored 47.7% of Oklahoma City’s points (52 out of 109).
- He made 90% of their free throws (18 out of 20).
Jalen Williams carried his share of the offensive load against the Warriors, scoring 26 in defeat. But the rest of the team? Not so much. The three other Thunder starters scored 10 points on 5-of-23 shooting. Isaiah Joe scored 17 points off the bench, but they largely came on the 3-pointers Gilgeous-Alexander created. Oklahoma City’s reserves made two shots inside of the arc all night. Joe, Williams and Gilgeous-Alexander were the only Thunder players to make triples. The rest of the team shot 0-for-17.
That is, obviously, an anomalous shooting night. The Thunder are constructed on the idea that Gilgeous-Alexander generates so much rim pressure that his teammates will be able to do their part offensively by draining the 3-pointers that he creates. Last year, they were the most accurate 3-point shooting team in the NBA operating on this theory. They’ve fallen down to average this season, but that says less about the shooting on their roster than it does the inherent variance of 3-point shooting on a year-to-year and even game-to-game basis. Sometimes the 3s go in and sometimes they don’t.
What matters for the Thunder here is what happens when they don’t. They didn’t in the playoffs a year ago, as the Thunder lost their second-round series against the Dallas Mavericks shooting 33.5% from deep. They didn’t against the Warriors on Wednesday, either. And if the Thunder are going to reach their ceiling this season, they are going to need to find a way to generate points when they aren’t if they hope to make it through four playoff rounds.
Getting Chet Holmgren back will help in that respect, but Wednesday’s loss showed just how reliant the Thunder can be on their two best players. Gilgeous-Alexander was spectacular against the Warriors. Williams was his typically stellar self. And the Thunder still couldn’t generate any offense besides the 3s they were missing because nobody else on the roster is creating advantages off of the dribble consistently.
This is a solvable problem for the Thunder. Frankly, no roster problem isn’t solvable for a Thunder team with a historic cache of future first-round picks, meaningful cap flexibility and the NBA’s youngest roster. If they want to trade for a shot-creator, they almost certainly can.
This just isn’t a great market for such players with the deadline now one week away. The higher-end options like Zach LaVine, De’Aaron Fox and Jimmy Butler make too much money. The Thunder would have to break up their team to get someone like that. There are cheaper options like Collin Sexton and Coby White potentially on the table, but neither would be clean fits on Oklahoma City’s league-best defense. The Thunder can afford to introduce a weaker defender into the mix given how deep they are on that end of the floor, but that unit is what makes them special. They will be careful about messing with it. If Fox lands with the San Antonio Spurs as he reportedly prefers, keep an eye on Chris Paul. He has a history with the Thunder, and if he is included in the deal for cap purposes and bought out afterward, a reunion makes sense for both sides.
Oklahoma City has a week to sift through these options or, using that enormous stockpile of picks, attempt to coax some new ones out of reluctant sellers. Shooting nights like this may be rare in the regular season, but as we saw in the Dallas series a year ago, they are going to be more common in the playoffs. When they come, they can’t expect to win when Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams are carrying this much of the offensive burden. Whether it’s through internal improvement or an external addition, someone else needs to consistently generate points if the Thunder are going to win the championship.
