To quote a line from "Lake Chosin", an egg is knocked out from the outside and is destined to be eaten, but if you can peck itself from the inside, it may be an eagle.
Shay Gilgers Alexander from the Thunder is going through such a process.
As a team that has cultivated Durant and Wei Shao 2 MVP stars, the Thunder have a considerable experience, before the start of each season, Presti will call the uniform group, as well as the player development coach together, to develop a relevant training plan, on the surface, the Thunder is a team that is very tolerant of rookies, giving the ball and playing casually, but in fact, they have long designed various types of copies, just in the process of passing the level, do not interfere.
Check out the quests they've picked for Alexander, the Scorer Trials, the Cornerstone Ability Survey, the Advanced Final Chapter...
The current Alexander, who has successfully passed the first 2 levels, is not only fast, but also full of stars.
In the 19-20 season, around Paul and Schroeder's two ball carriers, Alexander had only one task every night, that is, to end the attack, as for passing or something, there is no need to consider at all, it is also this year, his shooting ability has been greatly improved, averaging 56.8% of the true shooting rate per game, scoring 19 points, is already an elite scorer.
In the 20-21 season, although under the leadership of this group, the Thunder also showed a strong team style, playing a winning rate of more than 50%, but in order to make Alexander grow better, they still endured the pain and broke up the lineup that many teams envied.
In this copy, the Thunder will pile the balls that once belonged to Paul and Schroeder in front of Alexander, just to see how much he can digest, and how efficient, originally thought that Alexander would stay in this level for a long time, but who could have imagined that this boy would find the pass code in only a week or so.
Looking at Alexander's output, with an average of 16.1 shots per game and 28.3% utilization, he handed over a report card that averaged 23.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game, with an assist rate of 31.1% and a true shooting rate of 62.3%, the data shows that among all players in the league who use more than 28%, only 5 can achieve a true shooting rate of at least 60% and an assist rate of at least 30%, except for Alexander, the other 4 are James, Harden, Jokic and Lillard.
Obviously, although the Thunder's record is not ideal, Alexander is by no means an inefficient brush that relies on the ball to accumulate data, on the contrary, he is still a very high-quality cornerstone of the team, and from the perspective of ball style and scoring means, Alexander is likely to be the next Harden.
Like Harden, Alexander also prefers to attack with the ball frame, blocking and singles as much as 67.5%, although all opponents can predict Alexander's offensive choices, but they can't stop him from scoring, no way, his efficiency is too high.
For example, in singles, Alexander's average number of rounds per game is 6th in the league, with an efficiency of 0.98 points per game, leading the league's 71.8% players;
Another example is the blocking offense, 1.12 points per game, ahead of the league's 93.6% players, among the league's 61 players who average at least 5 rounds per game, Alexander ranks third in efficiency, behind Harden and Curry.
It is also to see these flashpoints that the Thunder will not hesitate to send a $170 million maximum salary.
But don't be in a hurry, this season is the real test of Alexander's road to superstardom, and as of now, he has not found too good a way to deal with it, averaging 21.9 points per game, rebounds and assists have shrunk to 4.6 and 5.1 times, the main thing is efficiency, shooting only 40%, three-point shooting rate is less than 30%, and his true shooting rate of 52.1% is the lowest among all players in the league who are used at least 28%.
Although the number of singles rounds surpassed Harden and ranked first in the league, the efficiency slipped to 0.94 points, and the efficiency of the best blocking offense also fell to 0.89 points, only 40% of the league.
As for why the performance is so bad, first, Alexander has faced more defensive pressure, the data shows that he faces the bag clip the most times a night, and the second is that frequent injuries affect the state, last season, suffered a torn plantar fascia, and this season, he stopped playing a few games due to ankle swelling and pain.
Regarding how to crack the bag clip, this is a headache for every top star, and the Thunder do not expect Alexander to be able to adapt quickly, but just want to try how many points he can score on this question, even if he fails, he can also solve it in the future by adjusting the lineup and increasing the no-ball play, after all, Alexander also has the ability to have no ball.