In today's era of inflated personal data, Thunder junior Shay Giljes-Alexander is still thriving, he is currently averaging 31.2 points per game, shooting 49.8% overall, and an unscientific 93% from the free-throw line!
Before this season, there were only 13 stars in NBA history who could average more than 30 points per game in a single season and shoot more than 50% overall, of which only two guards have ever achieved this feat: Michael Jordan and Stephen Curry.
Shay Gilges-Alexander has almost fully exploited the advantage of the style of play under the training of recent years, and today's three-point shooting is almost an essential weapon for ball carriers, but Shay Gilges-Alexander is relying less and less on the outside, shooting a game from outside the three-point line to only 33.3%, which is a new low since he joined the Thunder.
Instead, Shay Gilges-Alexander focused his attack on the paint zone. Normally, when a guard can increase his average of points per game by as much as 7 points in the new season, it is basically a significant increase in the number of shots per game, or an increase in the outside shooting percentage; But when we take a closer look at Shay Gilges-Alexander's shot distribution, we will find that he basically only punishes his opponents in the paint area.
The strategy of "giving up three-pointers and sticking to the basket" has worked well for the Thunder fifth, with Shay Giljes-Alexander temporarily ranked 5th in the league's paint zone scoring rankings, but the rest of the top 10 are either muscular sticks in the box or suspected flying creatures like Jia Morant...
To be a player who can play points in the paint zone, you have to have a physical advantage or constant feeding so that you can easily get a layup/dunk when you are in the box. But SGA is neither, and the secret to his continuous scoring is to become the sharpest cutter in the league, averaging 24.4 NBA titles per game, and even second place (21.6) is still far behind him.
His dribbling and cutting movements are almost unreactionable, and he does not rely solely on extreme speed, but on unpredictable rhythm changes and movements, and it is simply more difficult to defend him than to drink a bowl of soup with a fork.
As long as the defender doesn't step on any half-step, SGA can take advantage of the void, find a way to cut in, and use his specialty one-handed throw, two-handed throw, or pick a basket to get two points.
His reach almost creates the illusion of a Greek monster alphabet brother, turning a range that could only be thrown into a layup range, which is where he strengthens - those penalty area goalkeepers will never know whether Shay Gilges-Alexander will go straight to the ball or use his size advantage to extend to the other side of the basket in the air?
If a defender is lucky enough to guess the SGA's offensive intentions and kick him off the basket, Shay Gilges-Alexander can also take a step back and take a simple small throw – no matter what angle and which kick to focus on.
Shay Gilges-Alexander occasionally performs this trick outside the box, and no one in the league dares to claim to be better than Luka Doncic. For him, defending inside and outside the paint is almost useless, and he can still find a chance in the encirclement.
Defenders face a player with an offensive kaleidoscope like Shay Gilges-Alexander in the paint and pay for fouls if he doesn't pay attention, which is why he has the fourth-highest number of free throw opportunities in the league - and the scary thing is that Shay Gilges-Alexander's free throw shooting rate is more than 90%, scoring almost as soon as he steps on the free throw line, and this offensive pattern is bound to compress his three-point production.
In addition, Shay Giljes-Alexander has already made three key shots in the final two minutes of the season, including an exaggerated whistle-blowing goal that kills the Blazers! Many teams in the league like uncomfortable shots that key to limit opponents to mid-range, but for Shay Gilges-Alexander, that's exactly his comfort zone.
Going from star player to superstar is the hardest distance to reach in the NBA, but Shay Gilges-Alexander seems painless to move closer to this level. He silently arrived at the door of the first team of the year without anyone noticing, and his progress forced the originally calmly rebuilt Thunder to accelerate their evolution. Thanks to Shay Gilges-Alexander's re-evolution, Thunder's bright future now looks more and more concrete.