A week ago, the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Philadelphia 76ers, both in good health, at Wells Fargo Center by 19 points, ending their more than month-long losing streak. In the midst of the post-match euphoria, a reporter asked Shay Kyrgyz-Alexander a question out of place: "You've had a great season, but the team is still in the process of rebuilding, are you still patient with the process?" ”
It's a cliché, and journalists have been going to great lengths for decades to beat stars from small-market teams. The answer to this question is perfunctory 90% of the time, but once the star does express an opinion on it, it often means big news that is not in line with the team - which is the core competitiveness of this problem so enduring because it really shreds the whitewashing of club managers and coaches, and pits the huge EGO of NBA stars "Laozi No. 1 in the world" against the objective environment of the financial strength and attractiveness of small-market teams, and the project background of "basketball is a team sport".
But in the stadium, once known for "believing in the process", on a night of 37 points and 16 of 16 free throws, Kyrgyz-Alexander gave a somewhat different answer than everyone else.
"I think we're going to be a really good team faster than people think, so it's easy for me to be patient. I'm seeing our growth every day, looking at how we've grown in the last five months, a year, two days, and I'm really excited about that, look, we're going to be a big team soon. ”
He said it crazy when he had crazy capital. The prerequisite for the Thunder to become a strong team is first and foremost SGA's excellent play this season: 30.5 points, 4.9 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game, plus 1.7 steals in the league's fifth place. Based on his regular-season stats this season, he's reached the level of a superstar. All he needs is a playoff trip to test those numbers.
SGA is patient, but fans can't wait. In the first All-Star vote in previous weeks, we saw him finish fourth in the Western Conference with 1.339 million votes, less than 60,000 just under 3rd place Ja Morant. This shows that many NBA fans have noticed his amazing individual performances, fearless style of play — he averages the highest number in the league per game — and his ability to lead teams to win games.
He is 24 years old and playing his fifth season with his first All-Star Game just around the corner, and after losing two years at this point, he has not complained about anything, but has expressed trust in his teammates, in general manager Sam Presti and in head coach Mark Daignault, which is rare. To this day, he remembers what the team said to him when they were determined to send Paul and Schroeder away.
"Sam [Presti] used a very precise word when he talked to me – catalyst, which perfectly describes what I can accomplish on the field. I really want to do something and build something in Oklahoma, and that's what I work every day for. ”
Over the past two seasons, the Thunder have worked hard to swing badly. Every time after the trade deadline, their key players find some inexplicable excuse to take an early holiday. But now things are different, and the team catalyzed by the SGA has gone in an interesting direction. In 2023, the Thunder have a 7-2 record, with all 7 wins being double-digit or greater. Today, the Thunder have an overall record of 22-23, ranking 9th in the West, just half a game away from the 6th-place Warriors in the West.
Since this year, the Thunder has received some attention. Last week, TNT abruptly changed its broadcast plans, putting the Thunder on stage for national broadcasts for the first time since the Orlando campus in 2020. Yesterday they lightly beat the Pacers at home, and it was a game that showed the charm of the Thunder this season: SGA and 2020's second-round pick Isaiah Joe each scored 23 points; Sophomore Josh Giddy scored his 17th double-double of the season; The 23-year-old Lugenz Dort had 22 points and a career-high 11 rebounds, while 28-year-old Kenrich Williams had 12 points and a career-best 10 assists.
I know there are a lot of non-NBA depth fans who may not know who these people are, but that's where the Thunder are most interesting. Thirteen of their players have contracts under $10 million this year, and each of them has contributed value to the team on and off the court. You may never have heard of Aaron Wiggins or Darius Beazley, but regardless of their origins, whether it's a lottery pick, a second-round pick or a lost draft, everyone on the NBA's youngest team since 1998-99 has been growing rapidly. They may have started yesterday, couldn't play today, and quietly disappeared from the league tomorrow, but it's this competitive environment that has created this potential disruptor in the West who have lost only 5 of their last 16 games, and also created their fourth-place steals, fifth-place blocks and 10th defensive efficiency in the league this season.
Daignault, who feels the change the most, said in an interview yesterday: "I think the confidence in the team is growing, and that confidence is a collective confidence. We're not playing streaks with the good performance of one or two players, we're becoming a unit, and the strength of the whole is much stronger than the individual. ”
Yes, the Thunder are no longer — at least not quite — a team that has grown stronger as a result of SGA's growth. Giddy's shooting has clearly improved significantly recently under the tutelage of well-known shooting coach Chip England; Rookie Jaylen Williams also seems to have a talent for breaking through the basket, and many times looks like a small SGA. If you look at the other energetic lads who gave everything to stay in the NBA and do everything to perform on the court, you often get the feeling that the Thunder have enough strength to finish in the top six in the West right away this season.
It's just that maybe there is no such need.
The top pick Holmgren drafted by the Thunder last year has not played an NBA game so far. They still have 13 first-round picks until 2027. They have $30 million in salary space on hand this summer that could be used to grab people. They even have the signing rights of "King of Europe" Vasilye Mić, and the Serbian defender, who has won the Champions League Finals MVP for two consecutive years, is said to be interested in landing in the NBA next season, and Presti has plenty of room to maneuver whether it is to keep him or use his signing rights as a trade chip.
When SGA says, "We're going to be a strong team soon," maybe he understands what it all means, or maybe he doesn't think about it at all. He probably didn't think that the team might change dramatically, that the people around him might leave in a single trade, that he might have to learn chemistry with new stars, or that the days of "playing well and praised and playing badly" might be gone forever. He didn't think that the Thunder might rise to the top in a season or two and return directly to the Western Conference powerhouses, and he probably didn't think that he would be ridiculed in a poorly performing series as "just an NBA body hair profitee." Today, he is just like every young man who once had smooth sailing, full of confidence in himself, his teammates and management, called "the ignorant are fearless".
He believed that the future was bright, and that honor, status and a lot of money were waiting for him to grab.
That's a stage that almost every NBA star has gone through, but if they were asked to say two words to SGA now, they would probably only laugh bitterly and tell him in a serious way: there will be no more such an experience after it has passed, then the most important thing is to learn to enjoy the process.
With the last two days left in the Year of the Tiger, the Year of the Rabbit is just around the corner. I wish you all to enjoy the New Year's holiday happily without having to think so much like SGA today. Of course, there will always be some worries in the future - so wait for the future!