Shai Gilgeous-Alexander continues to be one the steals of the 2018 NBA Draft and since the All-Star break, is playing the best basketball of his career.
While his season averages won’t indicate a drastic change, his efficiency and style of play is making him more and more valuable in today’s NBA.
After a dreadful first three games after the All-Star break, where Gilgeous-Alexander went a combined 1-for-17 from the field, he has turned into a flamethrower shooting a blistering 55% from the field and 67% from 3-point range.
It’s not on a small sample size either, as a quarter of SGA’s shots are now coming from beyond the arc post-All-Star break as opposed to just 19% before.
In a game against the Sacramento Kings at the beginning of the month, SGA showed off his confident stroke going 3-for-3 for the game. All three of his makes came on catch-and-shoot attempts, an area where some had doubted he would be able to excel in prior to this season. He’s quieted the doubters so far by shooting 39% on catch-and-shoot triples.
Where SGA has really hurt defences is his corner three. To this point in the season, Gilgeous-Alexander is shooting 46% from the right corner and 43% from the left, making defences pay for trying to help off of him.
His shooting has made him a more impactful player on the offensive end — he’s seen his offensive rating jump up to 109.3 post-All-Star. It’s also made him more decisive with the ball and helped him cut down on turnovers. His assist to turnover ratio looks a lot more friendly at 2.15 post-All-Star as opposed to 1.65 pre.
Where can we see more from SGA? In the pick-and-roll. Gilgeous-Alexander has shown time and time again that when he's put in pick-and-roll situations, good things will happen.
However, he's only getting 4.8 possessions as the ball handler in the pick-and-roll, which is way too low for a player with his abilities. For comparison, fellow rookie Trae Young, who's far less efficient as a ball handler in the two-man game, gets 9.5 possessions per game as the ball handler in screen-and-roll situations.
Granted, Young is the go-to offensive guy on the Atlanta Hawks and the LA Clippers have one of the most dynamic pick-and-roll ball handlers in the league in Lou Williams and you don't want to take away opportunities from him, but there could be a happy medium to get Shai more opportunities.
Nonetheless, Gilgeous-Alexander's poise and maturity on the court continues to make him a positive asset for Doc Rivers and the Clippers in any situation, especially as they look to try and lock in a playoff spot this season.
As the game continues to slow down for SGA in the second half of the season, Canadian basketball fans can look on and selfishly wonder what he might look like in the backcourt for Team Canada at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 in China this August.
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