NBA: Three-time NBA All-Star Ben Simmons recorded a solid performance for the Brooklyn Nets in a preseason game vs. the Los Angeles Lakers.
NBA 2023: Oklahoma City Thunder roster, rebuild, Josh Giddey rookie max extension, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander contractOctober 16th, 2023 1:47 pm
For Presti though, this is a patient and methodical build that he has masterminded and will see through until the very end. That also means doing it the right way, even if it takes a bit longer.All-Star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has already cemented himself as one of the key pillars, with four years left on his $172 million maximum rookie contract extension he signed in 2021.
Not that he has to do that anyway after last season’s success. But with greater expectations comes the potential for Presti to divert from what got him and the Thunder here in the first place. That is particularly true given Holmgren spent the entirety of what should have been his rookie season last year on the sideline with a Lisfranc injury.
Although that is also where things could get tricky for Oklahoma City as it looks to both consolidate its roster in the present while also planning for the future. Plus, with one eye towards the future, Oklahoma City already went about using its cap space cleverly to take on unwanted contracts this summer while acquiring more draft assets in the process.
In other words, it was part of the $30 million in salary cap space Oklahoma City had to spend anyway and the Thunder made it count too in bolstering their plans for the future.Externally, there have been conversations as to whether he could be the odd man out in what Oklahoma City is building. “Giddey is just one of those guys who shot 32 per cent from 3 last year, got better, knows how to pick his spots to push the ball in transition… and he’s a great passer and great rebounder and just kind of picks his spots to impact the game more than you would expect for someone who ‘needs the ball’ and ‘is a minus shooter’.
As for who they could target, that will largely remain up in the air given it is more of a question for the future. Meanwhile, Luka Doncic and Zion Williamson are younger superstars who could potentially be on the move in the coming years if things don’t break right in Dallas and New Orleans. “Giddey is such an interesting player because I think he helps them get into the kind of offence that they want to run more than almost anybody,” Schlecht said on the“This is a conversation I’ve had lots of times with lots of people, that ‘Hey, Giddey might be the guy to go’ and a lot of it is he’s such an unusual player that a lot of people don’t know what to do with him.
“So even if he was Under-12s and he might have been either practising or filling in for someone in the Under-16s or playing up a division or whatever it might be, it was always one where you don’t really notice it because of the way in which he can adapt and his basketball IQ and his maturity and the way in which he plays.
Instead, just as important to Giddey’s development will be his finishing at the rim and it is something the 21-year-old is cognisant of, admitting he has previously settled for too many floaters.“I wanted to make a heavy emphasis on putting pressure on the refs to blow the whistle and get me foul calls and getting to the free throw line,” Giddey said at media day.
“But in general, even at the NBA level, when he’s playing against guards and he is the primary guard on the OKC team, that’s going to be his strength. “He’s a lot more athletic than I think a lot of people give credit for and when he gets into the paint, he can finish over the top of defences, which was evident clearly in that game, but also in some of the other games that we saw as well.”
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