Sam Presti received an unprecedented haul for Paul George from the Los Angeles Clippers in July. Initially, the Oklahoma City Thunder general manager was praised for the slew of draft picks and pick swaps he received. But as the summer has gone along, it’s seemed more and more like the crown jewel of the deal was a player who already has NBA experience.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
As a rookie, the guard helped lead the Los Angeles Clippers to a playoff berth after the franchise has traded away some of its important pieces at the trade deadline. So on top of his talent, he knows how to win — something Kentucky head coach John Calipari recently praised him for.
Some believe Gilgeous-Alexander, also known as SGA, has the potential to be the face of the Thunder. This includes SGA’s basketball trainer, Olin Simplis, who spoke about the young guards potential with Brett Dawson of The Athletic.
(SGA is), to me, the guy. The face of the franchise at the moment. That’s what we’re building you to be. It seems like him and Chris have some really good synergy. From what I understand, when they were in OKC last week, they really spent a lot of time in the gym together, did a lot of one-on-one stuff and worked out together, and that was good.
Simplis even went as far to say SGA will be the best guard from the 2018 NBA Draft Class over Atlanta’s Trae Young, who was in consideration for Rookie of the Year after last season. Some of the reasons are SGA’s “fierce competitiveness,” his coachability and the fact he truly wants to be great, which Simplis expanded on.
He’s a sponge. … Today’s kids want to be friends and the whole AAU scene, and he has a mean streak. He wants to win everything. I’m a huge fan, from day one. … You give him something, he tries to master it. If he can’t, he’s gonna come back the next day or he’s gonna want to get back in the gym at night to work on what we added.
