The Oklahoma City Thunder have not been great at shooting (24th in effective field-goal percentage), passing (25th in assist rate) or rebounding (26th in rebounding percentage) the basketball, and yet here they are, a shade below .500 after the NBA season's midway mark and squarely in the play-in tournament mix.
, before the fruits of his tanking ever played together. Presti has free rein to see his plan through, if he does not bolt for a bigger market, and it is bearing fruit already, largely because Daigneault has fostered a competitive culture in a losing atmosphere.
"It's always easy to trust someone when they haven't given you a reason not to trust them," Gilgeous-Alexanderin early December, as the Thunder were falling to 11-18, third from the bottom of the West, right about where prognosticators expected."It's always easier to trust someone when they tell you something and it happens. And that's been my relationship with Sam so far.
The Thunder are now entrenched in a hunt for the final few playoff seeds. They trail the sixth-place Los Angeles Clippers by one loss and lead the 12th-place L.A. Lakers by the same margin. Teams between include the Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors. Gilgeous-Alexander has been every bit as good, if not better, than any superstar on those teams, including LeBron James, Devin Booker and Stephen Curry.
Likewise, Josh Giddey, last year's sixth overall pick, has developed into a nightly triple-double threat, despite shooting just 32.8% from distance. There is room for improvement for both of OKC's best players.
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