Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Remains in Stride, Cementing his Technique Offensively

The Oklahoma City guard is of the top scorers in the league, and he must adapt to face specialized coverages.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander established himself as one of the best scorers in the NBA a season ago.

He’s scored 31.4 points per night on 51% shooting — doing so without a very secure 3-pointer in his repertoire — it was clear that the well-paced, fluid Thunder guard would be an even bigger force to come as his team develops.

It was also clear that teams would have to be implementing centralized game plans around Gilgeous-Alexander. And with the additions of Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren and Oklahoma City's overall depth, this has proven to be an extremely difficult task for teams around the association.

These are no bottom of the barrel teams, either — Gilgeous-Alexander notched 34 points in a win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, the top team in the West, and also scored 36 against the Boston Celtics, the top team in the East.

As the Thunder's level of competition increases, Gilgeous-Alexander's offensive game elevates to the occasion.

He breaks down teams' best defenders, and forces alterations to the opposition's game plan consistently.

And this season, he's beginning to tap into new avenues to continue to hopefully produce at that same level all season long. 

One scoring technique has been especially helpful in his customary probing around the lane, looking to dissect the interior defense — that's Gilgeous-Alexander's post-up game.

We certainly know of his ability to sink jumpers past the elbow as he makes defenders second guess, and of course his ability to get defenders off balance and sink them in the midrange.

But now he's becoming increasingly more comfortable posting up his man and surveying the floor in that position.

It's came comfortable to him, and he showed flashes of that ability last season — now it's becoming visible.

In post-up situations, Gilgeous-Alexander is shooting 27-of-33 on the year a

Fadeaways, step-throughs and up-and-unders, it only makes sense from the technicality of his game that this is a scoring avenue he's looked to hone in on.

And as the season progresses, he'll have to continue to find these different pathways to score the ball as he faces a slew of talented NBA defenses.

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