The Sixers will return home on Tuesday evening. Greeting them: the juggernaut Oklahoma City Thunder, who will enter the matchup with a Western Conference-best record of 32-6. This figures to be one of the toughest matchups of the year for the Sixers, regardless of who is available.
Here to discuss Oklahoma City's burgeoning MVP candidate, a former Sixers second-round draft pick who found his way with the Thunder and more is Joel Lorenzi, who covers the Thunder for The Oklahoman. Let's talk to Joel:
Adam Aaronson: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is in the midst of yet another brilliant season, with the first NBA MVP Award of his career becoming a significant possibility. As someone who is deeply familiar with Gilgeous-Alexander’s skills and mental makeup, what do you believe makes him such a special player?
Joel Lorenzi: There are plenty of reasons I can think of. Almost all of them will sound like cliches.
There’s his ability to detach himself from results as strongly as he can obsess over them (he hasn’t forgotten the Dallas semifinals series, though it hasn’t weighed him down either). There are his genes, with a mother who sprinted for Antigua and Barbuda in the 1992 Summer Olympics. There’s his need to win. There’s the weight he’s had, as a 26-year-old and earlier, to lift a youthful and ambitious franchise.
Physically, he’s 6-foot-6. Sinewy but can slip through cracks and triple teams. Even at that size, he toggles between speeds like they’re built-in settings. He’s rarely denied his spots (anywhere in the in-between). When he’s there, there’s rarely a contest great enough to keep him from the middy pull-up.
On the other end, he’s benefitted as a free safety from being surrounded by on-ball hounds. Entry passes wither and die if SGA shares the wing with them.
And — cliche here — he just lives and breathes basketball. For someone so invested in leather jackets and Louis Vuitton bags and basically being a GQ model, he still finds time to track the league. Not just the nightly results and climate of the NBA around him, but the tendencies and coverages that he’ll come across in a random Tuesday night game between tanking teams.
He cares about legacy. About putting his name next to great all-time guards. And as he noted in a mundane Sunday night win in Washington, he has yet to win big, so he can’t put himself in those conversations yet.
But he wants to.
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AA: Many Sixers fans still lament the team waiving former second-round pick Isaiah Joe, as Joe went on to become a valuable rotation piece for a terrific Thunder team. Where have you seen Joe grow the most during your time covering the Thunder, and what can the 25-year-old do to take his game to the next level?
JL: Joe’s growth has been in extending his reach past just being labeled a “shooter.” His touch, range and volume will obviously make that the foundation of his game. That’s why he got paid.
But he’s shown a bit more. He’s been a surprising rebounder. Even at 6-3 and 165 pounds, part of one of the most intimidating regular season defenses of the modern era, Joe has mostly been a passable defender.
He had a recent December stretch where, in eight games, he made just 21.6 percent of his 4.6 three-point attempts per game. In the following seven games — and before his 1-for-6 performance from deep in Washington — Joe got up to 45.5 percent on 6.3 attempts per game.
To both grow and continue to be as valuable, he’ll have to lean into the other efforts. To consistently be valuable as a shooter, even when the shots aren’t falling or the volume is down, he’ll have to improve his pairing with Isaiah Hartenstein. It’s early for that duo, but Hartenstein’s addition has pushed OKC into a lot more dribble handoffs than it’s known in the past. The same goes for Joe.
When the two play long enough that Joe can get off some of those shots with smaller windows, he and the Thunder will be better off for it.
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AA: Sixers fans were similarly upset when Oklahoma City traded for Alex Caruso at the beginning of the offseason. Caruso, once a potential trade target for the Sixers, has since inked a four-year, $81 million contract extension with the Thunder. What has Caruso's impact been in his first year with the team?
JL: It’s mostly been him setting examples, I think. Caruso is one of the few proven playoff players on the team. He earned his reputation as a vocal, pesky, versatile defender, and his voice has seemingly been influential for some of the younger guys dating back to training camp.
Don’t get me wrong: he’s still an elite defender. Without him, OKC is a formidable defense. But he elevates that unit from strict to unforgiving.
The thing is, he’s only played in 20 of the Thunder’s 38 games. He’s had a couple hip strains, this recent one sidelining him now for 10 games leading into Tuesday’s matchup.
When he plays, he’s a comically handsy anchor. As a personality, he’s integrated himself so well that Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault likes to say “it feels like he’s been here three years.”
More Sixers-Thunder information
• Date/Time: Jan. 14, 7:00 p.m. EST
• TV: NBC Sports Philadelphia
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