Oklahoma City Thunder: 3 takeaways from the 2019 offseason

Gilgeous-Alexander is the integral piece moving forward

The Oklahoma City Thunder is now armed to the teeth with future draft capital. They can build a new time organically through multiple draft selections or sell off a handful of those picks for the next young star who wants a change of scenery.

Out of all the assets the Thunder have collected during their fire-sale of a summer, second-year point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (SGA) may be the most important.

SGA spent his rookie season playing for the Clippers before getting traded to Oklahoma City as part of the Paul George deal. During his rookie stint — at 20 years old — he started 73 games and helped get LA into the playoffs.

Not only is SGA an incredibly promising young player who averaged 10.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists while shooting 36.7 percent from 3 his rookie season, he also fits what the Thunder look for in young players.

Gilgeous-Alexander is one of the taller point guards in the league at 6’6″ and has an impressive 6’11” wingspan, two physical attributes that Presti tends to value.

Players, coaches and media members League-wide seem to think that SGA is one of the more promising young players in the league. That became even more evident when he made the NBA All-Rookie second team.

Coming to a rebuilding Thunder team SGA should get a tremendous amount of playing time to develop and continue to grow.

While Oklahoma City has a chance to make some noise around the league with their draft picks in the coming years Gilgeous-Alexander is their most tangible and promising piece to start a rebuild.