MILWAUKEE — Doc Rivers says he noticed star potential in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander whereas teaching him as a rookie earlier than the Los Angeles Clippers traded him to Oklahoma Metropolis.
However the veteran coach concedes that Gilgeous-Alexander has drastically outperformed these expectations.
“I don’t assume anyone on this planet noticed this in him,” mentioned Rivers, who coached the Clippers from 2013-20. “We did assume he was going to be actually, actually good. I believed he was going to be a star. I mentioned it after we traded him. However to see this, I don’t assume anybody can truthfully say they knew he was going to be this particular.”
Rivers was talking earlier than his Milwaukee Bucks misplaced 121-105 to Gilgeous-Alexander’s Western Convention-leading Thunder on Sunday evening.
The Clippers included Gilgeous-Alexander as a part of the bundle to convey nine-time All-Star Paul George to Los Angeles in the summertime of 2019. The acquisition of George helped the Clippers additionally land Kawhi Leonard in free company after he had simply led the Toronto Raptors to an NBA title.
On the time of the commerce, Gilgeous-Alexander was coming off a rookie season through which he had averaged 10.3 factors, 3.3 assists and a pair of.8 rebounds whereas beginning 73 video games. The three-time All-Star took his recreation to a different degree with Oklahoma Metropolis and now could be thought-about one of many high candidates for this season’s MVP award together with Denver’s Nikola Jokic.
Gilgeous-Alexander, 26, is averaging an NBA-leading 33 factors and has scored no less than 20 factors in 62 consecutive video games.
“I had him his rookie 12 months, the one factor I beloved about him, the sport has by no means gone quick for him,” Rivers mentioned. “He’s all the time been capable of play at a fairly good tempo, and now he’s simply getting higher at it.”
He continued strengthening his MVP case this weekend by serving to the Thunder win at Detroit and Milwaukee on back-to-back nights.
Gilgeous-Alexander scored 48 factors in a 113-107 victory at Detroit. He confirmed the diversification of his offensive recreation Sunday by scoring 31 factors regardless of going 0 for five from 3-point vary, the primary time since Nov. 20 that he had gone a complete recreation with out a 3-pointer.
“He simply has nice mix and located stuff within the movement of the sport,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault mentioned. “He didn’t, I feel, play his finest offensive recreation tonight, however nonetheless had a really regular hand.”
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