Why Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is always playing against ‘6 people,’ per Sam Presti

The Oklahoma City Thunder are looking for ways to retool this offseason after a tough loss to the San Antonio Spurs in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals. While Shai Gilgeous-Alexander shook off some shooting woes and played like an MVP in that game, he didn’t get nearly enough help from his supporting cast, headlined by Chet Holmgren.

Recently, Thunder general manager Sam Presti, widely regarded as the best in the sport today, broke down why he believes the pressure is so heavy for SGA.

“Sam Presti said Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is playing against six people. He’s got 5 defenders and the sixth is social media. Said Shai won’t be the last player that the machine turns on,” reported Rylan Stiles of Locked on Thunder on X, formerly Twitter.

Indeed, the social media world largely turned against the Thunder star over the course of this season and playoffs due to his propensity to embellish contact in order to draw fouls. While Gilgeous-Alexander is far from the only player to employ such mechanisms, he seemed to take the flopping to another level at times during these playoffs, drawing the ire of fans everywhere and starting an unfortunate discourse in which many seemed to overlook the talents that make him so great to begin with.

Gilgeous-Alexander had an overall rough series against the Spurs, at least by his lofty standards, but he was one of the few Thunder players who rose to the challenge in Game 7 despite playing without both Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell.

Oklahoma City is unlikely to make any drastic moves this offseason, but it will be interesting to see how Presti looks to resculpt this roster around the margins in order to keep pace with the Spurs.

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