The stage clearing of clutter, it's Thunder's time to claim it
LeBron James has been ousted.
Maybe he’ll play next season, maybe he won’t, maybe he’ll be the next Tom Brady and play to 45, or the next Gordie Howe and play to 52.
Anything’s possible, but he’s done for the season, he’s left the stage.
Following Saturday night’s Game 7 between the Clippers and Nuggets, another superstar or two has departed.
Either Kawhi Leonard and James Harden are done for the season, or Nikola Jokic, Denver’s triple-double machine and, we must say it, the best individual offensive force in the game, has taken leave.
In fact, by some counts, Jokic might be the best player, still. He’s just not going to be the MVP again, because that trophy’s going to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder’s own, who cannot be measured the way Jokic is measured.
Jokic, for instance, just finished off another regular season triple double — 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds, 10.2 assists — dwarfing Gilgeous Alexander — 32.7 points, 5 rebounds, 6.4 assists — in two of the stats we tend to judge players upon.
What can’t be measured numerically, though one stat tries and we’ll get to it, are all the things Gilgeous-Alexander makes possible for his team.
Like the culture his example permeates. Like the minutes he doesn’t play, allowing the Thunder to develop big contributions from its bench. Like the way he doesn’t entirely carry the team, leaving room for Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, Lu Dort, et al, to make their own impacts, which make Gilgeous-Alexander better, too.
That one stat?
It’s called “win shares” and it seeks to determine the number of wins attributable to a single player.
Gilgeous-Alexander leads the league at 16.7, Jokic is next at 16.4.
So, without their superstar, the Thunder would be a 49-win team?
That’s the idea.
The Nuggets are the likely bigger threat to the Thunder.
Just the same, should OKC want to write the most compelling championship story, it might as well vanquish Jokic and the Nuggetsitself, leaving Gilgeous-Alexander and his team to own the spotlight the rest of the playoffs, quite possibly crowning themselves the best team, led by the best player, maybe for years to come.
It would take some things falling into place, but you can see it because the Thunder shouldn’t be getting any worse, it’s not like the window has a clock on it and, who knows, they just might keep every player they want as the years tick by.
If any team can do it, OKC can.
It’s how it's built.
Think about it and you can see Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder becoming latter day descendants of …
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