Is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander a ball hog?

[Dacost]

The way he plays is just not championship basketball.Hopely he will learn and adjust next year.

[DreamTeam09]

It's cuz OKC doesn't have too many ppl who can create, & when JWill isn't going, not much they can do

[LaLover11]

Is Carmelo a shooter

[SweaterBae]

He's a lead guard. The days of the pure PG are over, for now, and for good reason. Three of the top five in assists this regular season were Luka, Joker and LBJ. Domas was 6th.

This seems a little off here. All those guys are really great passers and play the role of passing initiator, and SGA doesn't. He's mostly looking for his own scoring and breaks down his own guy like an old-school wing, though he has also learned to pass well if he gets doubled (I'm pretty impressed by his ability to do the kickouts from the paint when the defense collapses on him).

There may be no need for pure PGs but the spread floor also allows for a huge role for passing ball-handlers who see the whole floor and can penetrate (like Luka or Jokic), and SGA is just doing something different.

Is Steph Curry a ballhog? Damian Lillard? Donovan Mitchell? Jalen Brunson? The point is that the era of the lead ball handler being a pure point is gone. Lots of these guys are what we would have considered shooting guards in most eras that I now label in my head as "lead guard".

[ConSarnit]

The way he plays is just not championship basketball.Hopely he will learn and adjust next year.

The way the other OKC guys are playing isn't championship basketball. OKC has 3 players who can "create" a good shot (for themselves or others)

SGA - 31/9/7 on 59 TS%

JDub - 16/6/5 on 48 TS%

Giddey - 7/2/1 on 50 TS%

JDub's current limitations have been exposed. His offense is basically step back 3 or drive to the rim. And Dallas has shut off the rim. Giddey is pretty much unplayable because DAL doesn't guard him and he's a defensive liability.

SGA is still not a great passer but the other 2 guys haven't been able to do anything because of their limitations. OKC doesn't have a 2nd option who has shown up in this series. SGA isn't perfect but the rest of the team has not carried their weight.

Edit: I would also add that DAL has done an excellent job in exposing a weakness that strong regular season transition teams sometimes face in the playoffs. OKC was #1 in transition offense during the regular season with 20% frequency and 26.5ppg. That has cratered in the playoffs down to 15% frequency and 18.4ppg. If you're a heavy transition team that is sort of low hanging fruit for opponents to take away in the playoffs and Dallas has done a great job getting back on defense (I assume by design).

[HotelVitale]

He's a lead guard. The days of the pure PG are over, for now, and for good reason. Three of the top five in assists this regular season were Luka, Joker and LBJ. Domas was 6th.

This seems a little off here. All those guys are really great passers and play the role of passing initiator, and SGA doesn't. He's mostly looking for his own scoring and breaks down his own guy like an old-school wing, though he has also learned to pass well if he gets doubled (I'm pretty impressed by his ability to do the kickouts from the paint when the defense collapses on him).

There may be no need for pure PGs but the spread floor also allows for a huge role for passing ball-handlers who see the whole floor and can penetrate (like Luka or Jokic), and SGA is just doing something different.

Is Steph Curry a ballhog? Damian Lillard? Donovan Mitchell? Jalen Brunson? The point is that the era of the lead ball handler being a pure point is gone. Lots of these guys are what we would have considered shooting guards in most eras that I now label in my head as "lead guard".

Sure, that's long gone (and maybe never existed in any complete form). But the modern game has a spectrum of these high-volume lead guards in terms of how much they're primarily scoring attackers and how much they're general offensive initiators with great passing skills. All four examples you gave are at least competent and solid passers but are mostly out there becuase of the scoring pressure they put on defenses, while Luka and Jokic are playing a different style. Then you have a guy like Trae who's also an elite passer (though less consistent as a scorer than all 4 guys you listed).

I was just saying that SGA should be listed as primarily a scoring attacker who's gotten pretty good at passing out of the situations his scoring game gets him into, but isn't really using passing/vision as a key tool.

[Johnny Bball]

Sometimes he is, yeah. Takes time to learn you can't win that way.

[RunOKC]

He looks like one out of necessity right now

[EmpireFalls]

Modern day Adrian Dantley the streets are saying

[Bornstellar]

Nah, if anything he should try to score more at this point as others have pointed out.

I will say though, it's funny how fickle people are. All throughout the regular season, people were creaming themselves over what a great young team OKC was and how Chet was having the best rookie season since Tim Duncan and SGA/JDub/Chet were going to be a future dynasty...now all of a sudden the team is full of bums and SGA has no one else to pass it to Never change, general board

[tsherkin]

Modern day Adrian Dantley the streets are saying

No one is saying this, because there's no aesthetic similarity and Shai is actually a playmaker.

Westbrook is not a ball hog either then.

What? No, Westbrook is a waste of possessions and has been for years due to his scoring inefficacy and volume shooting. Shai is actually a high-end scorer. What a horrible comparison...

[robbie84]

Who's he supposed to pass it to?

This is what I'm also wondering. The only other player out there capable of creating would be Jdub, and he's hasn't been playing great.
Dort is a great defender, but extremely limited in other areas. Chet still has flashes, but he's struggling to score points. Giddey's utterly useless to this Thunder team, can't defend, can't shoot.

It's bizarre coaching from the Thunder. There's little attempt to get the Mavs in rotation and exploit the Mavs weaker back court defense. It's like because their 3 point shooting is off and they have stopped moving the ball and gone to J Williams and Shai for isolations vs Luka and Kyrie.

Can only guess it's the pressure of the playoffs when an inexperienced team isn't shooting as well as they normally would and they revert to Shai iso ball.

The Nuggets/Celtics (assuming they are their next two opponents) are going to make Kyrie and Luka run/switch non stop and put them in rotation and the Mavs are going to have to score a ridiculous amount of points to have a chance.

[DaPessimist]

The only other legit ballhandler and creator on the team is Giddy, and he's not a great fit on the court because of his jumper. I think their evolution comes if/when Chet can become more of a playmaker on offense.

[Jailblazers7]

Jalen Williams just isn’t ready yet so Shai is carrying the burden. It will even out over the next year or two.

[FuShengTHEGreat]

SGA is such a riddle for me. He is the 2nd most efficient high scoring guard in NBA history behind Michael Jordan.

Like a ton of perimeter players in NBA history that average 30ppg have those heater moments where they can get a spurt of 40+ and 50+ point games that SGA never approaches.. But for the most part their efficiency never approaches SGAs. And to get those point totals, those big games are mixed in with some 10 for 28 type performances.

SGAs cap usually seems to be a steady diet of consistent efficient 30-35 point games.....but it doesn't seem like he can go higher than that which is partly what his team has needed. Most of the OKC players can't consistently hit the open 3 vs Dallas when he passes to them.

Should SGA sacrifice some efficiency to get more shot attempts and score 40+?

Going forward I'd like to see him become a 40+ % 3pt shooter as well. He doesn't seem to consistently hit from there.