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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is getting a lot of love for being the next up and coming star of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
And rightfully so. The second-year player has wowed in his first season in OKC and if there are any doubts about his star potential, someone needs only to refer to his historic triple-double against the Timberwolves on Jan. 13.
Or his historic game against the Raptors on Dec. 29.
Or when he made franchise history in a game against the Phoenix Suns on Dec. 20.
Chris Paul is getting a lot of love for his resurgence. As well he should. He’s playing like the Paul people remember from his time with the Clippers.
CP3 has embraced his role in Oklahoma City. Much more a true point guard with the Thunder than he was in Houston, some nights Paul does the scoring, often times he does the facilitating. Regardless of which type of night it is, Paul cares more about the wins than he does about his stats.
And what about Dennis Schroder?
Sometimes it feels like Schroder gets lost in the shuffle due to the fact that he has yet to start a game this season. But Schroder is putting together quite a compelling case for Sixth Man of the Year.
On Wednesday, Schroder tied his season-high with 31 points in Oklahoma City’s win over the Orlando Magic. Twenty of those points came in the second half.
He also had a strong second half in the Thunder’s comeback win over Houston on Monday. In that game, he scored 17 of his 23 points in the final two quarters, picking up the scoring slack after Paul, who scored 27 in the first half, tallied a single point throughout the rest of the game.
Though his point production is slightly down from his career-best (18.6 this season down from 19.4 in 2017-18), he’s shooting at a significantly improved rate from the field.
This year, Schroder is hitting a career-best 47.4% of his shots, including 53.2% of those from two-point range. Though his 3-point percentage is bringing his overall percentage down, his 36.9% from beyond the arc is the best of his career.
Schroder has found his stride this season in Oklahoma City and there’s no doubt the Thunder wouldn’t be in contention for a playoff spot without him.
