Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is more than ready to place the Oklahoma City Thunder back to their winning ways. The Canadian basketball sensation had just come off a career season that netted him an All-NBA First-Team nod. Although, the team around him is all but ready to compete. Chet Holmgren has yet to start his rookie campaign after injuries and Josh Giddey is only on the come-up to be their spark plug. Was the Thunder's NBA Free Agency able to patch these holes?

The young core of the Thunder was so close to making it past the NBA Play-In tournament in their 2022-23 campaign. They had just struggled in the middle of the season where performances were inconsistent. Scoring and facilitating were primarily SGA's assigned duties. This netted him 31.4 points per game on 51.3% field goal shooting. These may be great numbers at first sight but the sustainability of it remains to be in question.

The Thunder star racked up 35.5 minutes per game on 68 matchups in their latest campaign. He has endured multiple injuries throughout all of this. Recurring injuries are the ones that concern his hip, ankle, and back. It may be a funny thing to say that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's back is hurting because he is carrying the team but it is quite literally what is happening.

Sam Presti did not make sufficient moves to make sure that his star can flourish without the harm of getting hurt. The acquisition of Jack White in NBA Free Agency seems to point out that they trust either Chet, J-Dub, or Giddey to take on that mantle soon. However, these players do not have the luxury of a fallback option in case some of them experience an off-night.

The Thunder's Free Agency and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Conundrum

The team could have had the luxury of clearing up cap space to make a splash in free agency. Rather, they opted to trade for Davis Bertans and acquire an injury-prone Victor Oladipo. This limited their flexibility to get a proven shooter that can come off the bench and spark the offense for the Thunder.

Probable acquisitions would have been Max Strus or even Bruce Brown. Both players can contribute despite not being starters. More than that, they can provide playoff experiences that most of the roster does not have. This team is poised to compete in at least the NBA Play-In Tournament or the first round of the NBA Playoffs at minimum. Having a solidified veteran second or third option on offense allows them to make a deeper run and speed up their championship timeline.

Mistakes from Chet Holmgren or Josh Giddey could be easily absorbed and be as costly to the team. Mark Daigneault has also not figured out the definitive schematics that this team would run. Often, a good bailout that teams would have would be to shoot from the perimeter. The Thunder are not able to do it efficiently as they only knock down 35.1% of their shots from beyond the arc. Oklahoma City is also not shooting as much as the NBA league average of 34.2 three-pointers attempted per game.

SGA and his squad clearly need more spot-up shooters around them. The Thunder clearly needed more veteran presence. Even their coach is still learning on the job. Oklahoma City needed a stable scorer, facilitator, and leader but they did not get that this year. The team is in the middle of a youth movement which could be a double-edged sword.