For a month leading up to the NBA All-Star break, Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was sidelined with an ankle injury. Upon his return, he was playing some of the best basketball of his career, but had lingering ankle soreness that kept him out of several games.
Since his return, he’s averaged 30.4 points, 7.3 assists and 58 rebounds through 13 contests. Now, it appears his season could be in jeopardy.
With just a handful of games remaining in the 2021-22 campaign, Thunder coach Mark Daigneault says there’s a decision that still needs to be made on whether it’s worth him playing the rest of the way. Before Saturday’s game against the Denver Nuggets, Daigneault gave an update on Gilgeous-Alexander’s status.
“We’re going to have a conversation with him in the next couple of days, just to discuss the rest of the year,” said Daigneault. “The game-to-game thing is not sustainable, just in terms of just in and out on a nightly basis. We’re obviously just running out of games here til the end of the year. We’ll sit down and talk with him and when we have an update, we’ll give it to you.”
When asked when that conversation would happen, Daigneault mentioned it would be discussed in the coming days.
“We don’t have it on the books, but we’ll give you an update when we have it,” said the Thunder coach.
At this point in the season, Oklahoma City is out of the playoff race. With Gilgeous-Alexander’s future being more important than the current moment, it would make sense to potentially shut him down for the final two weeks of the season to be cautious.
