Shane Lowry hits a tee shot during the 2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans. | Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Fresh off his victory at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, Irishman Shane Lowry talked about his strategy for the Wells Fargo Championship.

Unlike his fellow compatriot Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry has an abysmal record at Quail Hollow Club, the site of this week’s Wells Fargo Championship.

In his four appearances at this course, Lowry has missed the cut twice, tied for 64th, and tied for 34th. He has only broken par during competition here once—a final round 2-under 69 in 2018, when he finished 12 shots behind winner Jason Day.

Yet, Lowry, fresh off his win at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with McIlroy, feels like he has a solid game plan to attack Quail Hollow and change the narrative.

“This [course] suits longer hitters. I’m not short, but I’m not one of the longer guys. I just feel like I need not to try to be one of the longer hitters this week, you kind of get what I’m saying?” Lowry said.

“A lot of holes out here, you stand on the tee, and it makes you want to hit the ball hard off the tee, and I feel like if I can get the ball in play and hit the fairways, I can be dangerous because my iron play is my strength. So if I can hit a lot of fairways this week, which is my game plan, there are a lot of bunkers out there, like 300 yards, that I can carry if I hit a really good one, but if I don’t hit a good one, it’s probably going to be in bad shape.”

Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images
Shane Lowry during the second round of the 2024 RBC Heritage.

At this point in the season, Lowry ranks first on the PGA Tour in driving accuracy percentage. He has found the fairway 81.55% of the time, a remarkable number and an attribute he will need to rely on this week.

The man from County Offaly also ranks third in strokes gained: approaching the green. So if he can put himself in position at Quail Hollow, he should give himself plenty of opportunities to make birdies on this former PGA Championship venue.

“I just need to play within myself this week,” Lowry added.

“It’s nice to come in here with four rounds before [the PGA Championship] next week and just try to play my way into the tournament and give myself a few chances.”

Lowry also talked about Bay Hill, the site of the Arnold Palmer Invitational each year, and how he has notoriously struggled on that course, too. Prior to this year, in which he finished solo third, Lowry had recorded four missed cuts in five attempts at Bay Hill. The only time he made it to the weekend came in 2023, when he finished solo 67th.

“Bay Hill was a tournament where I had a much worse record than I do [at Quail Hollow] and managed to play pretty well there [this year],” Lowry said.

“Hopefully, I can do the same this week.”

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.

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Louis Oosthuizen during LIV Golf Singapore. | Photo by Lionel Ng/Getty Images

Louis Oosthuizen, who won the 2010 Open Championship at St. Andrews, reportedly declined an invite to compete at the 2024 PGA Championship.

On a recent call with the media, South African Trevor Immelman, the lead analyst for CBS Sports, expressed his surprise at Louis Oosthuizen’s omission from the 2024 PGA Championship.

DataGolf lists Oosthuizen, also a South African, as the 32nd-ranked player in the world. This past December, he won the Alfred Dunhill Championship and the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open on the DP World Tour. He also finished second at the International Series Oman in February and has recorded four top-10s in LIV Golf events this season.

Plus, the South African has proven himself on the biggest stages before, winning the Claret Jug in 2010 and coming close to claiming a Green Jacket at Augusta National in 2012.

Oosthuizen has also tied for second twice at the PGA Championship, in 2017 and 2021.

Hence, when the PGA of America released its field for the 106th PGA Championship early Tuesday, everyone, including Immelman, was shocked to see Oosthuizen not included.

Photo by Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images
Louis Oosthuizen at LIV Golf Adelaide.

But come to find out, Oosthuizen declined the PGA of America’s invitation, per Doug Ferguson of The Associated Press and Bob Harig of Sports Illustrated.

Ferguson noted that Oosthuizen turned down the invite to compete in the “strongest field in golf” for personal reasons. Specific details are unknown.

Nevertheless, the PGA of America invited six more LIV Golf players in addition to the nine that had already gained entry through different qualifying criteria.

Talor Gooch, who, unlike Oosthuizen, has not played in any events outside of LIV Golf, received an invite. As did young up-and-comer David Puig, who has followed in Oosthuizen’s footsteps and competed in numerous events around the globe outside of LIV.

Oosthuizen’s fellow countryman, Dean Burmester, will play at Valhalla. So, too, will Australian Lucas Herbert, Adrian Meronk of Poland, and 2017 Masters champion Patrick Reed.

In all, 15 players will tee it up at the 2024 PGA Championship, while 16 received invites. Last year, at Oak Hill, 18 LIV Golf players teed it up, but that did not include Oosthuizen. He did not meet the qualifying criteria, nor had he played well enough to receive an invite from the PGA of America in the months leading up to Oak Hill.

But he has vastly improved his game over the past eight months, which explains why he received an invite this time around. And yet, the South African turned it down for whatever reason.

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.

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“Wheel of Fortune” contestants not knowing who the Kelce Brothers are shows not everyone is terminally online.

It might seem like there’s no escaping Jason and Travis Kelce for sports fans today, but that doesn’t mean the NFL’s most famous brothers have fully grasped their crossover appeal.

Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce and former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce were the answer for a topic on Wheel of Fortune, and let’s just say it didn’t go so well. The contestants on the show were on the verge of answering the puzzle, and still struggled to do it. Watch the clip here:

Although it’s a big shock to the system for people who are super deep into the world of sports, it’s also kind of stunning that nobody knows who Taylor Swift’s boyfriend is. It’s pretty wild that Kelce, despite being a three-time Super Bowl champion and also dating the biggest American music artist in the world, can still be rather unknown. Jason Kelce, I kind of understand. The New Heights podcast is popular among sports fans, but they still haven’t made that big crossover into other parts of culture.

On top of that, Kelce played offensive line and people who don’t know ball don’t respect the offensive line so it’s disappointing, but true how many people don’t know Jason Kelce.

What this means is that we simply have to spread the good word of the trenches and great players in the NFL. I want to see Penei Sewell across all major television shows, Dexter Lawrence on Dancing with the Stars, keep pushing our greatest athletes into the limelight!

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Leo Leclerc was the real winner of the Miami Grand Prix

Lando Norris stormed to the front at last weekend’s Miami Grand Prix, beating Max Verstappen to the checkered flag for the first win of his Formula 1 career. That victory earned the driver praise from around the paddock, and touched off an epic celebration in the paddock at McLaren, one that even rival Team Principal Frederic Vasseur joined in on.

But while most weekends that would make Norris the biggest winner of the weekend, this week’s Miami Grand Prix saw another take the title.

Leo Leclerc.

Leo is Charles Leclerc’s new puppy, and the Ferrari driver unveiled a quick series of photographs on social media highlighting how Leo not only enjoyed his time in the paddock, but had his own credential:

Absolute cuteness overload.

At the moment, no word on whether Leo — excuse me, Leo Leclerc Saint Mieux has met the other canine hero of the paddock, Lewis Hamilton’s bulldog Roscoe:

But with Hamilton soon to be Leclerc’s teammate at Ferrari next season, you can imagine that meeting is going to happen at some point.

And the photographs will be incredible.

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Bob Scheer-USA TODAY Sports

With the NFL schedule coming out soon, we have some suggestions on who to put on national TV.

The NFL is releasing the schedules of all 32 teams for the 2024 season this week, and we can assume the usual teams will have the large majority of primetime games. The Chiefs, 49ers, Eagles, Bills, Bengals, and Cowboys will probably be all over your primetime schedule most of this year.

However, there are more teams outside of that crew, some that haven’t been on multiple primetime games very much. As we turn a new leaf into the 2024 season, these are the teams we want to see more of on primetime television and some teams that might want to stay away from the limelight.

3 NFL teams who need to be on national TV

Indianapolis Colts

The Colts are on the verge of becoming one of the NFL’s best teams. With an exciting, young offensive core of players such as Michael Pittman Jr. and Jonathan Taylor, plus Shane Steichen calling plays, they should be exciting to watch on that side of the ball. Defensively, they have a really good defensive line led by DT Deforest Buckner, and LB Zaire Franklin is one of the most underrated defensive players in the game.

The big chip the Colts have for more primetime games is the young QB. Anthony Richardson missed most of the Colts season due to injury, but when he was 100% healthy, he was capable of making big time plays downfield. A fully healthy Richardson plus the skill position talent and playcalling they already have should put them on the docket for more primetime games this year.

Green Bay Packers

QB Jordan Love is quickly becoming a must-see player for the Packers. Love made a jump into the top half of NFL quarterback play through the completion of high difficulty throws and aggression downfield. With another offseason as the unquestioned starter, Love’s play should skyrocket. In addition, the Packers have a young and exciting wide receiver group that grew along with the young QB as the season went on. Packers’ head coach Matt LaFleur is one of the best playcallers in the game, another major selling point for more primetime games. Being one of the most historic teams in the NFL also is a feather in the cap.

Arizona Cardinals

Fighting for some shine in a loaded NFC West, the Cardinals spent the first quarter of 2023 looking like one of the worst teams of the NFL. However, after QB Kyler Murray returned, the Cardinals began to look like one of the more intriguing teams for the future. Again, it’s the offense that takes most of the shine here. Murray, TE Trey McBride, and rookie WR Marvin Harrison Jr. give fans something to look for when the Cardinals play. Murray plays really exciting football, and if Harrison Jr. can be the outside receiver we all think he can be, then the Cardinals should be extremely exciting.

Defensively, the team is still slowly coming along, but safety Budda Baker is still a very fun player to watch. With Murray running around throwing passes to Harrison Jr., this will be one of the most fun teams to watch this year.

2 teams we don’t want to see more of in primetime

Pittsburgh Steelers

Although the Steelers have retooled their offense, they’re still going to be starting Russell Wilson in 2024. This might be the last chance Wilson has to see some modicum of success, but if 2023 Wilson is the guy the Steelers get, then I’m not sure if I want to see the Steelers much on primetime tv. The defense might be good again, which is going to be a major selling point, but man I don’t know if I want to watch more Russell Wilson.

New Orleans Saints

Look man, I’m good on seeing the New Orleans Saints on primetime tv. While the defense is going to hold them over for 2024, I can’t get behind Derek Carr for another year behind an offensive line that might have more questions than answers at this point. Chris Olave is awesome, though!

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Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images

Congrats on the sex, Rudy.

Rudy Gobert missed Game 2 of the Wolves series against the Nuggets to be there for the birth of his child, but it’s the interesting timing of the birth that has people a little curious on Tuesday morning.

That’s because nine months ago, almost to the day, he hit his first three pointer and had a curious quote about it.

Everyone was all over Gobert’s quote back in August of 2023. It came following a game for France during the FIBA World Cup, and the shot marked the very first time Rudy had ever hit a shot from deep.

“Tonight I feel like I lost my virginity,” Gobert said.

Now, we all assumed this was an obvious (albeit a little odd) reference. Naturally one would assume that he was discussing how it felt to do something for the first time. But what if, WHAT IF he was just talking. What if Rudy was just causally saying “tonight I feel like I lost my virginity” because he actually lost his virginity that day?

First off: Congrats on the sex, Rudy — but also this is possible.

The birth of Rudy’s baby is his first child, so we have no concrete evidence the man had sex prior to that night. If there is concrete evidence out there please don’t send me Rudy Gobert sex tapes. I’m good. Just saying, there’s at least an outside possibility that Rudy was either so energized from hitting that three that he had sex after the game, or hitting the three made him think “I’d like to do other things for the first time as well.”

Or this is all just a coincidence. Which it probably is. Still, we can dream.

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Photo by Eva Marie Uzcategui/Anadolu via Getty Images

Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix was a huge win on the track, and in the ratings

Formula 1 has seen tremendous growth over the past few seasons, particularly in the United States. The popularity of the Netflix docuseries “Drive to Survive” along with the expansion of the F1 calendar to three races in the United States — including last season’s debut Las Vegas Grand Prix — has helped create a new generation of F1 fans in America.

But with Max Verstappen and Red Bull continuing to dominate the field, would these new fans stay with the sport? And will the ratings follow?

According to figures just released by ESPN for this past weekend’s Miami Grand Prix, they will.

As announced by ESPN on Tuesday, the race viewership for Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix was the biggest audience in F1 history in the United States. “ABC’s telecast of the Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix on Sunday, May 5, attracted the largest live U.S. television audience on record for F1 as an average of 3.1 million viewers watched Lando Norris beat reigning World Champion Max Verstappen to capture his first F1 win,” noted the network in a press release Tuesday morning.

As noted by the announcement, fans were able to see Norris secure his maiden F1 victory, holding off Verstappen in the closing laps for the win.

ESPN also noted that viewership shattered previous records here in the United States.

“The race-only viewership (3:55 – 5:30 p.m. ET) shattered the previous F1 record of 2.6 million viewers that was set for the inaugural Miami Grand Prix in 2022. Viewership was up 48 percent over last year’s race, which attracted 2.1 million viewers. The Miami Grand Prix now has the top three live U.S. television audiences in Formula 1 history,” noted ESPN.

The network also made it clear that coverage of Saturday’s F1 Sprint Race — the first time the Miami Grand Prix was included on the Sprint Race calendar — set a new record for that format. “F1 Sprint race on Saturday averaged 946,000 viewers on ESPN, the largest audience for a Sprint race since F1 introduced the format in 2021. The previous high was 883,000 for Azerbaijan in 2023. Saturday’s F1 qualifying on ESPN averaged 625,000 viewers.”

As we noted heading into the Miami Grand Prix, one of the biggest storylines entering the event was the performance of the sport in the United States. As F1 continues to try and expand in the United States, would viewers follow, especially if Verstappen continues to dominate the field?

If these numbers are any indication, they sure will.

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Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

Ben Simmons out here looking like a live action Count from Sesame Street.

The Met Gala took place on Monday night, and it’s a chance for everyone in the world to see wild, cutting-edge fashion and pretend we know things about high fashion. With dresses that cost more than our cars, and the only appropriate venue for men to wear capes, the Gala is a symphony of clothes you could never wear anywhere but the steps of The Met.

This is a huge celebrity event, which naturally means athletes walked the carpet on Monday night as well. I poured over photos of all 300+ celebs in attendance to find every athlete who was there, and now I’m going to try and grade their looks despite the fact most of my clothes come from Old Navy and I buy my coats out of season like Keon Coleman.

Ben Simmons

Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

I think the meaning of this look is a lumberjack with a dark past. The plaid seems to evoke “Canadian woodsman,” but everything else is “Bond Villain.” I can only assume the briefcase holds an NBA enemies list of people Simmons plans to get revenge on when he takes over the world.

This is one of those “dress for the job you want” looks. In this case I think Simmons wants to be Count von Count in a live action Sesame Street movie.

Overall this is bold, Met-appropriate fashion — ruined by sunglasses that don’t match and an orange watch that distracts from the look.

6/10

Odell Beckham Jr.

Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images

This is fine. It’s fine. I think it’s fine.

I’m half trying to convince myself this is fine. What OBJ did here was take a half-step. Dude wanted to be a little loud, but not go “full Met Gala.” I get it. However, I think this was just a little lazy. It’s not true to his fashion styles, tries a little took hard, and I feel like he might have just borrowed this from Lil Nas X.

When it comes to the Met Gala my feeling is that you can either just totally go for it and be wild, or just wear something clean and avoid the high fashion part all together. This missed the mark for me.

4/10

Dwyane Wade

Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images

You know what? I can absolutely get down with this. I don’t wholly believe this is any different from how Dwyane Wade would dress from a normal night out, but that’s okay! You don’t always need to go big out of the pressure of the Met Gala. He’s got a fun little piece of jewelry, painted his nails, and more or less called it a night with the look.

I think it absolutely works.

8/10

Lewis Hamilton

Photo by Gotham/Getty Images

Oh hell yes! Lewis Hamilton is dressed like what I aspire to be: A chef who moonlights as a crime fighting vigilante.

This has some of the same features of the Simmons look (mostly the cape), but then I came across video of him explaining how he decided on his attire for the night and it pushed my appreciation of it into the stratosphere.

10/10

Angel Reese

Photo by Aliah Anderson/Getty Images

This just rules. Everything about it rules. I love it. I’m obsessed with it. Angel Reese went a little whimsical, a little playful, and still high fashion enough that you wouldn’t wear this anywhere else, but it’s totally appropriate for the event.

There were a lot of long, flowing gowns at the gala, but Reese went a different direction and absolutely killed it.

11/10

Nnamdi Asomugha

Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images

Congrats to Nnamdi Asomugha for being at the Met Gala. Put in just a little work next year, please.

1/10

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Luke Donald poses with the Ryder Cup after Team Europe’s win in 2023. | Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images

Luke Donald paid a visit to the Long Island track, which is set to host the Ryder Cup for the first time in 2025.

Preparations for the 2025 Ryder Cup are already underway, and the Americans still do not have a captain.

Rumors around Tiger Woods leading Team USA at Bethpage Black, where he won the 2002 U.S. Open, have picked up steam recently, but the PGA of America has yet to make an official announcement.

Perhaps one comes after next week’s PGA Championship at Valhalla, in which Woods will compete.

On the flip side, Luke Donald, who led Europe to glory at Marco Simone in 2023, will return as captain in 2025.

The Englishman received overwhelming praise from the Europeans for his leadership and team-building skills. He also executed brilliant strategy, pushing the right buttons with his pairings while setting up the golf course to better suit his side. Hence, the DP World Tour selected Donald to lead the team again.

He is not taking his job lightly once more, even though the competition does not begin at Bethpage Black for another 16 months.

As such, Donald visited the Long Island course on Monday and shared the news on his Instagram.

Famously closed to the public on Mondays for course maintenance, Donald got an exclusive look at the Black Course with no one else present.

The sign that greets golfers on the first tee does not lie. The layout is challenging, with each hole featuring complex bunkers and doglegs that create difficult angles. Thick, gnarly, and healthy rough lines each fairway, punishing any tee shot that does not find the short grass. The greens are relatively benign but true, but missing approaches in the wrong places will lead to bogies or worse.

Luckily for Donald, he has competed in major championships on the Black Course before. He tied for 18th in his first U.S. Open appearance there in 2002 but missed the cut at Bethpage in 2009.

Photo by Gary Kellner/Getty Images
The 6th hole at Bethpage Black.

He last competed on the Black Course in 2016, when he tied for 53rd at The Barclays—the first round of the FedEx Cup Playoffs at the time. After shooting a 2-under 69 on day one, the Englishman carded rounds of 71, 72, and 75 to finish at 4-over for the championship.

And yet, the Americans still do not have a leader, while Donald and the Europeans have gotten a head start in the preparation.

That should sound the alarm for Team USA to get moving on their processes because their record against the Europeans over the last three decades is poor at best. Sure, the Americans have triumphed in the previous two Ryder Cups on home soil, but the last thing Team USA would want to experience again is a repeat of the Miracle at Medinah in 2012. The Europeans stormed back from a 10-to-6 deficit going into Sunday singles and stole the cup on the final holes.

That marks the last time a team won a Ryder Cup on the road.

Alas, Donald and the Europeans already have a head start on achieving just that in 2025.

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.

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Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images

What Shai Gilgeous-Alexander can do off the ball is arguably as important as his work on it.

Your perception of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander during the Oklahoma City Thunder’s first-round sweep of the New Orleans Pelicans may have been colored by a possession like this one, where Gilgeous-Alexander wasn’t even the primary ball handler but instead a member of the supporting cast as Jalen Williams attempted to create offense out of spread pick-and-roll:

But in Williams’ desperation, he passes out of a sticky situation, with the ball somehow finding its way toward Gilgeous-Alexander. He attempts to create a shot against Herb Jones, but with a dwindling shot clock and up against a formidable defender, Gilgeous-Alexander shoots a dud.

And on the surface, Gilgeous-Alexander seemed to have fallen short of the standards he set for himself during the regular season over the course of the matchup with the Pelicans. Don’t get me wrong: He was still good, averaging 27.3 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists in the four-game sweep, while posting shooting splits of 52.2% on two-point shots, 29.4% on threes, and 72.7% on free throws. But his scoring efficiency took a non-insignificant dip; from a True Shooting percentage of 63.6% during the regular season to 55.3% against the Pelicans.

Will Gilgeous-Alexander need to be better in that regard as they prepare to face a stiffer test in the form of the Dallas Mavericks? Almost assuredly, considering that he’ll be dueling against Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving, two better offensive talents than anyone he faced on the Pelicans.

But his first-round stats don’t necessarily tell the full story of Gilgeous-Alexander’s offensive impact.

While his deployment during those four games virtually maintained the status quo of him being the Thunder’s primary source of scoring — his usage rate was 33.6% over four games, which isn’t far off from his regular season mark of 32.8% (third in the league behind Dončić and Giannis Antetokounmpo) — Gilgeous-Alexander did more than just dive headfirst into ball-pounding and direct isolations.

What often gets lost in isolation possessions is the work that teams and players do beforehand to maximize one-on-one matchups — and the downstream effects it can have on an opposing defensive unit. Gilgeous-Alexander certainly did his part to get as many favorable matchups as he could, which meant finding ways to get his primary defenders off of him as much as possible.

Jones and Naji Marshall were the two assigned to defend Gilgeous-Alexander. The justification for Jones doesn’t need a deep explanation — he’s one of the NBA’s premier perimeter defenders and a favorite to be selected to the All-Defensive First Team. Marshall’s profile as a tall (6’7) and lengthy (7’1 wingspan) wing makes him the ideal understudy for when Jones is off the floor.

The simple solution for getting either one of Jones or Marshall off of Gilgeous-Alexander would be to hunt for favorable matchups — i.e., lesser defenders — and force a switch through setting ball screens, which the Thunder incorporate into their schemes. But while effective in spots, the rote nature of creating mismatches in this way can make the strategy both predictable and somewhat boring.

But the possession below was neither predictable nor boring — and yet, it was born out of Gilgeous-Alexander trying to switch himself out of a difficult matchup. Not as the ball handler, but as someone off of the ball:

Gilgeous-Alexander’s backscreen on Jose Alvarado is of particular note — and is what triggers the switch off of Marshall. The ball gets fed to him immediately, and the prospect of his diminutive teammate having to guard Gilgeous-Alexander on an island prompts Larry Nance Jr. to spring a double.

This triggers the swing-swing sequence: a pass to Jaylin Williams on the wing, followed by another swing to Cason Wallace in the corner. Wallace attacks the closeout, puts pressure on the Pelicans’ defense with a paint touch, and finds Isaiah Joe — one of humanity’s deadliest shooters of the basketball — on the opposite wing.

Gilgeous-Alexander may not have tallied a counting stat — no points, no assists, not even what you could consider a non-counted occurrence such as a hockey assist — but it was his initial screen to force the mismatch that was the catalyst for the three-point shot above, as well as other similar situations against the Pelicans that also may have flown under the radar.

Gilgeous-Alexander doesn’t get enough credit for doing the blue-collar work away from the ball that enables him to generate efficient offense, both for himself and his teammates. One shouldn’t mistake his off-ball contributions for, say, the volume of off-ball work that Steph Curry has compiled over the last decade. But there are similarities inspired by this era’s greatest guard.

One such example: using defenders’ reluctance — outright refusal, at times — to separate themselves from Gilgeous-Alexander, who would then set screens for his teammates. The rationale behind that scenario is that if Gilgeous-Alexander’s defender doesn’t want to detach from him at all costs, screening for a teammate would create either an open jumper from the perimeter or open cutting lanes toward the rim.

Examples of the former against the Pelicans involved Chet Holmgren, who has the advantage of being a stretch five with a virtually unblockable jumper. Whenever Gilgeous-Alexander found himself near a ball-handling Holmgren in transition, he automatically knew what to do:

Whenever Gilgeous-Alexander sets ball screens, he typically does one of two things. He may “ghost” it — that is, instead of setting an outright screen, he fakes it and sprints away into open space on the perimeter. Again, going back to the aforementioned reluctance to detach from Gilgeous-Alexander, this can create confusion at the point of attack, which generates an open driving lane for his ball-handling teammate (often Jalen Williams):

Whenever Gilgeous-Alexander does decide to set a solid ball screen, it serves the purpose of hunting a specific matchup, switching him off of either Jones or Marshall, or both. This is a maneuver smart offensive schemes make use of to dictate matchups — instead of doing the predictable (setting ball screens for your primary), why not have your primary start off the ball and set the ball screens instead?

If your superstar’s willing to set ball screens to have an easier time on the ball, why not expand the possibilities to other types of off-ball screens — back screens, pin-down screens, etc. — that will force the other team to pick from several poisons instead of just one?

This is when things can open up for both the superstar and the coach who utilizes him. Along with the willingness comes the capability to adapt to multiple situations, multiple looks, and multiple schemes from the opponent.

An example being a novel idea such as countering the Pelicans’ zone by having Gilgeous-Alexander be the man in the middle of the zone instead of a typical big man — which means that Nance has to be the one matching up to him when Gilgeous-Alexander decides to draw the ball out toward the perimeter:

These are the nuances that stay veiled under a curtain of ignorance when discussions about Gilgeous-Alexander are made. Both praise and criticism of his game have often focused on what he has done on the ball — his change-of-pace exploits, scoring versatility, and his silky-smooth jumper, as well as his ability to draw fouls and send himself to the line multiple times, to the chagrin of the aesthetics-over-everything crowd. It’s time to recognize what he does off the ball and give it its proper due, because it has arguably been just as effective as his wizardry and brilliance with the rock in his hands.

The Thunder will need every bit of Gilgeous-Alexander’s offensive repertoire — including the off-ball aspects — to overcome the next challenge that Dončić, Irving, and the Mavericks will present. They will most certainly throw different coverages and personnel at him in their efforts to keep him contained. But in both the overt and subtle aspects of his game, Gilgeous-Alexander has proven to be ready for that challenge. And with a superstar willing to do the kind of legwork needed to maximize the team’s offense, the Thunder’s ceiling has become much higher than anyone ever anticipated.

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