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Lou Williams Reveals What Clippers Taught Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, ‘He’s a Master At It’

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Zachary Rainey | Last updated Feb 25, 2025 2:08 PM ET

The Oklahoma City Thunder are having an excellent season on the back of point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

While the team did fall to the Minnesota Timberwolves Monday after surrendering a 25-point lead, they're still in command of the NBA's Western Conference.

At 46-11, they're 8.5 games up on the No. 2-seeded Denver Nuggets.

What's impressive is that those 8.5 games are the same gap between the No. 2 seed and the No. 10 seed Sacramento Kings.

After finishing second in the NBA Most Valuable Player Race a season ago, Gilgeous-Alexander has upped his game even further.

The two-time All-NBA First Team member leads the NBA with 32.4 points per game.

Lou Williams believes Gilgeous-Alexander has "mastered" this skill

Some might forget since he wasn't a household name then, but Gilgeous-Alexander started his career with the Los Angeles Clippers.

During that lone season, Gilgeous-Alexander got to see a certified "bucker-getter" up close, playing with Lou Williams.

That season, Williams averaged 20 points per game en route to his third Sixth Man of the Year Award honors.

In an interview on Run it Back on FanDuelTV, Williams took some of the credit for the skills Gilgeous-Alexander has exemplified.

"Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander] was with me early on and we did teach him how to draw fouls and he's a master at it," Williams said. "It's a game inside of the game. If you can get an easy 6-10 points a game on the free throw line, by all means, use that to your advantage."

"Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander] was with me early on and we did teach him how to draw fouls and he's a master at it."

Lou Williams on SGA's frequent visits to the free throw line

The Thunder star leads the NBA in FTM (447) & FTA (501)

(via @RunItBackFDTV)pic.twitter.com/Se3iGsPXVT
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) February 25, 2025

One area in which analysts used to nitpick Gilgeous-Alexander's game was his 3-point shooting or lack thereof.

Gilgeous-Alexander has started to silence those critics.

He's gone from 35.3% on 3.6 attempts per game to 36.4% on 5.7 per game.

It's not outlandish to think this could go down as the "Summer of Shai," especially if he can capture his first MVP Award and lead the Thunder to the NBA Finals.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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