During the Oklahoma City Thunder's playoff battle against the Dallas Mavericks, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander admitted they needed to "turn that water off" with PJ Washington's scoring and outside shooting.

Even if his answers are prefaced by a long hmmmm, the length of which leads one to believe he’s holding a Shakespearean quip, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has not often seemed stumped by a question.

This stretch of January around Martin Luther King Jr. Day is usually peak evaluation time in the NBA front-office world. It’s one of the milestone points where teams will have full-staff pow-wows and talk things out,