How Chris Paul Planted the Seed for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Thunder Dynasty

Chris PaulA vocal leadership style isn’t for everyone — ask 2025-26 Los Angeles Clippers — but for 2019-20 Oklahoma City Thunderit was more than the organization ever expected. That has affected a young group of players in the best way, led by a first-round pick Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and two-way guard Lou Dort. As a proud dad watches a child graduate from college, Paul watched the Thunder blossom into NBA champions in 2025.

Half a decade removed from his lone season with Gilgeous-Alexander and Oklahoma City, Paul sat courtside for Game 2 of the NBA Finals at the Pike Center, and before Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals against the Minnesota Timberwolves, when the SGA presented his MVP trophy.

Gilgeous-Alexander credits Paul for showing him the ropes during his second NBA season, first with the Thunder, he said, per ESPN’s Tim McMahon.

“Chris was really the first person to show me what it means to be a professional,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “He was always working extra. It was more off the field than on the field. Those were things you don’t think about as a kid. As a kid, you’re just taught to work super hard, but you’re not really taught nutrition and taking care of your body, massages, treatments, those things that he was always on top of.”

“He always had a healing mentality in every way, in every way of life.”

Paul, who was at a turning point in his career, knew his time with the Thunder was temporary as the organization was in a complete rebuild. Both he and the Thunder front office were on the same page about Chris’ long-term plans. However, that didn’t mean Oklahoma City couldn’t be competitive in a loaded Western Conference.

Paul would invite his teammates over to his house for team dinners, giving Thunder prospects a peek at how the future Hall of Fame guard, like CP3, studies game film, breaks down team game plans and maintains a strict diet. As he bonded with his new team, Paul took the time to get to know the players.

“We would just relax,” Gilgeous-Alexander told ESPN recently. “But the way we used to watch games, he never just watched them. He always watched them to learn.”

Some of the lessons learned from that one season with Paul still stick with Gilgeous-Alexander and Dort to this day, including the iPad that Lou uses to study game film and the essential app that comes with it. Both were gifted by Paul to Dort, who was an undrafted two-way prospect at the time, and are still in use in 2025.

It’s one of the many tools that have helped mold Dort into a first-team all-defensive guard who is considered one of the best on-ball defenders in the NBA. The Thunder finished 44-28, fifth in the Western Conference. However, it wasn’t always smooth sailing between Paul and his new Thunder teammates. As with any growth process, there are always ups and downs before progress is made.

When Dort would miss open threes, Paul chastised the young guard for the non-guaranteed deal, shooting at a 29.7% clip from beyond the arc. For Paul, Lue’s defensive efforts have guaranteed him to take more shots despite his poor shooting percentage. Today, Dort connects on 41.2% of his threes.

One day, Gilgeous-Alexander received a morning phone call on his day off during an early season road trip.

“Let’s go lift,” Paul said, more of a request than a suggestion, as noted by ESPN’s MacMahon.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander revealed that he thinks weightlifting is more of an offseason workout for guards. Chris Paul showed him otherwise before the two Thunder teammates began lifting regularly together.

“Those are things that are normal when you’re teammates,” Paul said. “If something happens to me and they can help me, they help me. If something happens to them, it’s just being a teammate, (sharing) knowledge. Since I was younger, I was just trying to show (them). I think that’s the importance of vets.”

The fifth-seeded Thunder dropped their first-round series to the Houston Rockets 4-3, but it was a successful season for Oklahoma City. Paul averaged 17.6 points, 6.7 assists, 5.0 rebounds and 1.6 steals. He made the All-NBA Second Team, finished seventh in MVP voting and led the Phoenix Suns to an appearance in the 2020-21 NBA Finals.

Why things didn’t work out with Chris Paul, the Clippers

Well, how come The Clippers failed to take advantage of Chris Paul? What are the contrasting differences between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the 2019-20 Thunder and this year’s Clippers team? A lot.

For starters, the average age of Los Angeles’ roster is 33.2 years old, the oldest in NBA history, making the timing of changes difficult. Not to suggest that Paul’s leadership style reflected his approach to the way he spoke to 19-year-old Lou Dort in Oklahoma City. However, given what we know of Chris’ vocal style, it’s not easy to imagine a silent CP3 in the midst of a 6-18 start.

Paul’s voice couldn’t resonate the way it once did because the age of the crowd had changed, and so had his influence on the basketball court – making things infinitely more difficult. Paul averaged 2.9 points and 3.3 assists in 14.3 minutes before he was suddenly sent home in the middle of the night. Old NBA stars can sympathize with the All-Star losing a step or two, but this seemed to transcend Chris’ game and his approach.

Sending one of your franchise’s all-time best players home on the road in the wee hours is a lot more personal than most shocking NBA moves in recent history.