Shai Gilgeous-Alexander – Lacey Evans
Our rookies were a little tough to find a comp for. For Shai, my mind eventually went to Lacey Evans. Lacey’s a very new addition to the WWE (so new, in fact, the only public domain images of her is pictured above) So there’s your obvious comp – two new talents.
When Lacey made her main roster debut, she started by doing a gimmick where, for several weeks, she would walk out as though she was about to start a match, then immediately turn around and leave. As silly as that sounds, it built a lot of hype for some people. By the time we finally saw her fight, we were so excited to see what she could do.
There was similar hype for SGA. When the Clippers drafted him, a lot of people immediately thought “Wow, how’d he fall to them?” Then you heard some analysts calling him the steal of the draft. By the time we finally got to see him play, the hype level among Clippers fandom was through the roof.
Both also lived up to their hype. Lacey can do some things in the ring that are just jaw dropping. Her moonsault (a move where the wrestler climbs to the top rope and then backflips off of it, onto their poor opponent) is one of the best in the company already. A lot of gasps have come from Lacey Evans fights. Sure she’s green and you see her mess up some, but there’s serious potential there.
SGA had the same type of start. Sure he’s a rookie. Sure there are times where you think “Oh my gosh, why did you attack? Why didn’t you pass?” But there are also countless other times where you think “How did he do that?” His feel for the game as a rookie is sublime. And with his length, he’s got the ability to snake through defenders like few in the NBA already.