Will Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Be An All-Star This Season?
For the last couple of seasons, the Oklahoma City Thunder have lived near the bottom of the Western Conference standings, but this was not always the case for this organization, as many tend to forget this team was in the NBA Finals in 2012.
A decade later now, general manager Sam Presti is looking to build the Thunder back into a championship contender through the NBA Draft and at the forefront of everything is their star guard, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
This season has been magical for Gilgeous-Alexander, as he currently ranks fifth in the league in shooting percentage (min. 500 shot attempts), third in the league in scoring and second in 30-point games.
While the Thunder are still the youngest team in the league and growing with each game they play, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has really stood out and is having an All-Star-like season.
Will he be a first-time All-Star though given that the Thunder are outside of the playoff picture in the Western Conference?
This seems to be a key question being asked as the league opened up All-Star voting recently, but in the eyes of those who have covered the Thunder all year long, Gilgeous-Alexander being an All-Star is a no-brainer.
“He’s been unbelievable. I think a lot of Thunder fans and a lot of people around Oklahoma City in general expected that he could be better than he has been in the past, but not many expected it to be like this though,” Thunder writer and reporter Derek Parker said on The Fast Break Podcast recently. “A bad night for him is 23 points on 40 percent shooting and you talk about Most Improved Player, he has to be the favorite there.
“If they had won five or six more games to this point, I think that middle letter in MIP might be a different conversation.”
As of right now, the Thunder are a respectable 13-18 on the season, but if they were 18-13 instead like Parker mentions, the conversation for Gilgeous-Alexander being in the MVP conversation would be very real, especially since an 18-13 record would put the Thunder right at the top of the standings in the Western Conference.
In a total of 28 games this season, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has averaged 31.3 points, 4.6 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game while shooting 50.1 percent from the floor and 34.5 percent from three-point range.
Perhaps what is more impressive is that in 28 of those games he has played in, Gilgeous-Alexander has recorded at least 30 points in 20 of them.
He is the definition of being the most valuable player for his team and there is no doubt right now that the Thunder guard is the favorite league-wide for the Most Improved Player award.
Maybe he will not start in the All-Star Game with the likes of Luka Doncic, Stephen Curry, Ja Morant and others being in the Western Conference, but Shai Gilgeous-Alexander being left off the All-Star Game this season would be a travesty.
