OKC Thunder: Shai Gilgeous Alexander’s Case for Most Improved Player Award
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So far, recently named All-Star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has led the Oklahoma City Thunder to a near-even record, which is far ahead of where the team's expectations were coming into the season.
In under 50 games, they surpassed their win total that Vegas had set before the season. In doing so, Gilgeous-Alexander has taken another leap, which led to the All-Star appearance.
He's improved in both efficiency and with the eye test. His defense has been raised to another level. He’s brought a newfound effort on that end, which has led to extra possessions for the team and easy points for himself.
Beyond defense, Gilgeous-Alexander dug even deeper into his bad, forcing nearly every team to struggle against him defensively. Not many teams know how to stop him, because he will turn to another move or method to score.
Something any great scorer can do well is get to the free-throw line and knock down the free shots efficiently. Gilgeous-Alexander has even taken a leap in the department. He shoots 10.1 free-throws per game this season and knocks down an average of 91 percent of them. This is good for a ten percent jump on 2.9 more attempts per game.
The free-throws have helped Gilgeous-Alexander jump from 24.5 points per game to 31 points per game on 5.2 percent better efficiency. While shooting 35.9 percent from three, Gilgeous-Alexander shoots only 2.7 threes per game, the second lowest volume of his career ahead of only his rookie season.
With 1.1 blocks per game and 1.7 steals per game, the 6-foot-6 guard’s defensive jump can be pinned down on paper. That’s a 0.3 jump in blocks per game and a 0.4 jump in steals per game.
To improve on many aspects of his game, Gilgeous-Alexander naturally has great odds to win the award. His bettings odds to win the award are set at +140. He was the favorite to win the award for quite some time, but now trails only Lauri Markkanen.
To sum up Gilgeous-Alexander’s improvement, he went from barely having an All-Star case and getting “snubbed” to putting together an All-NBA resume and scoring the fourth most points per game in the league behind three MVP candidates.
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