The Thunder's Postseason Success Relies On Scoring Production From Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

The Thunder star's scoring slipped this past postseason, and OKC felt the ramifications.

May 30, 2026; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) reacts in the second quarter against the San Antonio Spurs during game seven of the western conference finals for the 2026 NBA playoffs at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images | Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

The Thunder’s biggest star might just have to be even bigger when the lights are brightest. 

The Oklahoma City Thunder are in an offseason where they are trying to figure out how to get back to the top, after being there just a season ago. This has already caused the Thunder to shake up its roster by trading Aaron Wiggins, and it's still early in the offseason. 

While new additions to the team could help get OKC back over the hump, the main attribute to having a successful postseason is already on the squad. 

Oklahoma City has the best player in the world in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and the back-to-back MVP will have to be more dominant, scoring-wise, in the postseason. Gilgeous-Alxander didn’t have a bad scoring performance this postseason by any means, but his production did fall off a bit from the regular season. 

He averaged 27.6 points per game in the playoffs, which, as mentioned, isn’t bad, but it didn’t live up to the regular season, where he averaged 31.1 points per game. This was the least amount of points Gilgeous-Alexander has averaged in the postseason since the 2019-20 season, and ultimately wasn’t enough for OKC to get the job done. 

It has become apparent that the Thunder star is the workhorse behind the Oklahoma City Thunder team, as it seemed every team they came across had a game plan designed just for him. Whether it was face-guarding him or doubling him whenever the chance presented itself, every team tried to make sure that Gilgeous-Alexander wouldn’t be the one to beat them. 

This allowed the Kentucky product to be the main playmaker, averaging a postseason high of 7.9 assists per game. This is a great sign for the Thunder for the future, but it wasn’t in this particular playoffs. 

OKC had rough circumstances as two of its primary scorers, Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell, were unavailable for key moments in the playoffs. So while Gilgeous-Alexander sharing the rock would be an amazing thing with the full power of the roster, in this situation, he needed to be a little selfish. 

Now, going into next season, the Thunder know that to succeed once again, they will need their star point guard to score. The biggest moments call for the biggest stars, and if OKC wants to succeed, it will need its biggest star to showcase once again why he’s the best player in the world.