According to the recent NBA MVP Ladder, Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is second behind Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic. Throughout the 2024-25 season, the race has been tight between the two, often taking turns at the top spot. However, there are a few who believe that Gilgeous-Alexander is the clear-cut winner of the award.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst is among those who believe OKC’s SGA should win the award over Jokic. Windhorst went as far as to explain why there should be no contest when considering the Thunder star as the MVP for this season.
“The Shai Gilgeous-Alexander factor is really undersold in the NBA. I see people talk about that there’s a race for the MVP, I just don’t think that there is. I think he’s in the lead by a lot. He’s coming off a 51-point game. He has four 50-point games in his last 19,” the analyst said.
Brian Windhorst doesn’t believe there’s an MVP race:
“The Shai Gilgeous-Alexander factor is really undersold in the NBA. I see people talk about that there's a race for the MVP, I just don't think that there is. I think he's in the lead by a lot. He's coming off a 51-point game.… pic.twitter.com/tkIkSCNxev
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) March 6, 2025
Windhorst pointed out how the three-time All-Star has performed well for his team, especially in the scoring department. Gilgeous-Alexander has scored at least 50 points over the last 20 games he’s played. During that span, the 6-foot-6 guard has averaged 35.4 points, 4.6 rebounds and 6.4 assists on 43.4% shooting from beyond the arc.
Because of his scoring outburst, Oklahoma City has remained at the top of the Western Conference with a 51-11 record.
SGA has a few weeks left to earn the number one slot in the NBA MVP vote. It’s difficult to surpass Jokic’s triple-double average from this season, though.
Alex Caruso considers Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as a superstar in the league
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has done incredible things for the Thunder this season. However, he still doesn’t get enough attention as stars like LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and others. Even without the attention, SGA has silently taken over the league and his teammate believes he’s one of the few superstars in the NBA.
On Thursday’s episode of “The Young Man and The Three,” OKC’s Alex Caruso spoke highly about his star teammate.
“So coming into this year, I knew that he was going to kind of be ready to go, but like, getting to know him now and knowing how competitive he is,” Caruso said. “Like, I could see the type of season he’s having is like, he has, you know, he might not ever come out and say it publicly, but like the dude competes and he wants to compete every night, and he, like, thinks it’s a blessing to be able to go out there and play basketball every night.”
"He thinks it's a blessing to go out there and play basketball every night." — Alex Caruso gives SGA his flowers during his dominant season 💐 pic.twitter.com/hQGssiNCAy
— TheYoungManAndTheThree (@OldManAndThree) March 6, 2025
“And so seeing him in person, and how effortless he makes it look,” Caruso continued. “Like he he’s one of those guys in the league where it’s like, you look up at the end of the third quarter, it’s like, ‘oh s***, he’s got 32, 7, 6, and three steals and a block and so, I mean, I thought he just was having an average game, like, it’s nothing crazy, like it’s not a loud anything it’s just like, routine.’ And that’s when you get into like the superstar category of like, it looks easy, and you’re putting up crazy numbers and and it affects winning, that’s when you get into different categories.”
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Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen on Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
