2024-25 Thunder player grades: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

USA Today

3 days ago

The calendar has flipped to August, which means we've officially hit the low point of the NBA calendar. The next couple of months are the driest part of the year. Everybody has headed to vacation and awaits training camp to kick off the 2025-26 season.
The Oklahoma City Thunder continue to enjoy their NBA championship. They had a historic 68-14 regular-season campaign that eventually led to the franchise's first title with a 2025 NBA Finals Game 7 win. They'll enter next season as a favorite to be a rare repeat winner.
To reflect on their title run, Thunder Wire will conduct 2024-25 season grades for all 19 players who suited up for the squad at one point during the year. First up is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who won MVP and NBA Finals MVP:
2024-25 statistics:
Advanced stats:
Significant Percentile Finishes:
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Thoughts:
Oh boy, where to even start? Let's just list off the major awards and accolades Gilgeous-Alexander won this past season. He won the MVP award, the Western Conference Finals MVP, the NBA Finals MVP and the scoring title. He was named to his third straight All-NBA First Team. Oh, and he brought home a championship ring.
Every possible goal imaginable, Gilgeous-Alexander achieved this past season. It's one of the greatest individual campaigns the NBA has ever seen. Hovering around the top-five player conversations the last couple of seasons, he smashed through that ceiling and is now seen with the likes of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.
Whenever you think Gilgeous-Alexander has finally reached his apex, he takes another step. This past season saw his best scoring campaign yet. The drive-heavy scorer upped his usage and was once again lethal from the mid-range. A resurgence of his 3-point shot helped him average nearly an eye-popping 33 points. He shot a career-high 5.7 outside attempts.
Only six players have averaged at least 32 points on a 62-plus true shooting percentage. Gilgeous-Alexander joined a prestigious group filled with future Hall-of-Famers. Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry headline the rest of that exclusive club.
At 27 years old, Gilgeous-Alexander has accomplished everything you could imagine in basketball. All in one season, too. He's the NBA's best scorer with a third straight 30-plus point campaign. His consistency is his best trait. But his peaks were also higher. Before last season, his career high was a modest 44 points. He broke that seven times this past season.
Gilgeous-Alexander led the NBA in 20-point games, 30-point games, 40-point games and 50-point games. He passed the half-century mark twice for the first time in his career. He's reached the status of all-time great, where all the opposition can do is pray he doesn't have a superbly efficient scoring night.
And then there's the playoffs. The deeper the Thunder got into the playoffs, the better Gilgeous-Alexander played. Any silly concerns of being a postseason dropper were completely silenced. He was the best player in a playoff series against three-time MVP winner Nikola Jokic. He led OKC to its first championship. The scoring numbers remained the same despite an uptick in intensity. That's not always the case with superstars.
The celebrations continued into the offseason, too. After Gilgeous-Alexander paraded around downtown OKC, he received a handsome new supermax extension that'll make him the richest player in the NBA. As of now, at least. Then was named the NBA 2K26 cover athlete. He also won a couple of ESPY awards. The last two items may be trivial, but they show how this has truly been the Summer of SGA.
For years, Thunder fans debated who the best player in franchise history was. The two candidates were Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. We now know the answer. It's the third candidate who usurped both franchise icons and wears the crown. Gilgeous-Alexander cemented his spot at the top of OKC with one of the greatest individual seasons ever, capped off with bringing home the Larry O'Brien trophy.
Moving Forward:
Just keep doing what you're doing. Conventional wisdom has finally caught up to just how dang good Gilgeous-Alexander is. A third straight season of perennial MVP performance has finally forced fans to put him in their top-five player conversation at the very worst.
The scary part is, it's just the start. At 27 years old, Gilgeous-Alexander is in his prime. His arrow should only continue to ascend. He's now broken through as one of the NBA's best players fresh off a historic season and championship, ala Curry in 2015.
It's now about maintaining that status. Expect Gilgeous-Alexander to flirt with another 30-point campaign this upcoming season. No reason not to. He's reached the status where you have to see him drop off first before you can predict it. The drive-heavy scorer will continue to fluster defenses and get to the lane. He can back you down in the post. He'll either finish through traffic or get to the free-throw line.
If not on drives, Gilgeous-Alexander is deadly with his pull-up jumper. Ask Aaron Nesmith in the final minutes of Game 4 of the NBA Finals. The mid-range game has been resurrected thanks to the MVP winner. Everybody knows that's his spot and is unstoppable when he gets into a groove. Gameplanning against him is conceding 30 points from the top.
Let's see if Gilgeous-Alexander can be a repeat MVP winner. He's slowly ascended the ladder from a fifth-place finish three seasons ago to runner-up to finally winning the award last year. Now it's about keeping his top spot. If the Thunder have another first-seed finish and he scores 30-plus points, there's a real chance he continues to climb the ranks of all-time greats with another MVP award.
Final Grade: A-plus