When acquired in the Paul George trade, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was seen as a player who could be a very good point guard down the road for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Turns out, he was already there. Gilgeous-Alexander led the team in scoring and helped them get in the thick of the playoff race.
On the Lowe Post last week, True Hoop’s David Thorpe brought him up as a Most Improved Player of the Year candidate to ESPN’s Zach Lowe.
“He’s one of those rare guys who makes the jump … when you go from good rookie to freakin’ amazing second-year player, that just doesn’t happen very much,” Thorpe said.
Thorpe brought a list of his top 10 candidates and included some honorable mentions. He ranked Gilgeous-Alexander as the No. 5 player on his list.
“He was good last year. But OKC’s one of the better success stories,” Thorpe said.
“I give CP and actually Billy Donovan a lot of credit for it. But Shai’s their best scorer. He’s averaging 6 rebounds per game. When you go against them … you have to account for Shai when you go into that game. You can’t just prepare for (Dennis) Schroder and Chris Paul.”
Lowe did not have a ranked list, but he said Gilgeous-Alexander would not crack the top 10.
Despite that, Lowe acknowledged the stellar play of the guard this season.
“He keeps finding these roles where he’s sort of a weird hybrid guard,” Lowe said. “The playmaking aspect of his game has sort of stalled out a little bit, and maybe that’s what turned me off to him as a candidate, but like I said, he was one of my final cuts. I love watching him play.”
Thorpe also mentioned Dennis Schroder as a player who could be considered, but he didn’t think should be in the conversation because he has had similarly strong seasons in the past.
Gilgeous-Alexander, on the other hand, took his game to a level he did not have in his rookie season.
He increased his scoring average from 10.8 to 19.3 points per game and more than doubled his rebound average to 6.1 per game while maintaining 3.3 assists per contest.
“I don’t know that we thought Shai would get to 19 a game on a legit playoff team that’s freakin’ hard to beat,” Thorpe said.
Ahead of Gilgeous-Alexander on Thorpe’s list is Charlotte Hornets point guard Devonte’ Graham, who turned from relatively irrelevant into a candidate for the All-Star Game, and three players who transformed into guys who look like they can be perennial All-NBA members: Toronto Raptors forward Pascal Siakam, Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum and Dallas Mavericks wing Luka Doncic.
Even if Gilgeous-Alexander is a long shot for this award, Lowe thinks he’s bound to be an All-Star in his career, and perhaps even more.
“I think he was good enough this season to crack the door open to ‘Will he ever make an All-NBA team?’ I think that’s now a reasonable discussion,” Lowe said.
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