Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: 2024 NBA MVP Highlights | Oklahoma City Thunder

The 2024 NBA MVP race has been a widely disputed one over the past couple of weeks

And in the eyes of most people, there are five players in contention for this award

I have set out to make a video for the case on each of these top five options

This is the first of those videos. The compelling case of Shea Gilgis Alexander for MVP

Now, before we get started, I have one ground rule. I will not say anything negative about the player in their own video

This is the case for, not against. The case against will come in the following videos of other players

So please, I'm saying it now, don't attack me in the comments for leaving something out that works against Shea

I'm aware those things will come out in the rest of the videos

First off, check out this tweet from two years ago. The rise of SGA has truly been a revelation over the past two seasons

And although the 2022-2023 campaign gave him a 5th place finish in MVP voting and landed him on the All-NBA First team, he is currently having a remarkably better season this year in almost every statistical category

As of today, he is averaging 31.2 points per game, 5.6 rebounds, 6.5 assists, almost a block a game, 2.1 steals, 2.2 turnovers, while shooting 54.8% from the field, which is almost 4% better than his previous season

He's also shooting a massive 4.4% better from three this season on just over an attempt more per game

And since January 1st, he's shooting 46.7% from three, including 59.4% in the entire month of February

Currently, he's third in the league in points per game at 31.2, just behind Joel Embiid, who's been injured since January

and Luka Doncic, who is averaging 34.5 points per game. Giannis is right behind him at 30.7 points per game

And then Jason Tatum and Nikoli Jokic are at 27 points per game and 25.8

I think it's pretty easy to rectify Luka scoring more points per game than him. Shea is shooting 5.4% better from the field

His true shooting percentage is tied for first out of the four alongside Giannis at 65.4%

He is also one of the most efficient isolation scorers in the NBA

If you haven't watched this Thinking Basketball video on SGA from just a few days ago, go ahead and watch it

I've linked it in the description. They do a fantastic job breaking down what makes Shea so special in the isolation game And that first person ahead of him in isolation is Kawhi Leonard on almost half the opportunities But my favorite offensive stat from Shea is his turnovers per game He currently

averaging 2.2 turnovers per game. Now stay with me on this one. Now compared to our four other

candidates, Jason Tatum comes the closest at 2.5, Jokic 2.9, Giannis 3.4, and Luka 3.8. They also

all have pretty similar usage. I know usage percentages can get confusing sometimes

so we'll let that be. But the bottom line is he is the primary ball handler and initiator for his

team. So you can't tell me it's not impressive that his turnovers per game are so low. But the

craziest part about those 2.2 turnovers per game is that that is the lowest amount of turnovers per

game for a player in NBA history to score 30 plus points per game as well. Who's in second

third and fourth place you may ask? Michael Jordan. And each one of those years, 91, 92

and 96 that MJ did that, he won the MVP award. Defensively, I think you can make a reasonable

argument that he is one of the best defenders on this list. Yes, historically Giannis has been an

elite defender and I would still say that Giannis is fantastic, specifically recently again in the

new year. And I would also say Jokic is heavily underrated defensively, but I just don't understand

why people are offended by saying that SGA is a really freaking good defender. He is leading the

league in steals and I know that's not everything. A lot of people like to laugh at that, but it's

not nothing either. He's also tied for second in the NBA in deflections and tied for second in

contested threes per game. And when you watch him play defense, he may not be able to defend the

one through five like Jalen Williams or Jade McDaniels or some of the other elite wing defenders

in the NBA, but that's only because of his slender frame and where he lacks in size he makes up for

in motor and natural instinct. He seems to be everywhere at all times, correctly predicting

what the offensive player is going to do next and staying in a position where he really doesn't

follow much at all. Sure, it helps. He has Lou Dort on his team, usually taking the best offensive

player and Jalen Williams as well with Chet underneath, but Giannis has Brook Lopez and he's

6'11", Jokic is 6'11", and we all know Luka isn't known for his defense. So I don't think that you

can say just because he has a different style of defense that he plays and is a completely different

player that that counts against him in an MVP race He is highly effective on the defensive end in what he does incredibly well When it comes to advanced metrics Hoops Hype did a survey of executives and media members around the league a couple years ago

An estimated plus minus by Taylor Snarr, an ex-ytics head at the Utah Jazz

was surveyed very highly in that article. And when it comes to EPM ranking

Shea has the highest of them all, with a plus 9.3 overall EPM

just below Joel Embiid. Giannis is third overall with a plus 7.7 and Luka fourth at plus 7.6. Jokic fifth overall plus 6.7

and Jason Tatum 13th at plus 4.8 and when you split that up into offense and defense Shea ranks

in the 99th percentile offensively and the 97th defensively. EPM loves Shea's defense. He's also

leading by far in their estimated win shares tool at 16.2 and if you take a look at EPM rankings for

the past 10 MVPs, here's what we get. In 2023, Joel Embiid was second in EPM behind Jokic

when everyone thought Jokic probably should have won it. In 2022, Jokic was first in EPM

In 2021, Jokic first. In 2020, Giannis was first. In 2019, Giannis was fourth. In 2018

James Harden was first. In 2017, Russell Westbrook was fifth, but he did something only one other

person in NBA history had done, averaging a triple-double. And then in 2016 and 2015

Stephen Curry was first in EPM and Kevin Durant in 2014 was third

So according to the past 10 seasons that Dunks and Threes has data for

EPM seems to be a pretty good indicator of who was the most valuable player that year

But we all know advanced ytics are not everything, and a majority of the voters for this award are not just going to vote

based off what Dunks and Threes or Darko or LeBron think that the MVP is

But over the past decade, one thing that MVP voters have really heavily considered is winning

or at least being near the top of your conference. Only two times in the past decade has an MVP won not being a top three seed in their own conference

First in 2017, when Russell Westbrook won it, the Oklahoma City Thunder were sixth in the West

But again, I think we can throw that one out. He averaged a triple-double. And then in 2022, when Nikola Jokic won his second MVP, the Nuggets were also the sixth seed

But in my opinion, he quite honestly had nobody for a supporting cast

Jamal Murray was out for the year with his torn ACL. Right now, the Thunder sit in second place in the Western Conference

just half a game behind the Minnesota Timberwolves And while a lot of things could change before the end of the season here my bottom line If the Thunder finish as the first or second seed and as long as Denver is below them in the standings I think there is an incredible argument to give Shea Gilgis Alexander the MVP

The Mavericks have been on fire lately, but they're 33-25 sitting in the play-in. They're

going to have to climb up to high 40s, low 50s in wins and be like a 4-5 seed realistically for

Luka to have a chance. And then the Bucks are a three seed in the West, just one game back

the Cavaliers at two. And I know the Milwaukee Bucks look different this year with the big trade

for Damian Lillard, but in terms of talent, it's pretty much the same team as last year

who got the number one overall seed in the Eastern Conference. And even with Denver

they had the number one overall seed in the Western Conference last year, same team this year

I don't know how you reward someone with a regular season award when their team literally goes

backwards in wins or at least in their conference standing from the previous year. The only candidate

here that has a legitimate case over SGA in this regard is Jason Tatum, but we will save him for

his own video. And meanwhile, the Thunder were 40 and 42 last season. Obviously, they did add

Chet Holmgren, but we've actually proven that Shea is having a better season this year than he was

last year, but I'm not sure you can say the same about a guy like Jokic. And when I say Jokic

Yes, of course, he had one of the greatest seasons of all time last year, but he has taken a three-year dip in true shooting percentage

He's at 65.2%, which is less than 70.6 last year and 67.2 the year before

And according to EPM, he is a below average defender now versus past seasons

The last thing I'll say is that you simply cannot guard Shea. He's one of the most unique and unorthodox offensive players in the game

the way he's able to contort his body with his slender frame and get separation, whether it's

getting to the rim, popping back for an open three, or hitting a tough mid-range. And in the fourth

quarter of the season, SGA is one of only two players in the entire NBA to average over six

points per game on 55-45 shooting. The other player you ask is teammate Jalen Williams

So what do you think? Have I made a convincing enough case for Shea Gilgis-Alexander to win the

MVP. For now, I will rest my case. And if you enjoyed this video, you will also enjoy the video

I'm dropping very soon on the case for another Nikola Jokic MVP. If it's uploaded by now

it'll be clickable here on the end screen. If not subscribe, hit the notification bell

It's coming in a day or two. Thanks for watching. And as always, we'll see you on the hardwood