Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning MVP, is still getting better at everything — in case you haven’t noticed

Part of the problem — to the extent that there is a problem, anyway — is the dunking. Its absence, I mean.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has played 703 minutes in the 2025-26 NBA season, and he has four slam dunks. As in, one fewer than five. IV, if you want to get all Roman about it. Solamente cuatro.

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Three of them came against the Kings, too. Which, y’know, if a tree falls in the forest, and all that:

And then there’s the assists. Don’t get me wrong: Gilgeous-Alexander is capable of the kinds of thread-the-needle-in-traffic, lefty-hook-pass-on-the-move, cross-court-fastball-right-in-the-shooting-pocket feeds that generate oohs and aahs …

… but SGA only throws about 40 passes per game, and more often than not, his setups skew simpler. Draw two to the ball, because they know if they try to guard you straight up, they’re dead where they stand. Take it slow, play off two feet, and keep your eyes up. Find a teammate — either the one who’s exactly where he’s supposed to be, or the one who’s about to get there, because at this point, the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder, off to a 20-1 start and looking like a threat to rewrite the record books, can probably play the hand blind.

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Make the easy pass, create the wide-open shot, and profit. Then, when you get the stop — and you’re going to get the stop, because you’ve got the best defense not only of this NBA season, but perhaps of the last 50 — come down and do it again. And again. And again.

The individual stat lines don’t help much, either, because they rarely make your eyes bulge out of your skull. Two 40-plus-point performances this season, which frankly seems low because at this point, 30 is just expected — including, famously, by the man himself:

Two games with double-digit dimes, because OKC’s one of eight teams this season with at least eight players averaging at least two helpers per game. No 10-rebound outings, because listen, what do you think we pay Isaiah Hartenstein for?

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Besides: It’s not always easy to rack up monster numbers when you’re consistently getting the rest of the…

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Author : Dan Devine

Publish date : 2025-12-02 18:38:00

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