Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a legit candidate to win NBA MVP this season

Don’t look now folks, but Shai Gilgeous-Alexander could win the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award this season.

On Tuesday, the former Kentucky Wildcat turned All-Star point guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder was named the NBA’s Western Conference Player of the Week. The 25-year-old led OKC to a perfect 4-0 record last week against teams all currently projected to make the postseason. Gilgeous-Alexander posted per-game averages of 33.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 6.5 assists on shooting splits of 62.3/38.5/94.3.

He’s become must-watch TV every time he steps on the hardwood. Remember when he came off the bench at Kentucky?

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. SGA is playing the best basketball of his life right now for an impressive (and incredibly) young Thunder franchise. 30 games into his sixth NBA season, he’s averaging 31.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, 6.3 assists, a league-high 2.6 steals, and 2.0 turnovers (the fewest since his second season) per outing.

Arguably more impressive though? OKC is sitting on a 22-9 record, good enough for the second-best mark in the Western Conference.

Worked hard through the holidays 💼

𝙎𝙝𝙖𝙞 𝙂𝙞𝙡𝙜𝙚𝙤𝙪𝙨-𝘼𝙡𝙚𝙭𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙙 𝙒𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙣 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙒𝙚𝙚𝙠 pic.twitter.com/4WGfm1e6HL

— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) January 2, 2024

Granted, the Thunder’s success this season isn’t all dependent on Gilgeous-Alexander (Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams are pretty good, too), but he deserves a huge bulk of the praise. OKC is the second-youngest team in the league behind only the tanking San Antonio Spurs. SGA is the second-“oldest” player on the roster and is leading the Thunder without a veteran star by his side.

The oddsmakers are beginning to take notice of his play, too. Over at FanDuel, Gilgeous-Alexander has the fourth-highest odds to win MVP at +450, trailing only reigning MVP Joel Embiid (+250), two-time MVP Nikola Jokic (+250), and Luka Doncic (+430). There’s a significant drop-off to the next-closest player too. Two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo holds the fifth-best odds at +1500.

There’s still plenty of season left to be played, but there’s no sign of Gilgeous-Alexander slowing down anytime soon. He’s a lock to make his second consecutive All-Star Team in February and is in line to be named a First-Team All-NBA performer in back-to-back seasons.

Again, remember when he came off the bench?

Kentucky dominating “Player of the Week” honors

There have been nine instances this season that the NBA has unveiled Player of the Week honors for both the Western and Eastern Conferences — 18 total winners. While this week was the first time this season that Gilgeous-Alexander has been recognized as the winner, he’s not the only former Kentucky player to do so not even halfway through the 2023-24 season.

Philadelphia 76ers point guard Tyrese Maxey — on the way to his first-ever NBA All-Star Game appearance — was the first Eastern Conference Player of the Week winner of the season. Sacramento Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox then won Western Conference Player of the Week soon after in mid-November before Phoenix Suns shooting guard Devin Booker won it the following week.

Fox would take home the honor for the second time the week after Booker, sharing the headline that week with New York Knicks forward Julius Randle, who was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week. For those keeping track at home, that means of the 18 possible Conference Player of the Week honors this season, six of them have gone to five former Wildcats — or 33 percent of the overall winners.

After Kentucky, the schools with the most Conference Player of the Week awards are Duke and Kansas, both tied with two a piece. Jayson Tatum (Celtics) and Paolo Banchero (Magic) have won it twice as the Blue Devils representatives while Joel Embiid (76ers) has won it twice as the former Jayhawk.

As it has for the last decade now, the NBA continues to run through Lexington.