Report: Players, teams around the NBA view Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as frontrunner for MVP

Few players, if any, have had a more impressive 2024-25 regular season to this point than Oklahoma City Thunder star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He’s averaging a league-high 32.6 points to go along with 5.2 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.0 block per game.

Gilgeous-Alexander is contributing so much on a nightly basis to a Thunder team that has an incredibly impressive record to boot. The Thunder have a mere 11 losses 61 games through their campaign and aren’t far behind the Cleveland Cavaliers at all for the NBA’s top record.

ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that Gilgeous-Alexander is the frontrunner to capture the league’s MVP award this season in the eyes of players and others around the NBA.

“In my conversations with players, with teams, people around the league I think he is — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is viewed as a favorite or frontrunner right now,” Charania said of the MVP race. “I think you have to still look at Nikola Jokic. Giannis Antetokounmpo, I don’t think gets enough shine as well. What he’s doing in Milwaukee just leading that team, the numbers he’s putting up. But Jokic’s numbers speak for themselves.”

The argument for Jokic winning MVP instead of Gilgeous-Alexander is there from a statistical standpoint. For as great as Gilgeous-Alexander has played this season, Jokic is on track to become just the third player in NBA history to average a triple-double for a campaign and the first since guard Russell Westbrook, who just so happens to be his teammate.

Beyond merely the individual numbers Jokic is putting up, he’s helped his case for the award with all the collective success the Nuggets have enjoyed lately. The Nuggets have won all but three of their last 10 games played and won nine games consecutively not all that long ago. That lengthy streak came to an end at the hands of guard Luka Doncic and the Los Angeles Lakers.

But Gilgeous-Alexander’s Thunder have ultimately been far and away the top team in the West and could put together the most wins in a regular season in the history of the franchise. The Thunder are on track for 67 wins on the campaign, and the current franchise record is 64 during the 1995-96 season.

All in all, both players have strong cases to win the MVP award, and it should be fun to witness the race heat up as the regular season winds down. Jokic and Gilgeous-Alexander will soon face off as well, as the Thunder and Nuggets are slated to play one another on March 9.