In mid-December, Denver’s Nikola Jokic had a healthy lead on Gilgeous-Alexander in ESPN’s MVP straw poll, conducted several times over the course of each season by Tim Bontemps.

More than halfway through the 2024-25 campaign, Oklahoma City Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the frontrunner to win MVP.

Less than 24 hours after he set a new career-high of 54 points in a win, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was named an NBA All-Star starter for a second consecutive year.

This stretch of January around Martin Luther King Jr. Day is usually peak evaluation time in the NBA front-office world. It’s one of the milestone points where teams will have full-staff pow-wows and talk things out,

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 33 points and the NBA-leading Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Portland Trail Blazers 118-108 on Sunday night. Jalen Williams added 24 points and eight assists, and Isaiah Hartenstein had 14 points and 11 rebounds to help the Thunder rebound from a home loss to Dallas on Thursday night.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has his 27th 30 point game of the season. Most 30 point games in the NBA. SGA has scored 30+ in 61.4% of his games.Source: Twitter @BrandonRahbar