{"id":56480,"date":"2023-10-12T06:00:27","date_gmt":"2023-10-12T10:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=56480"},"modified":"2023-10-11T21:22:20","modified_gmt":"2023-10-12T01:22:20","slug":"top-25-nba-players-2023-24-no-12-shai-gilgeous-alexander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/10\/12\/top-25-nba-players-2023-24-no-12-shai-gilgeous-alexander\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 25 NBA Players 2023-24: No 12 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Further diving into our top 25 player <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/10\/09\/top-25-nba-players-2023-24-no-13-damian-lillard\/\" target=\"_self\">rankings<\/a>, this article features <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gilgesh01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a><\/strong>. He is an incredibly gifted young talent, quickly rising the ranks and establishing himself as a superstar-level player. At 25 years old, Gilgeous-Alexander has a surprising amount of experience and now looks to lead the Oklahoma Thunder to high heights this season.<\/p>\n<h2>Top 25 NBA Players 2023-24: No 12 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/h2>\n<h3>Shai Gilgeous-Alexander:\u00a0A Rising Superstar<\/h3>\n<p>Since entering the league in 2018, Gilgeous-Alexander has made an all-around impact and contributed to winning. He is an elite scorer and shot-creator, especially at the rim. He is also one of the league&#8217;s most gifted isolation scorers. This elite scoring ability has helped him become one of the league&#8217;s best players. At six-foot-six, Gilgeous-Alexander is an ideal combo guard and has tons of offensive versatility as a result.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, he is a capable playmaker and connective piece. He has long been considered a talented young player and franchise cornerstone for OKC. However, last year established Gilgeous-Alexander as a rising superstar with MVP <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/07\/23\/early-2023-24-nba-mvp-favorites\/\" target=\"_self\">upside<\/a>. No player made a bigger jump in the rankings from last year than Shai.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Scoring Breakdown: A Closer Look at His Most Effective Moves\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gNFTSnMZcas?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Season Recap<\/h3>\n<p>Last season was a breakout year for Gilgeous-Alexander. In his fifth season, he averaged a career-high 31 PPG and led the Thunder to a surprising 40-42 record. Going into last year, Oklahoma City was projected to be at the bottom of the West again, especially with the loss of 2022 second-overall pick <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/holmgch01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-10-11_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chet Holmgren<\/a><\/strong>. However, the Thunder exceeded expectations due to Gilgeous-Alexander&#8217;s greatness, key contributions from other young players, and great coaching. The team finished with a winning record and was just a game away from making the playoffs. As a result of this breakout season and increased team success, Gilgeous-Alexander was named to the All-NBA First Team. He also finished second in the Most Improved Player race.<\/p>\n<h3>Season Outlook<\/h3>\n<p>After a successful season last year and the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/07\/05\/grading-return-chet-holmgren\/\" target=\"_self\">return<\/a> of Holmgren<strong>,<\/strong> the expectations are sky-high for the Thunder. Many people <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/10\/05\/nba-northwest-division-over-under-win\/\" target=\"_self\">anticipate<\/a> OKC to make a playoff jump in large part due to Gilgeous-Alexander&#8217;s excellence. Furthermore, the Thunder drafted <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wallaca01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cason Wallace<\/a> <\/strong>with the 10th overall pick. Wallace projects to be a high-level two-way guard and fits like a glove next to Gilgeous-Alexander. The Thunder\u2019s combination of elite young talent and a rising superstar feels like a winning recipe for a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/08\/24\/2023-24-nba-power-rankings-offseason-edition-no-14-oklahoma-city-thunder\/\" target=\"_self\">playoff<\/a> team.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, young teams have had tons of regular-season success in recent years, and the Thunder could follow this trend. Similarly, many people are expecting Gilgeous-Alexander to make another jump in play and become a consensus top 10 player. A jump in the standings and Gilgeous-Alexander rising in the rankings would go hand in hand.<\/p>\n<h3>The Last Word<\/h3>\n<p>As of now, Gilgeous-Alexander is on the brink of being a top-10 player. However, if the Thunder can make another jump, he will likely secure a spot in the top 10. Furthermore, Shai has plenty of upside and is just entering his prime. It&#8217;s safe to predict that he will be one of the league&#8217;s best players for the foreseeable future. Ultimately, with an incredibly talented roster, he and the Thunder are poised to be a massive threat in the West for years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Further diving into our top 25 player rankings, this article features Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He is an incredibly gifted young talent, quickly rising the ranks and establishing himself as a superstar-level player. At 25 years old, Gilgeous-Alexander has a surprising amount of experience and now looks to lead the Oklahoma Thunder to high heights this season. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4779,"featured_media":56550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1608,2,22],"tags":[4945,5031,1489],"class_list":["post-56480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-basketball","category-featured","category-thunder","tag-2023-2024-season","tag-nba-player-rankings","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander"],"modified_by":"Kayla Fonte","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4779"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}