Tuesday, it was officially announced that OKC Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was anointed the 2026 Clutch Player of the Year. With 484 total points, it goes without saying that he ran away with the honor, with the second-place Jamal Murray collecting just 117.
Though CPOY is certainly a noteworthy award and is a moniker that deserves to be celebrated, in many ways, this accolade should more so be seen as the ultimate solidification of Shai being on his way toward becoming the league's 14 back-to-back MVP recipient.
Arguably the biggest talking point against Shai's candidacy for this year's Michael Jordan Trophy is the fact that his supporting cast is otherworldly strong, which, to many, only makes his job of producing on the hardwood that much easier.
While it's certainly true that this Thunder team is incredibly deep, something that was further highlighted in Sunday's Game 1 win over the Suns, Gilgeous-Alexander is unequivocally the top player on this top-ranked ball club and, as made evident by his CPOY win, has been the one to step up when they've needed him most.
Shai led the entire league in both clutch points per game and total clutch points recorded during the regular season with 6.5 and 175, respectively, and sported a ridiculous true shooting percentage of 66.8 under these circumstances.
Most important of all, however, is that in these moments, the Thunder found themselves pulling out victorious 70.6 percent of the time, the second-best in the association.
All things considered, not only is SGA viewed as the best player on the best team, but, with these metrics in mind, he's also by far their most valuable.
Hopefully this line of thought is shared by those casting votes for MVP.
Thunder star on a quest to continue making NBA history
This past year has been one filled with historic feats accomplished by the Thunder cornerstone.
From breaking Wilt Chamberlain's consecutive 20-point scoring record and surpassing Kareem for the most consecutive games scoring at least 20 points and shooting above 50.0 percent from the floor, to, most meaningful of all, bringing the first Larry O'Brien Trophy out to the Sooner State at the end of the 2024-25 season, his list of historic firsts has grown to be quite extensive.
Now, with CPOY officially in his possession, there's one more he could come across.
Should he go on to win the prestigious Most Valuable Player award, Gilgeous-Alexander will have become the only player in history to come home with both honors in the same season.
Considering he's currently the odds-on favorite to be crowned MVP behind stellar averages of 31.1 points, 6.6 assists, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.4 steals on 55.3 percent shooting from the floor and 38.6 percent shooting from deep while spearheading the charge for the Thunder's league-best 64-18 record, fans should be expecting this feat to ultimately come to fruition.
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