This past season, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander came astonishingly close to becoming the third OKC Thunder player in the franchise's history to win the NBA's Most Valuable Player award.
From his stellar two-way productivity that saw him average 30.1 points, 6.2 assists, 5.5 rebounds, and 2.0 steals per game on 53.5 percent shooting from the floor to his leadership abilities that, along with his play, helped guide Oklahoma City to the number one seed out West, it's safe to say that, from virtually all angles, his resume proved worthy enough of claiming the league's illustrious moniker.
However, in the end, Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic pulled ahead in the voting turnout, as he collected 79 first-place votes compared to SGA's 15 en route to his third MVP in four years.
To some, these results were viewed as a major upset, with some such as ESPN's Stephen A. Smith calling Gilgeous-Alexander "the clear, unapologetic leader" of the Thunder and the most worthy player to earn such an honor, but, even with these emotions, the only thing that can be done is move on and try to improve for a chance to win it next year.
Now, while this may admittedly be a bit challenging for the 26-year-old to do considering he led the charge for the youngest team in league history to claim the best seed in a conference and posted numbers eerily similar to the likes of Michael Jordan, Bleacher Report's Mo Dakhal believes there's one area, in particular, the superstar guard could improve in to better his odds of winning.
Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander urged to work on long-range game
In his "way too early MVP rankings," the seasoned writer has Shai Gilgeous-Alexander placed number one ahead of other phenomenal studs such as Luka Doncic (No. 2), Giannis Antetokounmpo (No. 3), and, entertainingly enough, Nikola Jokic (No. 5).
However, in his piece, Dakhal admits that it'll certainly be difficult for the Thunder guard to up his production from the season prior, which is why he believes adding a particular attribute to his game "that will get the voter's attention" could be a way for him to finally claim the Michael Jordan Trophy.
In his eyes, that specific area he needs to add is long-range shooting.
"The easiest way to do that is to improve his three-point shooting. He shot a decent 35.3 percent from three last year but if he can get that up to 38 percent, he will turn into a complete three-level scorer that will drive defenses crazy."Mo Dakhal
SGA doin' SGA things 😎#ThunderUp | @okcthunder | @BallySports 📺 pic.twitter.com/nRWCTlGfvd
— Bally Sports Oklahoma (@BallySportsOK) February 5, 2024
Gilgeous-Alexander has proven himself to be elite in virtually every aspect of the game. Scoring, passing, defense, dribbling -- you name it, there's a great chance he can do it, and at a high-level at that.
Long-range shooting, however, is something that the Thunder stud has proven to be somewhat pedestrian at.
Though he may have shot a respectable 35.3 percent from distance this past season on 3.6 attempts per game and has even seen a season average as high as 41.8 percent back in 2020-21, for his career he boasts a sub-par 34.9 percent shooting clip from beyond the arc, which, to put this into perspective, is 1.1 percentage points lower than league average (36.0) since he entered the league back in 2017.
Interestingly enough, dating back to 2004-05, there have only been three guards who have won MVP to not shoot 38 percent or better from distance (Kobe Bryant, Derrick Rose, and Russell Westbrook), which suggests that, in order to up his chances of finally claiming the hardware for himself, an improvement in the long-range game like Dakhal suggested should be seen as a must heading into 2024-25.