Fresh off of one of the greatest individuals seasons in NBA history, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has let the world know that he's just getting started. Cliche as that may sound, Gilgeous-Alexander set an ambitious standard for himself in the opening moments of the new season of Netflix's Starting 5.
The Oklahoma City Thunder superstar boldly proclaimed that scoring 30 points isn't just a minimum standard for him, but his new definition of a bad game.
Gilgeous-Alexander won just about everything he could during the 2024-25 season. He took home the regular season and Finals MVP awards, secured his first career championship, and even walked away with the scoring title.
During the first episode of the second season of Netflix's Starting 5, Gilgeous-Alexander made the type of claim that a vast majority of scorers could only dream of saying with a straight face when he said that a 30-point game is a bad night for him.
"Like, there was a point where I got 30 and I thought it was a good game. Now if I have 30 it's a bad game...If I have 30, it's below my average."
Preposterous as that may sound, Gilgeous-Alexander is on the shortlist of players who can actually statistically back a claim of that nature up.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander says a 30-point game is a bad night for him
Gilgeous-Alexander has averaged at least 30.1 points per game in each of the past three seasons—shooting at a clip of .522/.362/.893 along the way. That includes the 31.4 points per contest he averaged in 2022-23 and the 32.7 he won the scoring title with in 2024-25.
With this in mind, Gilgeous-Alexander is at least factually correct in stating that a 30-point game is below his scoring average—by anywhere between 0.1 and 2.7 points per contest.
It's also worth noting that Gilgeous-Alexander scored at least 30 points in 49 of his 76 appearances in 2024-25—equating to a 64.5 percent success rate. That includes four outings during which he dropped at least 50 and a mind-blowing 13 in which he reached 40.
Of those 49 games, he scored exactly 30 points just three times—each time playing fewer than 30 minutes in a lopsided Thunder win.
If that's not enough to sell you on Gilgeous-Alexander's scoring ability, the value of his contributions may very well do the trick. Oklahoma City went 42-7 when he scored at least 30 points, which clearly illustrates how dominant the team is when he's on his game.
With a scoring title and three 30-point seasons already on his résumé, Gilgeous-Alexander can comfortably set his own standard, regardless of what others might think.
Clearly, Oklahoma City doesn't always need Gilgeous-Alexander to score more than 30 points for victory to be achieved. They play through his scoring as a primary method of operation on offense, however, and will continue to trust him to step up in key spots as they attempt to defend the title.
For the rest of the NBA, all they can do is hope they can hold Gilgeous-Alexander to his definition of a bad game—an unlikely outcome that would still result in him dropping 30.