During the Oklahoma City Thunder 's playoff battle against the Dallas Mavericks, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander admitted they needed to "turn that water off" with PJ Washington's scoring and outside shooting. The role player morphed into a superstar against OKC.

On the door step of being named an NBA All-Star Starter for the second time in his career, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander pulled off another milestone feat during the

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.