Thunder guard and reigning Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has added another accolade to his collection.
He has earned the league’s Clutch Player of the Year Award, according to the NBA league office (Twitter link). Gilgeous-Alexander scored a league-leading 175 points on 51.5% shooting from the field in 125.1 clutch minutes played this season. He also led the league with 52 made field goals in the clutch. That’s 52.3 minutes less than Nuggets guard Jamal Murray, who ranked second with 166 points.
Gilgeous-Alexander led the NBA with 16 go-ahead field goals in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime this season, including a game-winning stepback three-pointer versus Denver on March 9. The Thunder posted a 124.5 offensive rating and 23.8 net rating during clutch time, both second best in the NBA. Oklahoma City went 24-10 in clutch games this season.
Per the NBA’s “Clutch” tracking data, Gilgeous-Alexander’s average of 6.5 points in the clutch is the best in the NBA among those who played more than one clutch game, according to The Athletic’s Joel Lorenzi.
Murray and Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards were the other finalists. Gilgeous-Alexander gained 96 of a possible 100 first-place votes from a media panel. Murray edged out Edwards by one vote for second place. Full results can be found here.
This is the fourth season that the league has given out a Clutch Player award. Knicks guard Jalen Brunson won it last season.
OKC is the #1 seed without SGA. He isnt valuable, he isnt clutch, all of his awards are fraudulent. SGA is the gamblers’ choice, period.
You just hate greatness. His clutch numbers were way higher than his peers. Just wait until Shai wins MVP
Of course he will “win” MVP, the big gambling companies are forcing the voters to vote for him, even though OKC is #1 and DEN has 1 good player aside from Joker – which proves he is the true MVP of the league, and has been since 2020. Joker should have 6 MVPs in row right now.
I knew you were a Nuggets fan
I’m a Warriors fan. I am also a Joker fan, because I respect true greatness…so I do not respect SGA. I’ve hated a lot of MVP picks, fwiw – Harden, Russ, Embiid to name a few.
As a Warriors fan, it was infuriating watching the voters openly refuse to vote for KD or Steph, and each one of them should have won the MVP’s Harden+Russ won, because Steph and KD really were the most valuable players, they should have both been named MVP in a tie all 3 years they played together – because that’s what VALUE is.
“Clutch” numbers, but the games are all blowouts, suuurrree…
Not all of them. In the clutch games that did happen he closed out the game not with FTs but shots
Hi – I created an account just to tell you how stupid you are
Comical, how many close games did the thunder even play?
Exactly.
Perhaps this suggests Jokic is winning the mvp.
No.1 foul Hunter.
At best he’s number 3. Luka and Avdija averaged more attempts per game.
Dude can’t shoot