As Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander continues to get MVP praise amidst an impeccable season, people wonder about the mindset of the guard that leads to great results on the court. After the Thunder beat the Memphis Grizzlies led by Gilgeous-Alexander, his teammate Alex Caruso revealed how the star acts and thinks behind the scenes.
Thunder’s Alex Caruso on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s mindset
Appearing on the podcast “The Young Man & The Three,” Caruso spoke about playing alongside the guard as it’s his first season with Oklahoma City. He would express how highly competitive Gilgeous-Alexander is and why he is one of the few superstars in the NBA.
“So coming into this year, I knew that he was going to kind of be ready to go, but like, getting to know him now and knowing how competitive he is,” Caruso said. “Like, I could see the type of season he’s having is like, he has, you know, he might not ever come out and say it publicly, but like the dude competes and he wants to compete every night, and he, like, thinks it’s a blessing to be able to go out there and play basketball every night.”
“And so seeing him in person, and how effortless he makes it look,” Caruso continued. “Like he he’s one of those guys in the league where it’s like, you look up at the end of the third quarter, it’s like, ‘oh s***, he’s got 32, 7, 6, and three steals and a block and so, I mean, I thought he just was having an average game, like, it’s nothing crazy, like it’s not a loud anything it’s just like, routine.’ And that’s when you get into like the superstar category of like, it looks easy, and you’re putting up crazy numbers and and it affects winning, that’s when you get into different categories.”
“He might not ever come out and say it publicly, but the dude competes… He thinks it’s a blessing to go out there and play basketball every night.”
Alex Caruso on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
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— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) March 6, 2025
Thunder’s Alex Caruso on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander being MVP last season
The Thunder MVP candidate has even been praised by Steve Nash among other coaches and players in the league, showing he has the respect of his peers. However, it hasn’t been just this season as Caruso spoke about last year where he thought it was between his current teammate and Luka Doncic for MVP.
“I mean, I thought, in my opinion, I thought him and Luka [Doncic] could have been a coin flip last year,” Caruso said on the show. “Like, obviously, Joker’s Joker, like, it’s hard not to give it to him. Like, he’s one of those guys that’s just going to be there because the numbers look great and he is that good. But I thought, you know, watching him and Luka play last year, I thought one of them, if one of them would have won it last year, I would have been like, ‘yeah, that makes sense.’”
Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 32.8 points, 6.2 assists, and 5.1 rebounds while shooting 52.6 percent from the field and 37.8 percent from deep. Oklahoma City is 51-11 which puts them first in the West as they next take on the Portland Trail Blazers Friday.
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