Yahoo Sports senior NBA analyst Kevin O’Connor is joined by NBA contributing writer Tom Haberstroh to discuss the Thunder point guard’s chances of winning the league’s individual award. Hear the full conversation on “The Kevin O’Connor Show” and subscribe on , , or wherever you listen.

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My first prediction for 2025 is Shay Gilvis Alexander wins his first MVP right now averaging 30 points per game, 6 assists, 5.5 rebounds.

Look, I know Jokic has better volume numbers.

I know the argument for Giannis, but with SGA at some point, the winning has to matter when SGA also has the numbers as well.

The Thunder are + 16.7 when SGA is on the floor, they are a -0.2 when he’s off.

The elite defense, 7th in steals per game, tied for the lead league in blocks for guards.

So he’s my pick for MVP right now and my prediction is that he’ll win it.

Yeah, uh, I’m with you on this one.

When you look at the plus minus for the individual players this year, it’s astounding where SGA is.

SGA has a plus minus as of this recording at +386.

No other player is within 100 of that.

No, no one, there’s no one.

And so what you’re looking at is a guy who’s not just an elite in the plus minus call meaning when he’s on the floor, they’re just destroying opponents, but you also don’t see another guy on OKC’s roster that is propelling those numbers.

J Dub is the closest thing to becoming an All-Star this year on the roster, and even then he’s a borderline candidate.

And the only guy on OKC that is even within like a whisper of SGA in that column is Lou Dort at +218.

He’s at +386.

I mean, it’s insane.

SGA like you pointed out, is the spearheading of that defense, that ferocious.

Defense that creates so many turnovers and you watch what Anthony Edwards said after they just destroyed him the other night.

He, he’s like, dude, SGA is my MVP and he, that, you know why he felt like that?

Because SGA was doing both ends of the floor where Anthony Edwards looks so gassed.

Like he, by the end of that game, he was just like shaking his head like this team, this defense is insane and SGA kept coming at him.

It was great.

I know the argument against SGA is that, well, he has better teammates than the other.

He has better teammates than Giannis and like, yeah, but also Chet Holmgren’s out.

Isaiah Harenstein missed the start of the season, and I, and they are nothing.

They’re an average or below average team without SGA and his team is on a near 70 win pace that has to count for something when the stats are all great for Jokic, for Giannis, and for SGA.

To me, that team success and the defensive success is one of the separators for SGA.

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