Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has built a defensive résumé that deserves a lot more attention than it gets.
The Thunder guard keeps getting lumped into conversations about scoring and MVP-level offense, but the numbers on the other end tell a different story. Last season, he posted a 105.2 defensive rating and finished second in the league in defensive win shares at 0.179. Even with that kind of production, he still isn’t really treated like one of the NBA’s top 25 defenders.
Now he has a chance to add a notable milestone to that overlooked body of work. Heading into the 2026-27 season, Gilgeous-Alexander is 18 blocks away from passing John Wall for the most blocks by a point guard in NBA history.
He already has 422 blocks in eight seasons, and his career pace makes the mark look well within reach. He averages about 53 blocks a year, and his lowest total came in the plantar fasciitis-shortened 2020-21 season, when he finished with 23. Barring something unusual, that record should fall sometime between now and April.
The funny part is that his offense may be part of why his defense gets overlooked.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s scoring is so explosive that it tends to swallow the rest of his profile. He averaged 31.3 points per game last season while shooting 52.9 percent from the field and 36.8 percent from 3-point range. Those numbers are loud enough to drown out what he’s done defensively, including 488 steals and 917 deflections.
And he hasn’t exactly been doing it alone. The Thunder have put a steady stream of elite defenders around him, from Lu Dort and Jalen Williams to Chet Holmgren and Cason Wallace. Holmgren and Wallace both just finished second and seventh, respectively, in the Defensive Player of the Year race.
That context matters, because it means Gilgeous-Alexander has been surrounded by a lot of defensive firepower. But it doesn’t change the fact that he’s been producing at a high level himself. For whatever reason, his offensive brilliance seems to work against him when people talk about his defense, even though the production says he belongs in the conversation.
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Thunder Suddenly Have A Real Isaiah Hartenstein Dilemma
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What makes the situation tricky is the larger organizational picture, with young bigs Aday Mara and Thomas Sorber part of the equation as the Thunder weigh what comes next. Oklahoma City does not appear eager to disrupt a roster built around defensive versatility, but further moves may be unavoidable depending on how the front office sees the long-term fit and whether it can keep its current core intact while staying on the right side of the cap. [Read more 🡒]