Oklahoma City’s 8-2 start has come with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander doing the heavy lifting, and one part of his game has jumped out early: the 3-point shot.
The Thunder picked up their fourth straight win Saturday night, and Gilgeous-Alexander delivered another 30-point performance while keeping the team rolling. With back-to-back MVPs already on his résumé, he’s making a real early push to join the small group of players who have won the award three years in a row.
That kind of buzz is only growing because of the situation around him. Oklahoma City has been dealing with injuries, and Gilgeous-Alexander’s path to another MVP is pretty straightforward: keep the Thunder near the top of the Western Conference and the votes should follow. The award may not be his main objective, but it would be a fitting bonus to what’s shaping up as another huge season.
What’s especially interesting is how he’s handling the workload. Through 10 games, Gilgeous-Alexander is putting up a career-high 23.2 shot attempts per game, and that’s paired with a career-best 6.9 tries from 3-point range. His 3-point attempt rate is sitting at 29.7%, well above the 22.6% mark he posted last season, which shows the extra volume isn’t just a side effect of shooting more overall.
And he’s making those looks count. Gilgeous-Alexander is hitting 39.1% of his threes, the second-best rate of his career. That’s a small step up from last season’s 38.6%, but it matters because it reflects how much steadier that part of his game has become.
There’s always the chance those numbers settle down over the next 72 games, but what he’s done so far is hard to ignore. More threes, made at a strong clip, should also help take some wear off his body by reducing how often he has to attack the rim and absorb contact.
Either way, Gilgeous-Alexander has already established himself as one of the most complete scorers the league has ever seen, and this early 3-point surge looks like another layer of that evolution. If his recent track record is any guide, this isn’t just a hot start from deep - it’s a weapon that may stick.
In Other News...
Thunder Still Face One Hurdle In The All-Star Host Race
With the NBA closing in on Miami as the 2028 All-Star Game host, the leagues next round of bidding is already drawing attention from cities that have been waiting a long time for another turn. Boston, Detroit, Portland and Oklahoma City all fit into that conversation for different reasons, with each market carrying some combination of history, recent upgrades and the kind of arena-and-event logistics the league weighs when it sorts through future weekends.
For Oklahoma City, the interest is obvious. The city has built a strong case as a basketball market, and its place in the All-Star discussion reflects how much the Thunder and the downtown arena have changed the leagues view of the market over time. Still, the path is not simple, and the final decision will depend on more than just enthusiasm or past success. Several factors can tilt the process one way or another, and the Thunders push to land a future All-Star weekend is still working through one important hurdle. [Read more 🡒]
Thunder Hot Start Sets Up A Bigger Western Conference Test
After working through the early injury issues, the Thunder have steadied themselves quickly and now sit at 8-2, right where a contender wants to be in the opening stretch of the season. It has been enough to keep Oklahoma City in the mix near the top of the Western Conference, with the Lakers and Spurs also off to strong starts and making the race feel crowded already.
For the Thunder, the bigger picture still points beyond the first few weeks. Their playoff positioning figures to keep shifting as the season settles in, and the roster should look different again once Chet Holmgren is back in the fold. Until then, Oklahoma City is doing what good teams do early: banking wins, staying relevant and giving itself a chance to climb even higher when the West starts to sort itself out. [Read more 🡒]
Nikola Topics Return Comes With One Early Concern For OKC Fans
Nikola Topics return to game action was always going to come with a careful eye on the bigger picture, and Saturdays G League outing offered the first real glimpse of where that process stands. The Thunders affiliate, the OKC Blue, fell 93-76 to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers and slipped to 0-3 in the 2026-27 season, with the offense never finding much rhythm around Topics first-half minutes as he continues working back from offseason back surgery.
The broader concern for Oklahoma City is less about the final score than the way the Blue struggled to create clean looks for long stretches. OKC shot 39% from the field and was ice-cold from deep, a rough backdrop for a player the organization is easing back into action and hoping can steadily regain his feel. For now, the return is underway, but the next step in that ramp-up will matter just as much as the first one. [Read more 🡒]