Preface
Although the outside world has always said that the NBA is not as enjoyable as before, and the quality of stars has been declining, in fact, in recent years, the league has still produced many very strong stars. Like Brother Alphabet, Jokic, Embiid, these are stars of the Mesozoic Generation, they have also achieved success in recent seasons, especially Brother Alphabet and Jokic have become one of the few superstars in history who can have MVP+FMVP at the same time, and Embiid, although his playoff performance in the past few years is average, his technical characteristics are also quite unique in the history of the NBA, and so far this season he has played an average of 35+10+5 terrifying data per game.
In addition to these Mesozoic generations, there are also many young people in the league who have performed very well in recent seasons, such as Doncic of the Mavericks and Tatum of the Celtics, these two are the leaders of the younger generation. Doncic has been selected for four consecutive seasons, and he has basically been in the top five MVP positions all year round, and under his leadership, the Mavericks also reached the Western Conference Finals in 2022, and now at the age of 24, he can still average 32.7 points, 8.4 rebounds and 9.1 assists per game this season.
Tatum's words, although his personal honors are slightly inferior to Doncic, he has also been selected to the best team for two consecutive years, the most important thing is that Tatum has led the Celtics to the division finals many times, including in 2022 They also reached the Finals, when they were only two wins away from winning the 18th championship trophy in team history, but after all, Tatum was still very young at that time, so in the end he also lost in experience, but among the young players in the same period, no one can lead the team to play like Tatum He has。
However, the star we mentioned next, he is not a "chosen son" like Doncic and Tatum, he was not selected until the 11th pick in the first round when he participated in the draft, although this pick is not low, but it is still much worse than the top three picks. After entering the league, he was not a core in the team in his rookie season, until a trade in 2019 completely changed his career, and this star was none other than Alexander, the current hottest Thunder star in the league.
After being traded to the Thunder, Alexander was quickly established as the core of the team, and he did not disappoint the Thunder, his individual strength is getting stronger and stronger, but not many fans will pay attention to his performance before last season, let alone compare him to Doncic and Tatum. Last season's Alexander can be said to have directly broken people's perception of him, and his explosion can be said to be too sudden in the eyes of the outside world, he went from a player who was never selected to the All-Star and All-Star team to a top superstar who can average 31.4 points, 4.8 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.6 steals per game, and finally he was successfully selected as an All-Star and the best team, which also makes him eligible to compare with other young stars.
However, there are many people who are popular, and after Alexander's rise, there are also many doubts, some people think that he didn't even make the playoffs and shouldn't be selected for the best team, let alone compare him with Doncic and Tatum, who have proven themselves on the playoff stage many times, and it is unknown whether his performance last season can be sustained.
But Alexander's performance this season can be said to be another boost for himself, and his form has not only not declined so far, but he has even improved compared to last season. This season, Alexander averaged 30.7 points, 5.8 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 2.8 steals per game, shooting 53.4% from the field.
In addition to his individual offense, Alexander's organization and defense have been more eye-catching this season, and he has averaged a career-high 6.3 assists per game so far, although it is not much higher than last season, but for a score-oriented two-way guard, he can continue to improve in this area. On the defensive end, Alexander's average of 2.8 steals per game is also a career high, and this data is also firmly in the first place in the league, the second-ranked Mitchell averages 1.8 steals per game, and the gap between the two is also quite obvious, it is worth mentioning that Alexander's average of 2.9 steals per game in the past two seasons combined, only 0.1 more than this season.
Thanks to Alexander's improvement on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, coupled with the gradual alignment of the team's personnel, the Thunder's record this season has also improved visibly. Under the leadership of Alexander, the Thunder currently have an 18-8 record in the second place in the West, and the team's offensive and defensive performances are very balanced, their offensive efficiency is 118 seventh in the league, and defensive efficiency is 110.2 and third in the league.
Considering Alexander's gorgeous data and good team results, in the past NBA official MVP rankings, Alexander beat Doncic, who averaged 32+8+9 per game (Mavericks' record is sixth in the West), and Tatum, who averaged 26.8+8+4 per game (Celtics' record is first in the East), ranked fourth in the league.
Just look at this season, Alexander's limelight has faintly overshadowed Doncic and Tatum, which is also an opportunity for him to make a name for himself, compared to these two, Alexander's most important thing is to prove himself in the playoffs, after all, he has only played in the playoffs twice, and he is not in peak condition in these two playoffs. If Alexander can lead the Thunder to the playoffs this season and reach the Western Conference Semifinals, or even the Western Conference Finals, he has every chance of becoming a leader among the younger generation.