Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic has accumulated plenty of attention as an early MVP candidate in the 2020-21 season. However, Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is flying under the radar as a young player who's having a significant impact, as evidenced by some of his stats compared to Doncic.
The two players entered the league back in 2018. Doncic was taken third by the Atlanta Hawks and then traded to the Dallas Mavericks, while SGA was selected 11th by the Charlotte Hornets and traded to the Los Angeles Clippers. Gilgeous-Alexander went to the Thunder in the Paul George trade.
While Doncic has received a ton of hype, don't sleep on SGA. As noted by Brandon Rahbar of Daily Thunder, Gilgeous-Alexander has a better shooting percentage both from the field and 3-point area for this season and for their careers. The 22-year-old Canadian is currently shooting 51.5% from the field and 37.2% from 3 in 20 appearances this season. In comparison, Doncic is shooting 46.2% from the field and 31.7% from beyond the arc through 23 games played.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is also holding a better career percentage from the two areas as compared to Doncic. He's shooting 47.9% from the field and 35.7% from 3 in his first three seasons in the league. Meanwhile, Doncic is shooting 44.8% from the field and 32.1% from 3-land in the same span.
In addition, Gilgeous-Alexander's Thunder squad is holding a 10-12 record for the 13th spot in the Western Conference. On the other hand, Doncic and the Mavericks are trailing behind with a 10-14 tally for the 14th spot in the same conference.
In the first two seasons of their career, Gilgeous-Alexander's teams (Clippers, Thunder) went a combined 92-62. Doncic's Mavs went 76-81 in his first two seasons. There's obviously a lot of factors that go into this, but SGA has helped contribute to winning.
There's no denying that Luka Doncic is special, and his burden is much larger than that of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Doncic is undoubtedly the better player and bigger star. However, the numbers have shown that SGA is also an incredible talent who will make an impact for a long time.
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