Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the best player on the Oklahoma City Thunder and arguably the best in the entire league. That's not a controversial take - it's just the baseline. OKC's record with the reigning MVP this season is 40-11. Without him, 7-4. His offensive rating (121.4), defensive rating (105.4), and net rating (15.6) all outperform his team's overall stats (117.2, 106.1, 11.1). The numbers don't lie.

And yet, there's one area where Gilgeous-Alexander doesn't necessarily lead the defending champions - offensive aesthetics.

To be clear: Shai himself is a strikingly beautiful player to watch, setting aside the eternal debate about foul-drawing. But without him, the ball seems to move more fluidly. Take the play in the video below - handoff into another handoff, a swing pass, a step-up ball screen, and a mid-range jumper. This kind of action showed up repeatedly in the games OKC played without SGA due to injury.

The point isn't that Shai hurts the offense. The point is that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is such a phenomenal offensive weapon that he doesn't need much help to score. Good spacing, maybe a ball screen - primarily to hunt a weaker defender on a switch - and that's about it. Sometimes it's less pretty. But it works. If the defense collapses on him, he'll find the open man. It's OKC's most efficient offensive weapon, and Mark Daigneault deploys it masterfully.

Even Phil Jackson's triangle offense took a back seat in the critical minutes of close games, giving way to isolation ball for Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant. In Shai's playbook - as you'll see in the video - it's ball screens, isolations, or ball screens that lead to isolations. Sometimes, a decoy to occupy the defense. Simple and direct. Shai's talent does the rest.