Return to the finals and be crowned the MVP to show your dominance! But Alexander still has fatal flaws?

The Thunder easily defeated the Timberwolves in the fifth game and entered the finals again after 13 years. Alexander can be said to have played a crucial role in the Thunder's return to the finals. So what kind of performance did Alexander perform this season's playoffs? This issue of the column will help you understand through in-depth data analysis.

Alexander struggled a lot in the early stages of the playoffs. His average score and shooting percentage averaged in the first round against the Grizzlies fell into a low point. He was also questioned at that time, but as the playoffs progressed, he gradually adapted to this intensity, which was also the MVP he could win this season's regular season MVP while being crowned the Western Conference Finals.

If Alexander defeats his opponent in the finals and wins the MVP in the finals, he will achieve another player who won MVP+FMVP in a single season after James in 2013, and this achievement is strong, such as Jokic, Curry and Kobe, who have not achieved it.

Alexander currently averages 29.8 points per game, with shooting percentages of 47.1% and 30% in both games. This average performance has indeed declined compared to his regular season, but in the league, he is at the forefront in terms of scores and shooting percentages. Unlike other super scorers, he led the Thunder to the Finals for the first time since 2012. The data may lie but the record will not.

Thunder can play excellent results, while Alexander's positive effect is very obvious. His net efficiency when he is on the court is 13.8, which means that when Alexander is on the court, the Thunder can beat his opponent by 13.8 points per 100 rounds. This net efficiency on the court is ranked first among the core main players of each team who averages more than 30 minutes per game in the league playoffs.

This means that in terms of positive roles on the field, no major player can match him in the playoffs. So what exactly does Alexander have such an exaggerated presence?

In the Thunder team, Alexander averaged the most points per game, but he also ranked first among the 7 main players of the Thunder. Scoring and assists at the same time meant that in the Thunder's offensive system, he was actually a big core-type playing style with the ball. The big core-type playing means that a player is responsible for both scoring and assisting at the same time, and it takes a long time to hold the ball and dribble to find opportunities for scoring or assisting.

Generally speaking, players with a ball-holding and large-core style will also make more mistakes while scoring and assisting coexist. For example, players such as Cunningham, Doncic, Jokic, Antetokounmpo, etc. are all because the ball-holding and large-core is equivalent to launching most of the team's offenses, but Alexander controls the mistakes very well while scoring and assisting coexisting. He averages 2.3 turnovers per game in the playoffs, and Alexander is an excellent level in making fewer mistakes.

At the same time, Alexander still has extremely strong finishing ability in all areas within the three-point line, both in the basket and in the non-basketball three-second zone and mid-range. The only flaw is that the three-point shooting percentage can only be considered passing, but because the offense in the three-point line is too strong, it can also make up for this flaw. Although Alexander's three-point shooting percentage is low, it is not impossible to shoot:

Alexander's three-point shooting percentage is 0 when he does not dribble, dribble and hold the ball in 2 seconds is 0, but after dribbling more than 7 times and holding the ball for more than 6 seconds, the three-point shooting percentage is as high as 44.4% and 47.1%. Therefore, Alexander is just not good at taking the ball and taking the ball directly or simply adjusting the shot. If he dribbles with the ball multiple times and finds the shooting rhythm, his three-point shooting percentage is still excellent.

In fact, Alexander is the same in the three-point line. He can only have the highest shooting rate if he dribbles more than 7 times and holds the ball for more than 6 seconds. He is a player who needs to hold the ball for a long time to have a higher shooting rate. Therefore, for Alexander, holding the ball and playing singles is not the team's need, but he must attack in this way to ensure success rate, which may limit Alexander's upper limit.

But in the playoffs this season, he has dominated the West by relying solely on ball-holding offense, which is why he has extremely high net efficiency. However, as a team as the core of offense, it is naturally unquestionable that he must be able to attack with the ball, but in some special circumstances, he also needs to undertake off-ball tasks. For example, when facing super strong individual defense or singles failure with the ball, even the core of offense requires off-ball shooting and empty cut scores.

Alexander did a very good job in the regular season, but he almost completely lost his off-ball shooting ability in the playoffs, which is also a key factor in the sharp drop in Alexander's playoff shooting percentage compared to the regular season.