Chet Holmgren's recent Shai Gilgeous-Alexander revelation should shock the rest of the NBA

OKC Thunder cornerback Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has seemingly managed to transform himself from a rising stud in this league into a bona fide superstar in just a few short years.

Since moving to Oklahoma City in the summer of 2019, the Kentucky native has undeniably improved his performance each season.

Now, entering his 26-year-old season, all eyes are on him raising his already high bar even higher given the ballclub's new championship expectations, and based on recent comments from teammate Chet Holmgren, it appears he will Signs of this are showing another level to his game just waiting to be unleashed.

After practice on Tuesday, the Thunder's reigning rookie was asked by beat reporter Joel Lorenzi if he was at all “surprised” by Gilgeous-Alexander's continued development.

In response, Holmgren said he seemed to “admire” it more than he was surprised, praising his Thunder running mate for his newfound strides in the shooting department, particularly from downtown, which he showcased throughout the preseason -Game.

“Success is not linear. There is no guarantee that if you say you want to work on something and work on it, you will actually be good at it. But somehow every summer he says, 'I'm leaving.' “Working on it” and he comes back and hasn't mastered that… Last year he didn't shoot shots like that at all and now he's going to shoot them 10 times in a row in one practice and do nine of them,” Holmgren said of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

While Gilgeous-Alexander is far from being considered a liability offensively from outside the box, he hasn't exactly established himself as a lightning-quick shooter from 3-point land over the course of his six-year pro career.

While he shot a very impressive 41.8 percent from distance all season long, he hit less than 35.0 percent in half the time and has a career conversion rate of just 34.9 percent.

Despite this somewhat lacking skill set, the point guard has still managed to insert himself into the discussion of being considered the best player in the entire league in every sense of the word, and a top-five player at worst.

His resume, which includes two All-Star and All-NBA First Team honors as well as his hard-fought runner-up finish in the MVP conversation last season, only reinforces his claim to such status.

Now, entering his seventh year, it appears that this already established megastar has found a way to improve his game even further, as he is fresh off three preseason bouts in which he hit a whopping 63.6 percent of his 3-pointers. He was able to rack up shots while increasing to nearly four per game.

He achieved this activity in less than 20 minutes of play per night – just imagine the damage he could potentially do to opposing teams with the full workload of a regular season game!

Considering he's currently the favorite to win league MVP without having fully developed his new long-range shooting style, it's exciting to think about how much his chances will increase if he starts to take them let.

For Holmgren, watching SGA evolve is “both inspiring and frustrating,” and he “makes it look easy.”

The ease with which he can strengthen and expand his bag of tricks should absolutely terrify the rest of the league.