Warriors' Stephen Curry Groups Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as Future Face of NBA

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has taken the league by storm over the last two seasons. While helping the Oklahoma City Thunder to its turnaround after the rebuild, he finished No. 5 in the Most Valuable Players voting.

At 25-years-old, he's averaging over 30 points per game for the second straight season, is active in the MVP conversation and is an All-Star starter for his second appearance in the game.

Evidently, the Thunder superstar is among the league's best while he's still arguably a couple of years away from his prime. So, with his youth and skill combined, he could be in the conversation to be in the next grouping of the face of the league.

Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry believes Gilgeous-Alexander could be among the next players who are the face of the NBA.

"There's a lot of guys to pick from in this group of 24 that are here. You see Luka, Ant, Shai, guys that are really coming into their prime, and they're highly decorated already as All-Stars and (All-)NBA guys," Curry said on Saturday.

With his MVP-level season so far, Gilgeous-Alexander has led the Thunder to a 37-17 record and No. 2 seed in the Western Conference just a year after going 40-42 and making the Play-In Tournament. What Curry said is very complimentary of Gilgeous-Alexander, and is more proof of the strides he's taken over the last two seasons.

The fun part about Gilgeous-Alexander's talent and youth is that he and the Thunder are still exploring their ceiling on the season. On Saturday, Gilgeous-Alexander was asked about the team's ceiling and what they need to win a championship.

"Usually experience, the teams that have gone through multiple playoff series and multiple guys that have gotten to that level know what it takes to get over the hump and do so. That's something that, honestly, just has to come with us playing in more games. Maybe we give it time. Maybe we don't," Gilgeous-Alexander said.

For Gilgeous-Alexander to be this good already, with more time to improve alongside this team's young core, it's hard to put any parameters on what this current iteration of the Thunder can or can't accomplish, and that's part of what makes this team so much fun to follow.

"But we have no ceiling on what we think we can do this year. We kind of take the same mentality and just stay in the moment, plug away every day. Where we get at the end of the year, whenever the end of our season is, we'll look back and make adjustments and try to figure out then. As of right now, we just try to stay focused on the task at hand," Gilgeous-Alexander continued.

Curry is a four-time NBA Champion and a two-time MVP, so for him to include Gilgeous-Alexander on such a prestigious list is a big compliment. 

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