NBA Playoff MVP rankings: With Game 7 to go, who is No. 1 — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Tyrese Haliburton?

Yahoo

3 hours ago

We have not yet reached the end of the road for the 2025 NBA Finals, but we are jumping the gun, because this is supposed to be fun: Let us determine the MVPs of this year's playoffs before Game 7.
If you have been following along, or even if you have not (shame on you), we also chronicled the Playoff MVPs at every step of the way — around the end of the first round, second round and conference finals.
1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder
Following a 31-point performance in Game 5 of the 2025 NBA Finals, Gilgeous-Alexander became the fourth player ever to score 30 or more points in at least 15 games of a single postseason, joining Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon. He downplayed the accomplishment in the aftermath, suggesting that, if you put enough qualifiers around a statistic, you can bend it to make any argument.
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"It's just like the rest of the other [statistics]," he said. "It's like a stat, but it's narrowed into three different specific details. It's cool, I guess. Focused on one thing, and that's winning one more game."
That "one more game" is now a do-or-die Game 7 on Sunday.
(Hassan Ahmad/Yahoo Sports Illustration)
Gilgeous-Alexander has averaged 30 points (on 47/30/87 shooting splits), 6.3 assists, 5.4 rebounds and 2.5 combined blocks and steals per game in the playoffs. What, then, is at stake for him in Game 7?
We could narrow our search on Stathead to find the only players ever to average a 30-5-6 en route to a title, and we would find Jordan (twice) and Nikola Jokić in the 2022-23 campaign. That is the whole list.
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Based on SGA's logic, though, there are too many qualifiers around that company. So let's broaden our scope. How many players in NBA history have even averaged 30 points per game on a championship run?
Ten. That is it. And it is an extraordinary list: Jokić, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kawhi Leonard, LeBron James, Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal (twice), Jordan (six times), Olajuwon, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and George Mikan (twice). This is the company Gilgeous-Alexander could keep, no additional qualifiers necessary.
2. Tyrese Haliburton, Indiana Pacers
In Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals, Haliburton amassed 32 points, 15 assists, 12 rebounds and zero turnovers in a 130-121 win, all but clinching Indiana's first berth in the NBA Finals since 2000. He has not been able to replicate any of those numbers since, but it was the prime example of what Haliburton has done all playoffs, controlling games by prodding the defense, seeing the floor and protecting the ball.
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And he was even better throughout the playoffs in the clutch, sinking a game-winner in each series, including a 22-footer with 0.3 seconds remaining in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Nobody expected the Pacers to be on this stage, and yet Haliburton has proved both he and they belong among the NBA elite.
Whenever you are receiving favorable comparisons to Steve Nash, Chris Paul and Magic Johnson on a playoff run, it says good things about your ability to steer a team without your scoring. It is not that he cannot score in bunches; it is that he is more concerned with making everyone around him better. Which he has done, so much so that he has forced us to rethink what we figured possible for the Pacers' future.
3. Jalen Williams, Oklahoma City Thunder
Scottie Pippen may not have been the best No. 2 option ever, but he is the first one who springs to mind. He is the quintessential complement to a superstar. In fact, any time a team develops its No. 1 option, we ask: But who is his Pippen? When you become somebody's Pippen, you have made it as a second option.
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Well, consider what Pippen averaged across his six championship runs, alongside Jordan, on the 1990s Chicago Bulls: 19.2 points (44/29/73), 7.9 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 3 combined blocks and steals a game.
Now consider what Williams has averaged in these playoffs: 21.5 points (46/31/80), 5.6 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 1.8 combined blocks and steals.
The only second options to average a 20-5-5 on a title run: Bob Cousy, Hal Greer, John Havlicek, Walt Frazier, Pippen, Clyde Drexler, Bryant, Stephen Curry (as Kevin Durant's co-star in 2017 and 2018), Khris Middleton and Jamal Murray. Essentially the best No. 2s ever.
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And Williams is just 24 years old, a year younger than Pippen was when he first won a championship.
It is far too early to anoint Williams as the next Pippen, for he is still six rings behind, but if the Thunder can complete their quest for one championship, we should at the very least accept him as SGA's Pippen.
4. Pascal Siakam, Indiana Pacers
I don't know where in the player rankings we had Siakam before the playoffs began, but it wasn't as the second-best player on a championship-caliber team, which is weird, since he was the second-best player on the 2019 champion Toronto Raptors. If we had not already, we now have to accept that you can win a title with a borderline All-NBA player (Siakam received four third-team votes) as your second-best player.
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The Boston Celtics did the same last season, leveraging Jaylen Brown as a No. 2 option, and surrounding their stars with a well-paid and talented supporting cast, rather than the multiple-superstar model that became en vogue earlier last decade, when James joined Dwyane Wade and Durant teamed with Curry.
If you help change the way an entire league fundamentally thinks about team-building, as Siakam has, you probably earned your spot on this list, and there is no doubt that Siakam deserves his spot here.
5. Nikola Jokić, Denver Nuggets
When last we convened, we had Jokić ranked fifth among Playoff MVPs. He has not played again, and nothing has changed. How does that square? Well, in retrospect, Jokić's Denver Nuggets did to the Thunder exactly what the Pacers have, pushing them to a Game 7 in the Western Conference semifinals.
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Considering how shallow the Nuggets were in comparison to the Thunder, and how hobbled Denver was, as Michael Porter Jr. played with one arm and Aaron Gordon played on one leg, the fact that Jokić willed his team to three wins against OKC is nothing short of remarkable. Had he won four against the Thunder and gone on to do what they have done, we would be welcoming Jokić into the pantheon of NBA all-timers.
As it is, even after Gilgeous-Alexander's regular-season MVP campaign and run to Game 7 of the NBA Finals, we still universally accept Jokić as The Best Player Alive because of his effort against the Thunder.
6. Jalen Brunson, New York Knicks
7. Anthony Edwards, Minnesota Timberwolves
8. Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors
9. Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland Cavaliers
10. Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics
Honorable mention: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks; Paolo Banchero, Orlando Magic; Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics; Cade Cunningham, Detroit Pistons; Luka Dončić, Los Angeles Lakers; Aaron Gordon, Denver Nuggets; Chet Holmgren, Oklahoma City Thunder; Kawhi Leonard, Los Angeles Clippers; T.J. McConnell, Indiana Pacers; Evan Mobley, Cleveland Cavaliers; Jamal Murray, Denver Nuggets; Alperen Şengün, Houston Rockets; Julius Randle, Minnesota Timberwolves; Karl-Anthony Towns, New York Knicks.