After snagging his second MVP title, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander continues to ignite passionate debate following a highly competitive postseason. During a recent guest appearance on the Underground Lounge podcast, former NBA players Lou Williams and Rashad McCants clashed dramatically over whether the back-to-back MVP got “exposed” during the playoffs against the San Antonio Spurs.

McCants, who’s often critical of the Oklahoma City Thunder superstar, questioned SGA’s reliance on foul-drawing mechanics rather than raw field-goal execution.

“I don’t think that SGA does it the way he [Lou Williams] does it,” McCants argued. “I think that SGA looks more for the foul based on, ‘if I don’t foul you, can you still make the shot? If I don’t foul you, are you going to just fall out of bounds?”

Lou Williams’ elite foul-drawing skills made him a 3x Sixth Man of the Year. But he’s also fiercely protective of SGA. He countered that after the 2025-26 season, “I think this is the summer that he proved y’all got him f—-d up.”

When McCants claimed, “I don’t know. I think he got exposed, bro… In the finals. That’s because he didn’t have nothing else to go to,” co-host Spank Horton reminded him that the Thunder guard was playing through an injury and their next best scorer, Jalen Williams was also injured.

Irrespective of Rashad’s argument, Lou shut down the notion that his former teammate has reached his ceiling.

“No, I understand his point, but if my rook is who I think he is, he responds,” Williams asserted, fiercely defending the Thunder cornerstone.

“He evolves. He changes some pieces of his game, and y’all going to have to deal with him. And I’m saying that from a place of I’ve never seen a like in our game. You want your young star to be coachable. You want him to be a worker. You want him to be one of the guys. You want him to be the toughest. You want him to be the smartest. SGA is all of those things.”

Williams’ unwavering defense comes with deep personal context. He mentored Shai since his rookie season with the Los Angeles Clippers before the franchise executed the blockbuster trade for Paul George. Back then, most wouldn’t have seen the Clippers’ lack of foresight becoming OKC’s gain.

But Williams knew the young guard’s potential. Williams shared a locker room story of a young Shai lacing his shoes right back up for extra shooting despite seeing Williams resting with ice on his knees in a foot bath, proving he truly “wants something for himself.”

He recalled asking front office executive Lawrence Frank immediately if Shai was included in the trade package and was left “heartbroken” that SGA was traded.

Williams, who SGA publicly credits for teaching him the art of foul-drawing, is proud that his rookie won consecutive MVPs and a championship. But it’s done little to silence critics after a debatable playoff series against the San Antonio Spurs.

Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs eliminated the 2025 champions in a grueling seven-game Western Conference Finals classic, despite Gilgeous-Alexander dropping a game-high 35 points in the Game 7 loss.

While critics like McCants feel that the Spurs revealed that SGA has offensive limitations, McCants still conceded that the back-to-back MVP remains undeniably “cold” as a pure shot-maker.

McCants compared the criticism to the daily scrutiny Kobe Bryant endured from 2003 to 2010 before capturing back-to-back titles. Even the most hard-headed critic finally relented that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will ultimately use the criticism and the Spurs series to sharpen his elite repertoire for subsequent title runs.