OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA – NOVEMBER 26: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander #2 of the Oklahoma City Thunder reacts near the end of the game against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Paycom Center on November 26, 2025 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Photo by William Purnell/Getty Images)
Canadian basketball had another monster NBA season. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander spent the year right in the middle of the MVP conversation, Jamal Murray hit a new level in Denver, Nickeil Alexander-Walker turned into one of the league’s best breakout stories, and both Shaedon Sharpe and Dillon Brooks gave their teams real juice heading into the postseason push. With the regular season wrapped, Canada’s NBA group is heading into April with a mix of title hopes, play-in pressure and a few guys already looking ahead to summer development.
Shai was the standard-bearer again. He finished the regular season averaging 31.1 points, 4.3 rebounds, 6.6 assists and 1.4 steals for a 64-win Thunder team that locked up the No. 1 seed in the West. That’s not just star production, that’s best-player-on-a-title-defender production. He spent most of the season bouncing around the very top of the MVP ladder, and even in the latest update, he was still right there in the top two. What’s next is simple — OKC waits for the play-in dust to settle, then starts its title defense on April 18. As far as awards go, Shai is absolutely in the MVP race again and should be a lock-level All-NBA name.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker had the kind of season that makes people rethink who a player is. He went from being known mostly as a tough, useful rotation guard to a legit featured scorer, putting up 20.8 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.3 steals while shooting 39.9 percent from 3 for Atlanta. More than that, he helped power the Hawks into the East’s No. 6 seed and a first-round matchup with the Knicks after a huge closing run. Award-wise, he has a real Most Improved Player case, and NBA.com has been talking about him that way for weeks. Now the question is whether this regular-season leap carries into a playoff series where his two-way wing play is going to matter a ton.
Jamal Murray quietly put together maybe the best regular season of his career, and that says something for a guy who already owns huge playoff moments. Murray averaged 25.4 points, 4.4 rebounds and 7.1 assists while shooting 48.3 percent from the field and 43.5 percent from deep, all career-best marks. He also made his first All-Star team, which felt overdue. Denver landed the No. 3 seed, so now he heads straight into a first-round rematch with Minnesota. He wasn’t really a centerpiece in the end-of-season MVP or major awards chatter, but the All-Star nod plus a career year still made this a big-time validation season. Now comes the part everyone remembers him for anyway: playoff shot-making.
Shaedon Sharpe’s season felt like another step toward full-on stardom. He scored just over 21 points a night and kept showing why Portland believes he can be one of the faces of its future. The mix is easy to see: vertical pop, self-creation, tough-shot confidence and the ability to flip a game’s energy in a hurry. Health became part of the story late because of a left fibula stress reaction, but he made it back into action for Portland’s regular-season finale, which matters with the Blazers now locked into the No. 8 spot and a play-in game at Phoenix on April 14.
Dillon Brooks was classic Dillon, just with more buckets. In Phoenix, he averaged 20.2 points and 3.6 rebounds, giving the Suns a needed edge on the wing while still bringing the same physical defense and pest energy that has always defined him. He even popped up in Most Improved conversations because of the scoring jump, though his games-played total likely kept him from being a serious finalist. That kind of sums up his season: super valuable, very loud, not always clean. Phoenix finished No. 7 in the West and gets Portland in the 7-vs-8 play-in, so Brooks is about to be right in the middle of a pressure-cooker game where his defense, attitude and shot-making could swing everything.
Beyond those five, the rest of the Canadian group had plenty going on too:
- RJ Barrett gave Toronto 19.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists, and now gets a Cavs series after the Raptors grabbed the East’s No. 5 seed.
- Bennedict Mathurin put up 17.5 points per game and heads into the West play-in with the No. 9 Clippers, where instant offense is going to be his job.
- Andrew Nembhard averaged 16.9 points and 7.7 assists on a rough Indiana team, but his playmaking jump was one of the brighter Canadian developments of the year.
- Andrew Wiggins gave Miami 15.5 points, 4.9 boards and reliable two-way wing minutes, and now the Heat have to survive the East 9-10 play-in path.
- Kyshawn George stuffed the stat sheet for Washington with 14.8 points, 5.1 rebounds and 4.5 assists, which is a real building-block season.
- Zach Edey averaged 13.6 points and 11.1 rebounds in limited games, showing exactly why Memphis still sees major upside in him.
- Will Riley chipped in 10.4 points as a rookie in Washington and looked like another long-term Canadian scoring prospect.
- Olivier-Maxence Prosper gave Memphis 10.0 points on efficient shooting and looked more comfortable with a bigger workload.
- Lu Dort was still the defensive tone-setter in OKC, averaging 8.4 points while remaining in the All-Defense conversation on the league’s top seed.
- Leonard Miller gave Chicago 7.6 points and 3.9 rebounds in a developmental season that should buy him more runway going forward.
- Ryan Nembhard carved out real minutes as an undrafted rookie in Dallas, averaging 5.0 assists and looking like another legit Canadian floor general.
- A.J. Lawson gave Toronto useful depth minutes and knocked down 41.5 percent of his 3s in a small role.
- Dwight Powell stayed in his usual utility-man lane for Dallas, giving the Mavs screens, boards and veteran big depth.
- Kelly Olynyk played a smaller bench role in San Antonio, but he is still the kind of smart frontcourt connector coaches trust.
- Dalano Banton got into just five games with Boston, but his size and playmaking still make him an interesting depth guard.
Taken together, it was another strong year for Canada’s NBA pipeline. There was superstar stuff from SGA, real playoff importance from Murray, Alexander-Walker, Brooks and Sharpe, and enough young talent underneath them to make it feel like this run is nowhere close to slowing down. The next step is the fun part — seeing which of these guys turns a strong regular season into a playoff moment everybody remembers.
