Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic Rank Atop NBA Guards

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is one of the best NBA players in today's landscape. He's been with the Oklahoma City Thunder since the beginning of the rebuild, taking a leap each season to develop into an MVP candidate for the third season running.

The NBA season is nearly back, as the preseason is underway and teams are back on the hardwood. With this, the NBA general manager survey was released ahead of the season, which fielded nearly every topic surrounding the league.

According to the general managers across the league, Gilgeous-Alexander is currently the second-best point guard in the NBA. With 30 general managers in the league, 37 percent of them dubbed Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic as the best point guard in the NBA. Gilgeous-Alexander garnered 30 percent of those votes.

The two have had very polarizing careers, but all is mounting for them to have a personal rivalry. Both being MVP finalists a season ago -- though Nikola Jokic won the award -- it's easy to pit the two against each other as the top guards in the league.

Doncic, since he's entered the league, has been the focal point of the franchise. They've built entirely around him, and they play a helicentric style of offense through him. The Slovenian superstar, naturally, has accrued video game-like numbers in that role -- as James Harden did for the Houston Rocekts in his prime.

Gilgeous-Alexander, on the other hand, plays seamlessly into the Thunder's style of play, which involves all five players on the court actively. He's also a rounded player, given his status as a stout two-way player. On top of putting up some of the best offensive averages in the NBA, he makes a winning effort and impact on the defensive side of the ball.

The Thunder superstar and Kentucky product has had a slow climb and natural growth to becoming one of the league's best players, whereas Doncic was a top-five pick and has been the No. 1 option on his team since then.

With the two both entering the league in the 2018 NBA Draft class, expect Gilgeous-Alexander and Doncic to continue being pitted against each other and another NBA playoffs battle would really spark a rivalry.