After one of the greatest seasons ever, the Oklahoma City Thunder will enter the 2025-26 regular season as the consensus title favorite. The NBA champion will run it back with mostly the same roster as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren all signed contract extensions this past summer.

Most assume the Thunder will have another dominating campaign similar to last year. Until proven otherwise, the NBA champion should be everybody’s favorite to claim it all again as a rare repeat winner.

Thunder Wire recently simulated the Thunder’s upcoming season in the new NBA 2K26 video game. Thunder fans might not like the final results. Let’s look at how OKC’s campaign played out as it hopes to contend for a championship.

For transparency, injuries and trades were turned off in this simulation. So all 30 NBA teams had the same rosters and rotations available throughout the entire season, with those two variables taken out:

Record and standings

It was another dominating regular season. The Thunder went 60-22 to have back-to-back 60-plus campaigns. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to grab the first seed for the third consecutive season. The Mavericks finished ahead with a 66-16 record.

The Thunder had a pedestrian 29-13 record at home. A little shocking considering they’re known as having one of the best homecourt advantages in the league. They made up for it with a strong 31-9 road record. They had a 37-15 record against the West and finished with an impressive plus-10.5 point differential.

The NBA had three 60-plus-win teams. The other was the Knicks, who also finished with a 60-22 record.

Does SGA win back-to-back MVPs?

Gilgeous-Alexander continues to write his name in the NBA history book. Not only did he win a second MVP award, but he did so in a historically dominant fashion. The 27-year-old averaged 37 points on 59.8% shooting, 7.3 assists and 4.7 rebounds.

You’d say that those are ridiculous video game numbers that aren’t realistic at all, but Gilgeous-Alexander just had one of the most efficient 30-plus point campaigns last season. He’s had three straight superb-efficient 30-plus point years in a row.

Gilgeous-Alexander won another scoring title. He won it by a landslide, too. Anthony Edwards was runner-up with 31 points. Devin Booker and Stephen Curry were the other 30-point scorers this season.

How did Williams and Holmgren do?

Williams and Holmgren rounded out the Thunder’s 20-point scorers to three, which is a rarity in the NBA. The Thunder are banking on their trio to improve and that’s what happened. Albeit without the flashy accolades that usually come with it.

Williams averaged 21.2 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.9 assists. Those are solid numbers that are eerily similar to his breakout season last year. For whatever reason, that wasn’t enough to get the same accolades with an All-Star and All-NBA berth.

Meanwhile, Holmgren had his best season. He averaged 20.3 points, nine rebounds and 2.4 blocks. He turned in his best year from the outside as he shot 37.4% from 3 on 5.9 attempts. That type of volume and efficiency are developments the Thunder will gladly take.

Other Thunder contributions

Funny enough, only one other player averaged double-digit points. It’s somebody most wouldn’t guess. Isaiah Joe averaged 10.1 points. He shot 47.2% from 3 on 4.8 attempts. That would be an unreal year that will surely get him in the All-Star weekend’s 3-point shooting contest.

Isaiah Hartenstein was a monster on the board with 11.5 rebounds and tallied four assists. Those numbers would get him a massive payday in the following offseason. He was a traditional starter throughout the season.

Meanwhile, the rest of the rotation took a step back or didn’t progress as you’d hope. Lu Dort, Aaron Wiggins, Cason Wallace and Alex Caruso didn’t have breakout seasons or keep up their production from last year. Alas, that’s how sports luck goes sometimes, especially for role players.

Award winners

Gilgeous-Alexander brought home the MVP award, but the rest of the Thunder had little to show with their trophies. To a big surprise, nobody else on OKC was named an All-Star. That meant Williams and Holmgren didn’t leap as most expected.

Holmgren did make the All-Defense Second Team, though, which is a plus. That would be his first career nod as he’s struggled to stay healthy in his first three seasons to earn it.

Meanwhile, Gilgeous-Alexander also had a couple of other accolades. He was named the Clutch Player of the Year. That means the Thunder must’ve been in enough close contests down the stretch to create a highlight reel of timely buckets. Something that didn’t really happen last season, as OKC blew teams out left and right.

Of course, Gilgeous-Alexander also made another All-NBA First Team. Luka Doncic, Victor Wembanyama, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic were the other four players who joined him.

Regular season stats

Here are the notable season stats for OKC’s main rotation players:

Gilgeous-Alexander: 37.0 points – 7.3 rebounds – 4.7 assists – 59.8% shooting – 43% 3-point shooting – 88.9% free-throw shooting – 2.3 steals

Williams: 21.2 points – 5.3 rebounds – 4.9 assists – 50.9% shooting – 35.9% 3-point shooting – 81.9% free-throw shooting – 1.7 steals

Holmgren: 20.3 points – 9.0 rebounds – 1.2 assists – 51.7% shooting – 37.4% 3-point shooting – 67.3% free-throw shooting – 2.4 blocks

Dort: 8.4 points – 2.9 rebounds – 1.3 assists – 48.8% shooting – 35.7% 3-point shooting – 76.3% free-throw shooting – 1.2 steals

Caruso: 7.7 points – 3.1 rebounds – 3.3 assists – 41.5% shooting – 28.9% 3-point shooting – 75.6% free-throw shooting – 1.5 steals

Hartenstein: 7.8 points – 11.5 rebounds – 4.0 assists – 56.3% shooting – 0.9% 3-point shooting – 69.3% free-throw shooting – 1.2 blocks

Wiggins: 6.1 points – 2.0 rebounds – 1.0 assists – 51.9% shooting – 40.5% 3-point shooting – 79.5% free-throw shooting

Joe: 10.1 points – 1.9 rebounds – 1.0 assists – 47.3% shooting – 47.2% 3-point shooting – 81.8% free-throw shooting

Wallace: 7.5 points – 2.9 rebounds – 2.0 assists – 48.7% shooting – 35.8% 3-point shooting – 84.9% free-throw shooting – 1.6 steals

Playoff standings

Here are the final standings for the NBA playoffs. The East is pretty realistic. Meanwhile, the West is pure 2K antics:

West:

1. Mavericks (66-16)2. Thunder (60-22)3. Timberwolves (57-25)4. Spurs (53-29)5. Warriors (46-36)6. Rockets (45-37)7. Clippers (44-38)8. Trail Blazers (43-39)9. Suns (42-40)10. Kings (40-42)

East:

1. Knicks (60-22)2. Cavaliers (59-23)3. Hawks (51-31)4. Pistons (46-36)5. Pacers (45-37)6. Celtics (43-39)7. 76ers (37-45)8. Raptors (36-46)9. Bulls (36-46)10. Bucks (34-48)How do the Thunder perform in the 2026 NBA playoffs?

You don’t want to know. The second-seed Thunder were handed the biggest upset of the playoffs when they lost to the seventh-seed Clippers in five games. Just an ugly result that will surely upset the fanbase after being in the honeymoon stage for most of the year.

It will also poetically sting, as Clippers fans get a chance to run online victory laps for the upset. It’s one thing to lose a playoff series, but for the Thunder to get embarrassed like this by an older squad whose best players in 2025 are Kawhi Leonard and James Harden would sting extra.

Thankfully, this is NBA 2K26. It’s a video game with a video game ending. Doesn’t make it any less annoying for Thunder fans to know this is how their back-to-back title aspirations end, though.

Rest of the NBA playoffs

Like I said, video games are video games for a reason. The Mavericks tied a nice knot to a doomsday scenario season for the Thunder with an NBA championship. A season after they traded away Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis led Dallas to the Larry O’Brien trophy.

Cooper Flagg had one of the greatest rookie seasons ever. He won the Rookie of the Year award and was the third-best player on an NBA champion. The playoffs weren’t too bright for the 18-year-old as he stepped up in the biggest moments.

The Mavericks beat the Timberwolves in five games in the 2026 Western Conference Finals. On the opposite side, the Cavaliers beat the Knicks in six games in the 2026 Eastern Conference Finals. That set up a Dallas-Cleveland 2026 NBA Finals.

The Mavericks didn’t need much work to beat the Cavaliers. They won the 2026 NBA Finals in five games. Irving was named NBA Finals MVP, as he barely returned from a torn ACL. Dallas fans all lined up to apologize to Nico Harrison after a year of berating him.