A summer filled with celebration nears its end. Only a little over a month exists until the Oklahoma City Thunder start the 2025-26 regular season. The NBA champion has enjoyed its accomplishments, but soon a new marathon will start with them at the top.

Bringing back mostly the same roster, the Thunder are the consensus title favorite. They’re viewed as a team that could pull off the rare feat of being a back-to-back NBA champion. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren all signed contract extensions this offseason to keep their title window wide open.

To prepare for the 2025-26 regular season, Thunder Wire will lay out three goals for all 17 players on the roster. OKC has 15 standard players and two two-way players. Let’s look at Gilgeous-Alexander and what he could accomplish this upcoming year:

Win back-to-back MVPs

After slowly climbing the ladder the last three seasons, Gilgeous-Alexander finally reached the top. He won his first MVP award this past season by a comfortable margin. He had a textbook case of being the best player on the best team. Averaging a superb-efficient 33 points does that. His competition is no longer with active players. It’s now about his all-time status.

The Thunder should be a regular-season win machine again. If he produces another ho-hum 30-plus point campaign while they sit at the top of the standings, there’s a good chance he wins his second MVP trophy. Winning the first one is always the most difficult one. But once you do, you’ll always be in the conversation.

Win another scoring title

Gilgeous-Alexander has been one of the NBA’s most efficient scorers ever. Over the last three seasons, he’s averaged 31.4 points on 52.2% shooting. That’s prime Shaq numbers. To do that as a drive-heavy guard shows how lethal he is when he attacks the basket or pulls up for a mid-range jumper.

After three straight 30-plus point campaigns, he finally captured his first scoring title last season with 32.7 points. What makes it even more impressive is that he regularly sat out fourth quarters of blowout wins. At 27 years old, he’s smackdab in the middle of his prime. The NBA’s best isolation scorer should be in the conversation again for the league leader of points per game.

Lean into villain role

As the Thunder destroyed teams, the other 29 fanbases have grown to despise them. It comes with the territory of being one of the greatest teams ever. Now that they have captured the NBA championship, expect road atmospheres to be even more hostile. The Thunder have everything in front of them. Being the second-youngest champion in league history means many more deep playoff runs are to come.

That means they’d better prepare to be treated like the top villain. It already happened last season. Cries of them benefiting from the whistle on both ends trended on social media every night they played. Expect that noise to grow louder. If you’re Gilgeous-Alexander, all you should do is embrace it. You set the example and the rest of OKC will follow suit.