Thunder Fan Vote Reveals MVP, Future Stars and the Team's Most Chaotic Personalities
NBA awards season is here, and we wanted to hear from YOU, Oklahoma City Thunder fans.
Who is your team's MVP? What about its next first-time All-Star? Which player is on the best contract? How about the worst?
Which player is most likely to have a burner account? Who's the best athlete? And, perhaps most importantly, if you had to choose one player to team up with during a Zombie apocalypse, who's your guy?
You helped us celebrate the Thunder's season by casting a ballot for each of these awards—and more!
Who Is the Most Valuable Player?
1 of 10
Winner: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
If you're the odds-on favorite for league MVP, you're basically a shoo-in on your own team. That's where Shai Gilgeous-Alexander landed with OKC, even if he was surrounded by so many quality supporting players that it sometimes felt unfair.
Finishing with an average over 30.0 points per game for the fourth straight year, SGA had this one locked up all along.
Who Is Most Underrated?
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Winner: Ajay Mitchell
Isaiah Hartenstein was an elite rebounder, one of the best passing centers in the league and a staple in three out of Oklahoma City's four best lineups this season. That he wasn't a lock for this award speaks to the depth of talent on the Thunder roster.
Ajay Mitchell beat him out, tallying 38.0 percent of the vote to Hartenstein's 32.0. Fans appreciated how the second-year guard often ran the show without SGA on the floor.
Shout out to Cason Wallace for snagging 22.0 percent.
Who Is the Best Athlete?
3 of 10
Winner: Jalen Williams
Chet Holmgren was the Thunder's runaway leader in dunks, though his 7'1" stature gave him an edge there. He still deserved consideration for being more coordinated and shifty with the ball than anyone with his height has a right to.
Cason Wallace is no stranger to a highlight jam, Jalen Williams has breathtaking open-floor speed and Gilgeous-Alexander's slithery quickness is its own patented kind of athleticism. Plenty of different flavors to sample in this category.
In the end, voters opted for Williams, who just barely beat out Wallace, 43.0 percent to 35.0 percent.
Who Is Most Likely To Be a 1st-Time All-Star In the Next 5 Years?
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Winner: Ajay Mitchell
OKC's top three—Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams and Holmgren—have each already made at least one All-Star team, which meant voters needed to dig deeper into the rotation.
Wallace's supporting role prevented him from tapping into a deeper well of talent, while Mitchell's quick rise as a playmaker suggested he had some first-option upside. That wound up swaying voters, who overwhelmingly saw Mitchell as more of a future star than the role-playing Wallace.
Who Has the Best Contract?
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Winner: Ajay Mitchell
Aaron Wiggins could start for a lot of teams, but he came off the bench in OKC on a declining deal that'll pay him just $8.3 million in 2028-29. He and Isaiah Joe ($11.3 million this year with a team option for 2027-28) were in a tight race with Jaylin Williams ($7.8 million in 2026-27 with a team option for the same amount the year after) and Wallace, who's still on his rookie deal.
Saving the best for last, Mitchell signed a three-year deal over the summer that'll pay him less than $9 million in total. You can't do any better than that, which is why voters handed him yet another award.
Who Has the Worst Contract?
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Winner: Lu Dort
If the Thunder start cutting costs this summer, they'll look to Hartenstein and Lu Dort first, who both have team options for next season. OKC could shave $28.5 million by declining Hartenstein's and $18.2 million if it declines Dort's.
Neither figure is objectively bad, and it wouldn't be a surprise to see the Thunder bring both back on longer deals at similar or slightly lower annual values. It's just that on a team that almost exclusively has good deals on the books, those stand out.
Dort (42.0 percent of the vote) ended up beating out Hartenstein (24.0 percent) and, surprisingly, Alex Caruso (30.0 percent).
Who Is the Best Trash-Talker?
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Winner: Jaylin Williams
Words aren't necessary when your actions speak as loudly as the defending champs' do, so we were in for a real shortage of trash talk here.
SGA is measured in his commentary, but he's also not afraid to let opponents know where they stand. Jaylin Williams got into more than his share of dust-ups, and fans decided he was peppering in some choice words alongside his physicality.
Who Is Most Likely To Have a Burner Account?
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Winner: Chet Holmgren
This award is a lot like the trash talk honor, in that the Thunder are so good as to not need any outlets for frustration. Still, it's fun to imagine SGA, defying the politeness stereotype attached to Canadians, having a particularly mean-spirited set of burners.
If they existed, they'd definitely push back against outcries about his foul-baiting.
Jalen Williams, Cason Wallace and Isaiah Hartenstein seemed too happy-go-lucky to get into the burner game, so Chet Holmgren became the best bet. Anyone who willingly attached himself to a commercial this cringe has the kinds of lapses in judgment necessary to set up some dummy accounts.
Who Are You Taking With You Into the Zombie Apocalypse?
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Winner: Lu Dort
Alex Caruso kind of figured out how to guard Nikola Jokić in the 2025 playoffs, so he clearly couldn't be underestimated in a long-odds situation. He and Lu Dort both seem pretty well equipped to survive in the event of a societal collapse.
The latter ultimately walked away with this one, a fact he should use in contract negotiations when the Thunder decline his team option for next year.
This was one scenario where SGA's skills won't be helpful. Yes, he's elusive. But creating contact isn't the best strategy when it comes to zombies.
Who Is Most Likely To Be Playing Overseas In 2 Seasons?
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Winner: Brooks Barnhizer
Fans had to search the deep bench to find anyone on the Thunder who isn't either an established rotation player or one just waiting to prove he fits that description on a team with less talent.
Branden Carlson, Brooks Barnhizer, the injured Thomas Sorber and Nikola Topić proved the least of anyone who saw real minutes for OKC this year, so they were the best options. Based on the Thunder's history of identifying and developing talent, all four of those guys are probably going to have long NBA careers.
Barnhizer, the rookie who actually played, ended up getting the most votes—more than Sorber, who didn't suit up at all.
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