{"id":202033,"date":"2025-10-10T03:57:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T03:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/202033\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T03:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T03:57:07","slug":"nba-gms-predict-thunder-repeat-and-jokic-mvp-in-2025-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/202033\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA GMs Predict Thunder Repeat and Jokic MVP in 2025-26"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Oklahoma City Thunder are officially the team to beat, at least if you ask the league\u2019s general managers.<\/p>\n<p>In the NBA\u2019s annual GM survey, a massive 80 percent of executives predicted that the Thunder will repeat as champions in 2025-26.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the first time since the Warriors dynasty that such a clear favorite has emerged.<\/p>\n<p>The poll highlighted what many around the league already believe: Oklahoma City\u2019s core of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, and Jalen Williams is the best young trio in basketball.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Thunder boast an impressive young core of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams,\u201d the report <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/news\/2025-26-nba-gm-survey\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a>, noting the group received 50 percent of the votes for best young core, easily topping the San Antonio Spurs.<\/p>\n<p>With Holmgren and Williams locked into long-term extensions this offseason, the reigning champs have the foundation to dominate for years to come.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGetting 80 percent of NBA GMs to agree on that topic might come as a shock,\u201d the report continued, \u201cbut that\u2019s typically how the survey goes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>OKC\u2019s competition, at least in the eyes of league executives, is limited.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBoth the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Denver Nuggets each received seven percent of the vote,\u201d the survey noted, while the Houston Rockets and New York Knicks also earned a handful of mentions.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Nikola Jokic once again dominated the individual categories.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJokic is the most likely to win the 2025-26 NBA MVP award, the player who forces opponents to make the most adjustments, the best center in the NBA, the best international player in the game, the best passer in the game and the player with the best basketball IQ,\u201d GMs told Yahoo Sports.<\/p>\n<p>The two-time MVP also finished third when asked which player GMs would build a franchise around, trailing only Victor Wembanyama, who received 83 percent of the vote.<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/basketballforever.com\/2025\/10\/08\/giannis-antetokounmpo-breaks-silence-on-knicks-trade-rumors\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Giannis Antetokounmpo Breaks Silence on Knicks Trade Rumors<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Oklahoma City Thunder are officially the team to beat, at least if you ask the league\u2019s general&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-202033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}