A preseason forecast of the Oklahoma City Thunder roster is laying out a big 2026-27 haul: three All-Stars, two All-NBA selections and two All-Defense choices. It also puts Shai Gilgeous-Alexander back in the MVP race, with a Top 3 finish but not a threepeat.
That is the kind of projection that makes the Thunder impossible to ignore before a game has been played. The same set of predictions has Oklahoma City winning Opening Night against the Spurs, which is why this conversation is starting now, with the season preview crowd already looking past the first tip and into the awards board.
The numbers are the point. Three All-Stars would place the Thunder in rare company, and the last team to reach that mark was Cleveland in 2025. Before that, the Warriors did it in 2022 with Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins. The forecast does not name all three Thunder All-Stars, but the award logic is clear: the roster is expected to produce enough top-end talent to fill more than one lane at once.
The same pattern shows up in All-NBA. The prediction is for two Thunder players, not three, even though history allows for outlier runs. Only 20 times has one team placed three players on All-NBA, and the column points to that limit by folding in a familiar split: JDub made All-NBA in 2025, and Chet made All-NBA in 2026. The friction is obvious. If Shai, JDub and Chet are all performing at that level again, one of them is still likely to be squeezed out by the league-wide math that usually governs these teams.
Defense is where the forecast is cleaner. Chet Holmgren and Cason Wallace are the two names attached to All-Defense, and that pairing fits the idea that Oklahoma City’s recognition will spread across the roster instead of piling onto one player. The rest of the list is more playful but still pointed: Aday Mara is projected to make an All-Rookie Team, Jared McCain is tabbed for the 3-Point Contest, Jaylin Williams is picked to win Teammate of the Year, Isaiah Hartenstein is predicted to make a 3-pointer, and Bennett Stirtz is described as an older combo guard who is NBA ready and will surprise people in his rookie season without playing a single game in the G League.
That last call is the kind of detail that makes a prediction column feel alive, but the larger stakes are what matter. If the Thunder really do land three All-Stars, two All-NBA players and two All-Defense selections, then the roster is not just good. It is deep enough to force the league to keep naming its players. The open question is which names will actually fill those spots when the season ends.
