The NBA’s 2026-27 schedule is out, and Oklahoma City’s rookie class already has one date that jumps off the page.
On Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 8:30 p.m., Thunder big man Aday Mara will run into former Michigan teammate Morez Johnson Jr. in Dallas, with the game set for ESPN. It’s an early reunion for two players who helped Michigan win the 2026 NCAA championship before both landed in the NBA draft.
Mara was Oklahoma City’s top selection in the 2026 class, going No. 12 overall. Johnson went to the Mavericks at No. 8, while another Michigan standout, Yaxel Lendeborg, came off the board at No. 11 to the Golden State Warriors.
For the Thunder, Mara gives Mark Daigneault another piece in a frontcourt that already includes Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein, Jaylin Williams and Thomas Sorber. He brings size Oklahoma City didn’t previously have on the roster, and that size was on display at the NBA Combine, where he measured 7-foot-3 without shoes and posted a 7-foot-6 wingspan.
As a junior at Michigan, the former UCLA transfer averaged 12.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.6 blocks per game. His Summer League run in Las Vegas was quieter, with Mara putting up 8.7 points, 7.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists and a block per game over three games.
That matchup with Johnson could come early enough in the season that Mara still isn’t a major part of Oklahoma City’s rotation, but there’s still a chance he gets some run against the Mavericks in his first meeting with his old college teammate.
The Thunder’s opening stretch is loaded beyond that, too. After winning more than 60 games for the second straight season, Oklahoma City opens on the NBA’s opening night with a trip to San Antonio to face the Spurs, then gets a Christmas Day spot against the new-look Minnesota Timberwolves.
Overall, Daigneault’s team has 13 back-to-backs on the schedule and 30 nationally televised games, which trails only the Los Angeles Lakers, San Antonio Spurs, Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks for the most in the league.
There’s also a layer of reunion basketball tied to the trio of players Oklahoma City traded during the 2026 offseason, with multiple dates on the schedule featuring those former Thunder players against their old team.
Mara’s other Michigan reunion will have to wait a little longer. Oklahoma City’s first meeting with Golden State is set for Sunday, Jan. 24, at 5:30 p.m. at Chase Center and will air on NBC, meaning his first shot at facing Lendeborg won’t come until 2027.
In Other News...
Thunder Face A Real Rotation Test After Their Summer Shakeup
After a summer that sent Aaron Wiggins, Isaiah Joe and Luguentz Dort elsewhere, Oklahoma City is heading into the 2026-27 season with a very different look around its core. The Thunder also added three new prospects in Aday Mara, Bennett Stirtz and Otega Oweh, so the front office did not just trim the roster, it actively reshaped it, leaving the coaching staff to sort out how the pieces fit together.
The bigger question is how the rotation and style will shift once the games start counting. Cason Wallace is expected to take on more defensive responsibility, while the offense may lean more heavily on younger guards, which gives the Thunder a different kind of balance to manage. For a team that has built so much of its identity on continuity and development, this is the kind of roster reset that can reveal a lot very quickly. [Read more 🡒]
Aday Mara Faces An Unusual Thunder Rookie Dilemma
The Thunder came out of the 2026 draft with all three of their picks intact, adding Aday Mara, Bennett Stirtz and Otega Oweh to a roster that already looks unusually deep. Mara, the 7-foot-3 big man with defensive upside, is the name that stands out most here, not just because of his size but because Oklahoma City has a habit of thinking long term and letting young players grow into their roles.
For Mara, the challenge is less about draft status than pathway. The Thunder are crowded in the frontcourt, and the usual rookie minutes may be hard to find on a team already stacked at the position. That is why his first year could look different from the standard introduction for a player taken so high, with development and readiness likely becoming just as important as whatever time he gets with the varsity group. [Read more 🡒]