The Thunder are officially back in ramp-up mode, and the picture in Oklahoma City is already starting to sharpen. Media Day for the 2026-27 season came and went on Monday, training camp is three days in, and while plenty of the familiar core remains, this group has gone through its most dramatic offseason in a while.
That shakeup matters. OKC lost three bona fide contributors in offseason trades, including longtime starter and former All-Defense selectee Luguentz Dort.
At the same time, the front office brought in three rookies in the ’26 NBA Draft. With that kind of turnover, the Thunder are not going to look exactly like they did before.
The most obvious place that change shows up is the starting lineup. Based on what’s been said at Media Day and what’s surfaced through camp, the likeliest first five for Oklahoma City looks like this: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Cason Wallace, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein.
The biggest question, naturally, is Dort’s old spot. Wallace, Ajay Mitchell and even Jared McCain have all been floated as possibilities. Mark Daigneault didn’t lock anything down on Monday, but he made it clear how much confidence he has in Wallace.
"He's started a lot of games,” Daigneault said at Media Day Monday. “So I'm not going to get into any rotation stuff, but he's started Finals games for us - he's somebody that I trust as much as anybody."
There’s also at least some chance that this version of the Thunder leans a little more offensive in how it’s built. Still, if defense remains the priority, Wallace fits naturally as the closest answer to what Dort brought.
That trust extends beyond the coaching staff. Sam Presti said at his introductory press conference that the Thunder trust Wallace, and that idea was part of the discussion that followed the Dort trade.
Behind the starting group, Oklahoma City still has a deep rotation to sort through. A second unit built around Ajay Mitchell and Jared McCain could give the Thunder more ball handling and shooting, while Alex Caruso remains an important piece on the defensive side.
Jaylin Williams, Bennett Stirtz, Kenrich Williams and Aday Mara are also in the mix, all with a chance to carve out bigger roles as the season develops.
“Very advanced, they’re all really meshing really well,” Jalen Williams said of OKC’s young core at training camp. “I think our team kind’ve brings that out of them too - we have very open dialogue with our team, everybody can come in and be themselves and I think that’s when you get the best version of a lot of players.”
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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Is Giving Thunder Fans A Dangerous New Thought
Early in training camp, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander already has Thunder fans looking twice at the little things, the kind that can make a star feel even more dangerous. A video making the rounds showed him in sprint drills alongside Jared McCain, and the broader takeaway was hard to miss: Gilgeous-Alexander is spending the offseason sharpening the parts of his game that make Oklahoma Citys offense hum.
The timing matters because Gilgeous-Alexander and McCain have put in real work together all summer, building chemistry while pushing each other in the process. McCain said the two spent a lot of time training together, including workouts in Canada, and that kind of shared grind is the sort of detail Thunder fans will file away as they wait to see how much quicker and sharper their centerpiece looks when the games count. [Read more 🡒]
Bennett Stirtz Faces A Thunder Role Change Right Away
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The opening comes with a clear opportunity, too, because Oklahoma City has a spot to fill after Isaiah Joe was moved to the Detroit Pistons. For Stirtz, that creates both pressure and a lane to carve out minutes quickly, especially if he can translate his shotmaking into the role the Thunder need. What remains to be seen is how fast he can make that transition look natural once the games start counting. [Read more 🡒]
Nikola Topic Puts Thunder On The Clock With One Big Role Question
Nikola Topics path to his first full NBA season with the Thunder has already taken more twists than anyone would have expected when he arrived with so much promise. After missing his rookie year because of a torn ACL and then navigating a testicular cancer diagnosis, the young guard still managed to show real progress with Oklahoma City Blue last season, giving the organization a reminder of why it views him as such an important long-term piece.
The challenge now is less about whether Topic can help and more about how quickly the Thunder can fit him into that bigger plan. Oklahoma City sees him as a potential primary ball-handler who can add depth and playmaking alongside the clubs other young talent, but his delayed start to training camp complicates the timeline. The team still has a season to get through before Topic is expected to be part of the Thunders full rotation in 2026-27, and the next few months will go a long way toward showing how ready he is for that role. [Read more 🡒]