Payton Pritchard’s rise in Boston has opened up a familiar kind of conversation in Oklahoma City, and it could end up casting a long shadow over Ajay Mitchell’s future with the Thunder.
The comparison starts with the obvious parallel. Mitchell has drawn plenty of Jalen Brunson buzz in OKC because of the path he took to the league and the way he operates offensively. Now, Yahoo Sports’ Tom Haberstroh has suggested the Celtics may be thinking along similar lines with Pritchard, viewing him as their own version of the Knicks guard.
“The Celtics trading [Jaylen] Brown is a bet that [Payton] Pritchard is their in-house version of New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson, a diminutive player who didn’t fully show his talents until Luka Dončić was out of the picture," Haberstroh said.
That idea matters because Boston, in Haberstroh’s telling, believed Pritchard needed a larger role to fully become that kind of player, and that belief helped shape the decision to trade Brown to Philadelphia.
For Oklahoma City, the takeaway is less about Boston and more about what this kind of player development can mean in a roster built around established stars. If Mitchell is the sort of guard who needs more responsibility to hit his ceiling, then the Thunder may eventually face a hard reality: there may not be room for him to do that while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren remain the centerpieces.
That becomes even more relevant with Mitchell’s contract set to run through the summer of 2028.
His 2025-26 season already gave a clear picture of why teams would want him in a bigger role. Coming mostly off the bench, he averaged 13.6 points, 3.6 assists, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.2 steals while shooting 48.5 percent from the field. But the numbers jumped once he was moved into the starting lineup.
In 16 starts, Mitchell put up 14.9 points, 3.8 assists, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.3 steals per game while shooting 49.4 percent from the floor and 41.7 percent from deep.
His postseason stint only sharpened that case. With Jalen Williams sidelined again by a hamstring injury, Mitchell made seven starts and averaged 18.4 points, 4.7 assists, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.0 steals. The Thunder went 22-1 in those games.
So the talent is there, and then some. Mitchell looks like a player with real top-option upside.
The question is whether Oklahoma City can ever fully cash in on that upside while staying committed to its current core. If the answer is no, then the clock on Mitchell’s Thunder future is already ticking.
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