The Thunder are heading into a season where their young, cheap talent matters just as much as their stars.
Oklahoma City has already made its move to manage a coming financial squeeze, sending out Luguentz Dort, Isaiah Joe, and Aaron Wiggins in separate trades. That puts even more pressure on the players still sitting on rookie contracts to help keep the roster deep enough around the max-contract core.
That’s the whole game for this group now: survive the cap crunch, keep the rotation stocked, and make sure the young pieces can hold up when the team needs them most.
At the top of that list sits Cason Wallace. His game still has edges to smooth out, but he’s heading into the final year of his rookie deal as one of the most important players on the roster.
He looks lined up to start next to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the backcourt, and his defense has already turned him into one of the league’s most disruptive perimeter stoppers. He may not bring the same size or rebounding profile Dort once did, but Wallace fits the defensive structure cleanly, and there’s still real offensive upside waiting to be tapped.
If extension talks get pushed to next offseason, that growth will matter a lot.
Ajay Mitchell comes next, and there’s a case that he and Wallace belong in almost the same tier. The gap is mostly about defense and availability.
Mitchell can defend his position, but he doesn’t match Wallace’s impact there, and injuries have kept him on the sideline for long stretches across both of his first two NBA seasons. He has played only 93 games in those two years.
Still, when he’s on the floor, he looks like one of the more intriguing young guards around. He can get downhill, attack the perimeter, and his outside shot appears to be trending the right way.
Oklahoma City plans to use him as a major sixth man this season, but if he stays healthy and keeps fitting alongside Gilgeous-Alexander in the right spots, this ranking could change fast.
Jared McCain is a little more specialized than either of those two, but he’s hard to ignore. He fought his way into the Thunder’s playoff rotation after arriving late last regular season, and with Wiggins and Joe gone, there’s a bigger lane for him on the wing.
The shooting is the calling card. He might be the best 3-point shooter on the roster, and the confidence he brings on pull-up threes makes it easy to overlook how little NBA time he’s had.
Across 30 regular-season games with the Thunder, he shot 39.1% from deep. For a player entering the third year of his rookie contract, that kind of spacing value is huge.
Nikola Topic slots in fourth, even though his first two seasons were heavily limited. The reason is simple: the upside as another ball handler is real.
Topic posted 18.4 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 7.8 assists while hitting 46.5% of his 3s in 13 G-League games last season, and he flashed the same kind of dynamic feel with the varsity team, just in a smaller sample. He still has to adjust to the speed of the NBA game, but the expectation is that his minutes will grow this season, and so will his role.
Bennett Stirtz comes in fifth because the Thunder may need him to adapt quickly. In college at Iowa, he was a high-volume scorer and playmaker, averaging 19.8 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 4.4 assists while shooting 35.8% from beyond the arc over 37 games.
Oklahoma City may ask him to spend more time off the ball than he did in college, but he looks capable of handling that shift. If the perimeter shot is reliable, he could carve out immediate minutes on a wing group that needs help.
Aday Mara is next, and the size jumps off the page. He stands 7'3" with a 7'6" wingspan, and that gives him a clear path to becoming a real shot-blocking presence in the NBA.
The passing flashes are there too. But the concerns are just as obvious.
His college workload was limited, he had trouble keeping up with the pace and physicality in Summer League, and his mobility on defense is still a question. That could make rookie bench minutes at center tough to manage, even if the long-term ceiling is enticing.
Thomas Sorber rounds out the list, though that doesn’t mean he’s without value. Oklahoma City still looks to have made a solid pick based on where he was selected, and his defensive tools give him a chance to matter in the long run. The issue is that his offense was already fairly limited at Georgetown, and now that he’s missed his first NBA season, there’s only so much to evaluate until he actually gets on the floor.
In Other News...
Presti Just Clarified How Thunder See This New-Look Contender
The Thunders offseason looked different almost immediately when longtime starter Luguentz Dort and rotation pieces Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins were moved in a series of cost-cutting deals. On the surface, it was a jarring shift for a team that had built its identity on continuity and depth, but Sam Presti framed the moves as part of a longer financial plan rather than a retreat from contention.
Presti made clear Oklahoma City still believes its championship window is anchored by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, and he pointed to the teams position as one that should keep it in the mix in 2026/27. The part that matters most for what comes next is what the front office does with the flexibility it created, because the Thunder have signaled those savings are not meant to disappear into the ledger forever. [Read more 🡒]
Thunder Fans Can See A Russell Westbrook Tribute Coming
Sam Presti used a 2026-27 preseason press conference to salute Russell Westbrooks retirement and Hall of Fame career, and the message from the Thunder front office was clear enough: a formal tribute is coming. Westbrook remains one of the defining figures in franchise history, and Oklahoma City is already thinking through how to recognize the nine-time All-Star for the impact he had on the organization and the city.
The details are still being shaped, but the possibilities under discussion show just how significant the honor could be. Retiring No. 0 and even a statue outside the new Continental Coliseum have been mentioned as ideas, though nothing has been finalized. Presti said the team is working with great intention, which suggests this is more a matter of when and how than if. [Read more 🡒]
Thunder Offseason Looked Brutal But Sam Presti Protected The Bigger Picture
The Thunders offseason looked harsh on the surface, with a handful of familiar rotation pieces moved out as the front office worked to reset the books. But the broader plan is familiar for Oklahoma City, which has long treated roster churn as the cost of keeping a contenders window open, even when it means saying goodbye to players who helped stabilize the roster.
Sam Prestis approach was about more than subtraction, though. Oklahoma City is trying to refill those minutes with a younger wave that includes Cason Wallace, Jared McCain, Ajay Mitchell, Bennett Stirtz, Jaylin Williams and Otega Oweh, while also reinforcing the front line with Isiah Hartenstein and spending its first draft pick on Aday Mara. The result is a lineup that may look different, but one the Thunder believe can still support the bigger picture. [Read more 🡒]