The Thunder’s offseason departures may force a different kind of rotation in Oklahoma City, one that leans harder on youth than this team has typically preferred.
In recent years, Mark Daigneault has usually trusted his stars and his veterans when the games matter most. That hasn’t been a roster built for patience with raw prospects, even with a few exceptions like Ajay Mitchell. But with several changes hitting the roster, the path ahead looks different now.
Lu Dort, Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins are gone, and Sam Presti and company appear ready to hand those minutes to rookies and other very inexperienced players. For a Thunder team that usually goes 10 to 13 deep each night, that opens the door for Nikola Topic, Thomas Sorber, Aday Mara and Bennett Stirtz to matter more than they would have if those core pieces were still around.
There’s a real amount of playing time sitting there, too. Three players who were all averaging more than 20 minutes a night are no longer in the mix, and while some of that workload will be absorbed by Ajay Mitchell, Cason Wallace and Jared McCain, those three were already seeing heavy run. That still leaves room for the new guys to earn meaningful minutes.
For a legitimate championship favorite, it’s an unusual setup. And it should make the 2026-27 season feel a little different in Oklahoma City.
Among the newcomers, Bennett Stirtz might be the most intriguing wild card.
Aday Mara may be the lottery pick getting most of the attention, but there’s a strong argument that Stirtz is the rookie who could end up mattering more right away. The Thunder just lost two of their most dependable perimeter scorers and off-ball shooters in Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins, and that’s exactly the kind of production Stirtz can help replace.
Oklahoma City has been one of the league’s most active off-the-catch shooting teams over the last four years, ranking as high as eighth in long-range attempts and sixth in overall catch-and-shoot attempts during its 2024-25 championship run. That makes Stirtz a pretty natural fit.
At the Division I level, he averaged 19.5 points and 5.0 assists while shooting 48.7 percent from the field and 37.2 percent from three. More recently, with the Iowa Hawkeyes, he hit about 52 percent of his catch-and-shoot tries.
Nobody should expect him to get that kind of volume in the NBA. But if the efficiency translates, Stirtz has a chance to become one of the best value picks from the 2026 NBA Draft class.
In Other News...
Chet Holmgren Just Gave Thunder Fans A Needed Reason To Believe
Chet Holmgrens summer has offered the kind of low-stakes but still revealing glimpse Thunder fans tend to latch onto this time of year. The big man has been taking part in NBPA-sanctioned PLYRS UNTD runs, working against and alongside other NBA players in a setting built more for skill work than headlines, and the early takeaway is that his offensive bag is still very much part of the conversation. For Oklahoma City, that matters because Holmgren already established himself as a breakout piece, but the next step is finding more consistent scoring to go with everything else he brings.
There is a reason the optimism around Holmgren comes with a little edge to it. His talent has never been the question, but the playoffs have a way of sharpening the scrutiny, and his performance in the Western Conference Finals left plenty of room for debate about how much more he can deliver when the stage gets bigger. If these summer runs are any indication, the Thunder are hoping he can answer some of that skepticism by turning offseason flashes into something far more reliable once the games count again. [Read more 🡒]
Westbrooks Farewell Just Hit Thunder Fans Right In The Heart
Russell Westbrooks run through the league ended after an 18-year NBA career, with his final stop coming in Sacramento. For Thunder fans, the news lands with extra weight because Westbrook is still so tightly tied to the rise of Oklahoma City basketball, a player whose energy and edge helped define an era even as the league moved on around him.
The outpouring was immediate, including a social-media farewell from DeMar DeRozan, who shared the Kings locker room with Westbrook last season before moving on to Denver on a one-year deal. DeRozan is expected to fill a Sixth Man role with the Nuggets, but for the moment the attention is on Westbrooks exit and the kind of respect he continues to command from peers across the NBA. [Read more 🡒]
Thunder Just Locked In A Title Piece At A Stunning Value
Isaiah Hartenstein has quickly become one of the steadier reasons Oklahoma City can keep thinking big, and now the Thunder have locked him in for the long haul. Since his arrival, the fit has been clean and the results have followed, with the club reaching the top of the league and showing why its roster core has become the envy of plenty of teams around the NBA.
The larger story here is the value Oklahoma City found in keeping a proven center without having to pay the absolute top of the market. Hartenstein chose to stay with a team that has won at the highest level, giving the Thunder front office another important piece of continuity as it tries to keep the window wide open in the years ahead. [Read more 🡒]