The Oklahoma City Thunder's focus for 2026-27, clearly, is on cementing their status as a potential dynasty in this modern era of the NBA.
Under the new CBA, you need viable rookie contract contributors to sustain any sort of long-term competitive roster. For a team as good as the Thunder have been over the past three seasons, they've been able to find a surprising amount of sustainability from those types of players, especially in their first NBA seasons.
Jalen Williams, obviously, played a major role coming to the Thunder as a rookie. But Cason Wallace and Ajay Mitchell, each of whom had more limited skill sets upon their arrival to the league, did as well. Wallace averaged 20.6 minutes per game, mostly off the bench, in his rookie campaign in 2023-24. Although Mitchell appeared in only 36 games in his rookie season before suffering a toe injury, he averaged 16.6 minutes in the backcourt.
Of course, the injuries to Nikola Topic, Thomas Sorber, and now Otega Oweh don't help this track record. But when these players have been healthy, Mark Daigneault has been willing to trust them with integral rotational roles.
With a strong crop of rookie contributors coming into the fold in Aday Mara, Bennett Stirtz, and Josh Dix, it appears Oklahoma City is poised to continue this trend in 2026-27. Here's one storyline to watch over the early parts of the season for each young piece.
3 developments to keep an eye on for Aday Mara, Bennett Stirtz, and Josh Dix in the early parts of 2026-27
1. What will Aday Mara's minutes look like, and how will his rotations be handled over the early parts of the season?
Mara cast off any doubts that followed him from Summer League with an exceedingly strong preseason performance, averaging 13.4 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 2.8 assists while shooting 78.8% from the floor. Even with Isaiah Hartenstein in the fold, he still held up a backup big man role—which seems like Daigneault's most likely use for him, on a 13-15 minute-per-night basis, in the early parts of the season.
But it's still an unavoidable fact that Mara's conditioning and rotations were clearly limited during his time at Michigan. Dusty May was forced, over the course of the season, to handle Mara's rotations carefully, and he finished the campaign having averaged just 23.4 minutes per game. His counterpart Yaxel Lendeborg, for comparison, averaged 30.2
Keeping Mara on the court for short stints shouldn't be a problem, and he looked to be in much better shape during the preseason. But how Daigneault handles his minutes will certainly be a storyline to keep an eye on at the start of 2026-27.
2. Can Bennett Stirtz hit his shots consistently from beyond the arc?
Stirtz is certainly an interesting prospect, and he was perhaps the Thunder's brightest development during the preseason—averaging 14.6 points, 3.6 rebounds, and three assists while knocking down 48.4% of his shots from beyond the arc.
In a vaccum, there are theoretically two roles Stirtz could play at the NBA level. He wasn't a high-volume playmaker during his time at Iowa, but he certainly showed the capability to operate on-ball on a consistent basis. If that's going to be his primary NBA role, though, he's unlikely to see major minutes in the backcourt this season.
With both Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins off the roster, however, there's certainly some space for Stirtz to carve out a role as a perimeter-shooting wing alongside Jared McCain. What it will come down to is his ability to hit his 3-point shots at a consistent rate. He was just a 35.8% shooter from beyond the arc in his final college season. Are that or his preseason numbers closer to the Stirtz we'll see once the season kicks off?
3. Does Josh Dix have a true shot at the 15th roster spot?
Dix obviously doesn't have the same path to rotational minutes that Mara and Stirtz do. He came to the team as an undrafted free agent, and there are still enough concerns about his viability as a two-way player to truly believe in him as an immediate contributor.
But the Thunder's 15th roster spot remains open, and the season-ending Achilles injury that Oweh suffered in the preseason means that the top contender to be converted from a two-way contract is now out of the picture for 2026-27. Dix, though, appears to be a pure perimeter shooter—he knocked down 39.4% of his attempts between Summer League and the preseason. Excluding his wonky final college season at Creighton, that largely checks out with his college resume as well.
Brooks Barnhizer, and the Thunder's distribution of late-game minutes in blowouts, will be worth monitoring here as well. But Dix has shown enough that there should at least be a discussion about giving him that opportunity over the first half of the season.
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