The Oklahoma City Thunder are officially stuck between a rock and a hard place now that the injury bug has struck.
This isn't just a minor occurence either, The injuries that Jalen Williams and Cason Wallace suffered last week against the Los Angeles Clippers are season-altering—not just for the players, but also for the Thunder as a whole. We saw what happened last season in the Western Conference Finals when Oklahoma City was missing two of its primary playmakers. Being down two starters long-term just five games into the campaign is a sure-fire way to throw off the Thunder's championship trajectory.
But this is still a team that's going to look to compete on a night-to-night basis, and that leaves much of the burden on the team's superstar, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. On Wednesday night against the Dallas Mavericks, that showed. Gilgeous-Alexander took on heftier roles on both ends of the court, and he looked absolutely gassed by the start of the second half.
It was the first time in a while that Oklahoma City looked truly outmatched—against a fringe play-in team in Dallas, no less.
Let's assume the one-seed is now out of the picture. The Thunder simply can't afford to have Gilgeous-Alexander take this team entirely onto his shoulders over the course of the regular season, at least not if they want to have any hope of entering the playoffs with a chance at another deep run.
Ajay Mitchell, who's revealed himself over the past two games as a real breakout candidate in Williams and Wallace's absence, could be the solution to that.
Ajay Mitchell is identifying himself as a primary offensive option—and that's a massive development for the Thunder
It's difficult to overstate just how important Williams and Wallace are to what the Thunder are able to accomplish on both ends of the court. Williams is the Thunder's second-best player offensively, capable of operating not only as another downhill scorer but also another playmaking hub. He's also one of the most promising two-way stars in the league, and when you combine that with missing Wallace's elite perimeter defense, those injuries compromise much of Oklahoma City's usual gameplan.
It's going to be a stark challenge for Mark Daigneault to figure out a new shape for this team with both of those players out. The only certainty, for right now, is that he's going to need to lean on Gilgeous-Alexander—perhaps the most efficient and effective scorer in the game today.
But the absences of both Wallace and Williams leave Gilgeous-Alexander with more than just an additional offensive burden. He'll also need to take on primary defensive matchups more often with those two pieces out of the lineup. Perhaps we see Alex Caruso tossed in as a starter when he returns from his ankle injury to help account for this. But even that should be seen as a limited, matchup-dependent option.
At the end of the day, the fate of this Thunder team is going to fall upon Gilgeous-Alexander. They simply need to identify a secondary star who can help ease his burden over the course of the season if they want their superstar to survive an 82-game campaign intact.
Thankfully, Mitchell seems like he's well on his way through two games with the depleted Thunder. Mitchell put up a career-high 30 points against the Phoenix Suns on Monday, knocking down 10 of his 16 field goal attempts and tacking on two rebounds and five assists. He followed that up with a 29-point performance against Dallas, and although it wasn't enough for Oklahoma City to etch out a victory, it was a highly encouraging sign of his continued development.
With Williams out, Mitchell's downhill skill set and gravity will be more important than ever. He emerged as a highly dynamic guard last season primarily coming off the bench, and he's more than capable of taking the ball into his hands and getting a bucket independent of any gravity that Gilgeous-Alexander provides. If he can start to hit his perimeter shots at a more consistent rate, that will only serve to diversify his game further.
This is not to say that this is the same caliber of team as it was pre-injuries even if Mitchell reveals himself as an All Star-level player this season. Williams and Wallace, in tandem, are likely impossible to replace. But if Gilgeous-Alexander is forced to right this ship alone, Oklahoma City's season may very well be done by April.
Mitchell playing at the top of his game is the only antidote the Thunder currently have to that reality.
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