The Oklahoma City Thunder's biggest fish of the 2026 NBA Draft, obviously, was Aday Mara.
He has major upside as a rim protecting and offensive capable big man, and at 7'3", it's hard not to get excited about what he can eventually provide to this rotation. There are still some concerns about his conditioning and his long-term defensive upside, but he looked great on Tuesday night against the New Orleans Pelicans, earning a couple big-time blocks and making multiple flashy plays in transition.
But the true star of the Thunder's first preseason outing wasn't Mara. It was Bennett Stirtz, who was Oklahoma City's second first-round pick in the Draft.
Stirtz finished the night with a team-leading 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field, tacking on five rebounds and six assists. He did finish with four turnovers, but that's acceptable for a player who's just starting to get a feel for an NBA offense. What's more important is that he looked confident and comfortable with the ball in his hands, and his shot looked absolutely pure from beyond the arc.
The Thunder need ball-handling insurance, and that's why they took a swing on Stirtz in the middle of the first round. But if he's ready for a real rotational role behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander—which he looks to be—that provides Oklahoma City with an almost insurmountable rotational weapon during the regular season.
Bennett Stirtz's continued development will be a major storyline to watch over the next couple of months
Stirtz was already going to have a chance to crack the rotation as more of an off-ball player, assuming his shot translated to the NBA level immediately. He sunk 35.8% of his attempts from beyond the arc in his final college season, and with the departures of Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe this offseason, there will be some minutes on the wing for him to take on.
But he was primarily an on-ball player in college, and with all of the Thunder's main players apart from McCain out of the lineup on Tuesday, we got a glimpse of what he's capable of in that regard.
Although Nikola Topic remains on the team, and will likely continue to be there through next season, it's hard to see a path to him earning real minutes early in this campaign. He's played just 10 games to this point in his NBA career after missing his rookie season with a torn ACL and working through his testicular cancer diagnosis for much of his sophomore campaign, and he's now limited during the preseason because of a back surgery he had during the summer. He deserves a shot at cracking the rotation, but it seems as though the first opportunity belongs to Stirtz for now.
If Stirtz is a truly reliable ball-handler and can be trusted, at times, to lead the offense with Gilgeous-Alexander off the court, that's a massive boost for this Oklahoma City team. We saw him, on multiple occasions against New Orleans, dishing the ball out to an open McCain, who was hitting his shots with absolute confidence. Pairing those two against an opposing team's bench unit—especially one without pure perimeter defenders in its ranks—could be a lethal combination.
If you toss Mitchell in there as well, you not only have a secondary playmaker but also a guard capable of creating his own shot, working against his defender in isolation and making his way downhill. Mitchell and McCain, in their own right, form a formidable combination off the bench.
Stirtz, Mitchell, and McCain could be a weapon that, when deployed in the right moments during the regular season, helps crack multiple games open for the Thunder. In a campaign where their quest for the one-seed is going to be as difficult as ever, identifying and developing those sorts of options is going to be an absolutely crucial task of Mark Daigneault and the rest of the Oklahoma City coaching staff.
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