The Oklahoma City Thunder's moves this offseason, while painful, were totally justifiable.
Instead of moving off of any of their draft picks, they instead made all three selections— adding Aday Mara, Bennett Stirtz, and Otega Oweh across the two rounds of the 2026 NBA Draft. This enabled them to move off more expensive talent in order to duck luxury tax penalties. They moved Luguentz Dort, Aaron Wiggins, and Isaiah Joe in separate trades.
Each of those pieces is replaceable from a perspective of production. Dort had a shaky offensive campaign in 2025-26, and there were times where the Thunder were better off with him on the bench. Both Wiggins and Joe could be spotty 3-point shooters at times, and Jared McCain should be able to replicate much of their production as he enters his third NBA season.
But the Thunder's status as the most dominant team in the NBA was sufficiently challenged last season, and they have a tall task ahead of them in reclaiming that mantle. Losing those pieces is more than a matter of production— it's a matter of team identity— and Oklahoma City will have some major work to do to re-implement their vision across the roster.
Chet Holmgren indirectly made that clear in a recent interview with ESPN.
"We learned the same lesson [in 2026] as the year that we won it: It was almost more of a reminder of just how hard it is to accomplish, and how much goes into it," Holmgren said. "There is no guarantee. You can put in all the work and still come up short. At the end of the day, you have to be okay with putting in the work with no guaranteed outcome. We came up short this year. That doesn't change the process." Chet Holmgren, via ESPN.
Thunder's most daunting task in 2026-27 is maintaining the continuity and chemistry that made them so dominant
As mentioned above, the drop-off in terms of production should be minimal. Ajay Mitchell and Cason Wallace are more than capable of stepping into the backcourt next to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The loss of versatility with Wiggins and Joe coming off the bench will hurt, but their departure opens up minutes for McCain and even Stirtz, if he can prove himself quickly in the regular season.
But Dort, Wiggins, and Joe were more than just semi-reliable offensive contributors for this team. They were part of the lifeblood and identity on both sides of the ball. Dort was the longest-tenured member of the organization along with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and he embodied the Thunder's defensive grit and focus during his time there.
Wallace is still one of the league's most disruptive perimeter defenders, and he presents an intriguing replacement for Dort's minutes on that end of the court. But Mitchell is certainly a less swarming on-ball defender, and McCain doesn't have the same upside as both Wiggins and Joe did defensively.
When you factor in the question marks surrounding Stirtz, Nikola Topic, and Aday Mara on that end of the court, you can start to see the fuller picture.
Holmgren isn't just speaking on the Thunder's trademark defensive identity, though. This organization has worked tirelessly to institute a winning mindset over the course of its rebuild— one that culminated in a dominant championship campaign in 2024-25.
The modern CBA requires teams to cycle through their depth in order to keep their stars under contract. That was always the plan in Oklahoma City. But when you're asking young players to step into bigger roles, there's work to be done to get that same buy-in and full-on effort that has become the Thunder's calling card in recent seasons.
Thankfully, Sam Presti chooses his players with that in mind. But in moving on from Dort, Wiggins, and Joe, Oklahoma City has set forth a distinct challenge for itself.
Can the team maintain the continuity and chemistry that's required to rebound from a disappointing end to last season? It will be the most intriguing storyline of 2026-27.
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