Last season, Ajay Mitchell found himself finishing fifth in the running for the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year award after posting impressive averages of 13.6 points, 3.6 assists, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.2 steals on 48.5 percent shooting from the floor for the top-seeded OKC Thunder.
Now, with the departures of guys like Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins, the 24-year-old is only expected to take on an even bigger role within coach Mark Daigneault's rotation in 2026-27, which, in turn, could give him the boost he needs to finally claim the illustrious honor in year three.
Of course, the moves the Thunder have made this summer won't just benefit Mitchell's productivity and on-court usage moving forward. On OKC's roster are several players who should be expected to see significant increases in their in-game tasks, with Jared McCain certainly being one of them.
Frankly, though Mitchell is currently the safe bet to serve as the primary weapon within the Thunder's second unit, McCain should undoubtedly be seen as a serious threat to his status as top dog off the pine.
In fact, there's a chance he could serve as one of his most ferocious competition for the title of 6MOY.
Thunder could have two serious 6MOY candidates in 2026-27
As noted, the offseason departures of I-Joe and Wiggins could certainly stand to benefit McCain as they should Mitchell, especially in the playing time department.
After all, with their averages of 21.2 and 21.8 minutes, respectively, now up for grabs, McCain's averages of 18.0 minutes should only increase to north of 20 in his second go-around with the club.
The last time the 22-year-old was seen logging such playing time while predominantly coming off the bench was back during his rookie season with the 76ers, when, prior to being shut down with both a torn lateral meniscus and a torn UCL in his thumb, he was dropping 15.3 points, 2.6 assists, and 2.4 rebounds per night on 46.0 percent shooting from the floor and 38.3 percent shooting from deep.
Since then, he spent the first half of his sophomore campaign shaking off the rust formed from post-op dormancy and the second half getting acclimated to playing with the Thunder on the fly following his trade-deadline arrival.
Even amid the growing pains of learning how to operate next to his new OKC teammates, McCain produced more than admirably, as he wrapped up his season as a regular in the rotation while posting averages of 10.4 on 39.1 percent shooting from distance, and even served as a major contributor late in their playoff run, even posting two 20-plus-point games during the conference finals.
As he admitted in a recent YouTube video documenting his summer, this is his first fully healthy offseason since his days back at Duke before entering the association as the 15 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft.
With this, he's visibly been making the most of the opportunity, with recent clips surfacing of him getting in behind-the-scenes runs with fellow backcourt mates Cason Wallace, the presumed starting two guard, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Noticeably, Ajay Mitchell was not present, as he's still in the process of recovering from a calf strain that sidelined him for a significant chunk of OKC's recent ill-fated postseason run, which, coupled with McCain's outspoken drive to continue improving his game, could leave the Santa Barbara product at a slight disadvantage heading into camp and in the 6MOY race thereafter.
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