The OKC Thunder backcourt rotation is set to look rather different this coming season.
With the departures of Lu Dort, Isaiah Joe, and Aaron Wiggins, Oklahoma City's guard pecking order is in line for a sizeable shakeup, with many expecting Cason Wallace to receive the starting two guard nod next to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and guys like Ajay Mitchell and Jared McCain taking on a larger share of the second-unit workload.
While training camp is still over a month away from kicking off, and regular season tip-off over two months away, it seems the healthy crop of top-billed Thunder guard talents are already putting in the work in conjoined, behind-the-scenes training sessions, as a recently surfaced clip showed Shai, Wallace, and McCain all running various drills together.
The trio may have built-in experience playing with each other as is, especially SGA and Wallace, who have been teammates for three full seasons now, but with Cason and McCain likely being entrusted with more responsibilities and larger roles within coach Mark Daigneault's scheme in 2026-27 as a result of the club's summer decision-making, preparing early should only help them answer the call.
By the look of it, it seems all three completely understand this and are actively looking to hone their on-court craft and strengthen chemistry well before reporting to camp in late September.
Thunder still waiting on Ajay Mitchell to fully recover from calf injury
Though it was certainly an encouraging sight to see Gilgeous-Alexander, Wallace, and McCain running drills with one another, when watching the recently surfaced clips, it was hard not to notice that Ajay Mitchell was absent.
Easily the most productive guard from last year's bench rotation, the soon-to-be junior has been sidelined since midway through the Western Conference Finals with a nagging calf strain.
Though he has gone on record noting that there has been significant progress in his recovery, several months after the Thunder kicked off their offseason, Mitchell has acknowledged that he's still not back to full strength.
A fully healthy Mitchell has proven to be one of Oklahoma City's best weapons, as he just recently posted averages of 13.6 points, 3.6 assists, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.2 steals on 48.5 percent shooting from the floor last year, and even bumped these scoring numbers up to a stellar 18.4 points on 46.7 percent shooting from the floor through seven starts in the postseason.
If he wasn't already considered the top second unit option, then the expected promotion of Wallace into the first five and trades of I-Joe and Wiggins this summer are only bound to thrust him into such a role come next season.
In order to seamlessly make up for these aforementioned losses, the Thunder will need Mitchell at 100 percent health. Unfortunately, he's admittedly not there quite yet.
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