It goes without saying that the OKC Thunder already have their stars soundly in place.
With Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren leading the charge and officially locked in for the foreseeable future, the ball club is more than set in the top-shelf talent department.
However, hiding in the shadows is a budding star in Cason Wallace, who not only played like one of the team's most dominant players during this past title-winning season, but could very realistically be on the verge of breaking out onto the scene during a pivotal 2025-26 campaign.
Cason Wallace should be gunning for career-best campaign with Thunder
Though the lion's share of attention and credit for Oklahoma City's successes last season was directed to their Big Three, Wallace was quietly one of the biggest difference-makers on the team, particularly on the defensive end.
Through 68 games played, the sophomore ranked fifth in the entire association in total deflections, sixth in total steals, and placed within the 95th percentile in defensive estimated plus/minus while averaging 8.4 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 2.5 assists a night on 47.4 percent shooting from the floor and 35.6 percent shooting from deep.
Selected 10 overall in the 2023 NBA Draft, heading into the league, the hope was always to see Wallace blossom into a bona fide stud on the hardwood. Coming in, many seemed rather confident in comparing his game to that of future Hall of Fame guard Jrue Holiday.
Despite being on easily one of the deepest rosters in the game and a part of perhaps the deepest guard rotation, the Kentucky product has resoundingly established himself as a staple player, as he saw the fourth-most minutes last year among his Thunder peers and tied for the sixth-most total minutes played during their championship run in the 2025 NBA Playoffs.
Now heading into his third go-around in OKC, Wallace finds himself encroaching on rookie-extension eligibility, so the expectation should be that the guard is looking to put his best foot forward in the hopes of securing a lucrative, long-term deal from the organization.
The key to accomplishing such a feat will likely be him keeping up this same level of play and energy on the less glamorous side of the ball while simultaneously growing his craft as a catch-and-shoot threat from long-range (boasted a pedestrian 37.0 percent clip on such attempts last year) and as an overall self-initiator (just 30.2 percent of his made field goals came unassisted).
Should he improve upon both these elements of his game, not only should he have a lofty new extension virtually locked in, but he could realistically cement his status as the successor to potential flight-risk Lu Dort as the club's primary two-guard.