Heading into the 2026-27 season, the OKC Thunder find themselves strapped with an obscene amount of promising young talents.
From recent Rookie of the Year frontrunners like Jared McCain to sub-22-year-old lottery picks like Nikola Topic and Aday Mara, Oklahoma City is flush with high-upside youngsters.
However, among all of these higher-profile prospects, one player The Athletic's Sam Vecenie believes could be first in line to contribute among his fellow green ballers this season is incoming rookie Bennett Stirtz.
When asked during a recent episode of the Game Theory Podcast who among the newer pick-ups he thinks could step into a consistent role within the rotation moving forward, Vecenie quickly pointed to the club's 16 overall pick from June's NBA Draft as the "most likely" to do so, largely due to the fact that, in recent years, the club's backcourt has suffered widespread injuries.
"We've seen previously that if one of their ball handlers goes down, they've needed another one. Stirtz would at least be able to kind of buoy that creation ability on top of being a lights-out shooter off the catch," Vecenie said.
Thunder have made great use of backup guards in the past
As Vecenie alluded to, over the past few years, Oklahoma City has struggled with health woes in its backcourt and has regularly implemented a next-man-up approach to its guard rotation.
Last season, we saw Isaiah Joe benefit from this particular strategy, especially from late January through early March, when guys like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Ajay Mitchell were dealing with long-standing injuries.
Over a 20-game stretch throughout this span, the wing served as a go-to offensive weapon and posted impressive averages of 13.7 points and 2.9 rebounds on 41.5 percent shooting from deep.
Now, with Joe gone, along with the likes of Aaron Wiggins and Lu Dort, Stirtz has little competition around him to fill at least one of these backcourt understudy roles, and his skill set should make his substitution all the more seamless.
Since being snatched up in the first round of this year's draft, many have drawn comparisons between the young two guard's game and I-Joe's.
The 22-year-old is fresh off a First-team All-Big Ten campaign while suiting up for the University of Iowa, dropping impressive per-game averages of 19.8 points on 47.7 percent shooting from the floor and 35.8 percent shooting from deep.
Like Joe, he also established himself as a lethal off-the-catch shooter, cashing in on roughly 52 percent of his catch-and-shoot looks.
Considering the injuries that have been present within their guard rotation over the last few years, coupled with just how frequently coach Mark Daigneault likes to roll out three guard lineups, it's no wonder Vecenie views Stirtz as a player who could see some substantial action right out of the gate in his pro career.
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