A summer filled with celebration nears its end. Only a month remains until the Oklahoma City Thunder start the 2025-26 regular season. The NBA champion has enjoyed its accomplishments, but soon a new marathon will start with them at the top.
Bringing back mostly the same roster, the Thunder are the consensus title favorite. They’re viewed as a team that could pull off the rare feat of being a back-to-back champion. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren all signed contract extensions this offseason to keep their title window wide open.
To prepare for the 2025-26 regular season, Thunder Wire will lay out three goals for all 17 players on the roster. OKC has 15 standard players and two two-way players. Let’s look at Ajay Mitchell and what he could accomplish this upcoming year:
Become backup guard
Even though the Thunder had one of the greatest seasons ever, there were some holes to poke through their near-indestructible roster. One being a lack of a backup guard. They brought home the Larry O’Brien trophy, but did so with an inconsistent offense. When Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams weren’t running the show, there wasn’t anybody else to carry the halfcourt offense and a ball-handler.
Mitchell could change that. But first, he must secure the backup point guard minutes. He had a strong start to his rookie season, but he will see some new competition in Nikola Topic. Both second-year players have some positional overlap, which means only one will likely get consistent minutes. It’ll be a fun training camp battle to follow.
Attempt more free throws
This is the quickest way to get to the next level of being a scorer. And the most efficient way, too. While you can’t control your jumper and getting into a hot streak, you can control your shot selection. Mitchell has proven to be a downhill scorer. If he can uptick that, free throws will naturally follow. He showed that in the 2025 Summer League as OKC’s top scorer. It’s now about translating that over to the NBA.
Mitchell averaged just one free-throw attempt last season in 16.6 minutes. But he shot a healthy 82.9% from the line. That means he shouldn’t be afraid to draw contact on his drives to the basket. In fact, it should be the opposite approach. He should hunt out more drives. Of course, you don’t want to do it out of rhythm. But that’s the best way to see his scoring bump up.
Secure rotation spot
As of right now, Mitchell sits on the outside of OKC’s rotation. Even though he was ready, he seldom played in their playoff run. He only appeared in 12 games in mostly low-leverage minutes. That said, the 23-year-old has the chance to grab more rotation players from other bench players like Isaiah Joe. It’ll all be about how well-rounded he’ll be as a second-year player.
As the Thunder will soon have most of their payroll taken up by Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams and Holmgren, they will need cheap and young talent to fill out the rest of the roster. In comes somebody like Mitchell, who perfectly fits that description. He could solidify his spot as a bench player for the foreseeable future this season. Steadying the bench lineups is the path to that.
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: OKC Thunder 3 goals: Ajay Mitchell could win backup point guard spot
