2026-27 Season Preview: Oklahoma City Thunder

The Thunder were eliminated by the Spurs in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals last season.

Offseason Recap

•

Last Season

:

64-18 (1

st

in West, lost in Western Conference Finals)

• Key Additions

Aday Mara, Otega Oweh, Bennett Stirtz

Every Thunder move this offseason

Season Outlook

Oklahoma City had a Larry O’Brien Trophy peeking up from the back seat of its 2025 championship convertible, the right shades and tunes for the long trip ahead and an uncluttered horizon stretching far down an open road, a path cleared by top-to-bottom work of the Thunder players, coaches and management.

That was a year ago. Things look different now. The Thunder have company and find themselves vying with the San Antonio Spurs for present and future dominance in the Western Conference. Other teams such as Minnesota, Denver and Houston have stomped on their gas pedals, too, eager to close the gap.

OKC’s core trio of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams checks most of the skills-and-futures boxes. Even with the departures of Luguentz Dort, Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe, the roster is deep, with a horde of draft picks on hand to keep replenishing.

Coach Mark Daigneault, entering his seventh season, hasn’t finished lower than sixth in Coach of the Year balloting since 2023 and won it in 2024. He steered the Thunder to the NBA’s best record of 64-18 last season – 63-14 if not for an ominous 1-4 against the Spurs. Losing to San Antonio in seven games in May makes it clear this will be no weekend joyride.

Breakout Candidate: Ajay Mitchell

Mitchell at least steps into this spotlight with experience. He had a breakout year last season, staying healthier after appearing in only 36 games as a rookie in 2024-25. He doubled his stats to 13.6 points, 3.3 rebounds and 3.6 assists with about a 50% increase in playing time, and stepped into the injury void opened by Jalen Williams’ hamstring issues.

Now Mitchell will try to do it again. Losing three rotation guys in Dort, Wiggins and Joe opens up 59 minutes per night over 82 games, so bumping both his playing time and 57 appearances looks more like a need than a luxury. It wasn’t a fluke that OKC was 50-7 when he played last regular season vs. 14-11 when he didn’t. In the playoffs, his presence meant even more: 10-1 with Mitchell, 1-3 without him. The 6-foot-4 guard missed the final four games of the West finals with a calf injury.

1 Number To Know

8.3 —

Last season, the Thunder allowed 8.3 fewer points per 100 possessions than the league average (114.8), which was the second-best differential for any team in the 30 years for which we have play-by-play data. Only the 2003-04 Spurs were better defensively over that time when you take the league average into account.

With Jalen Williams missing much of the season (and the playoffs), the Oklahoma City offense took a step backward. And they scored an anemic

95.8 points per 100 possessions

over their four losses in the Western Conference Finals. But the defense was as good as it’s ever been, and it allowed the Thunder to outscore their opponents by 11.1 points per game, the eighth-best differential in NBA history, in the regular season.

Dort was the guy

assigned

to the opponent’s top perimeter scorer, but the Thunder defense was at its best, both

in the regular season

and

in the playoffs

, with Dort off the floor. He had other great defenders behind him and the Thunder will likely finish in the top five defensively for a fourth straight season.

— John Schuhmann

5 Must-See Matchups

• Oct. 20: Thunder vs. Spurs —

Last season, the Thunder had the honor of opening at home, part of the spoils of winning the 2025 championship. This year, OKC travels to San Antonio to face the West champs who put the Thunder out last spring.

• Nov. 23: Thunder vs. Pacers —

It’s a rematch of that 2025 Finals, with OKC eager to reach the title round again and the Pacers hoping their “gap year” was the exception, now that All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton is back.

• Dec. 20: Thunder vs. Hawks —

Two games in three nights against popular and helpful members of Oklahoma City’s championship squad. In this one, they’ll see Dort and Wiggins, whom they traded in July to Atlanta. On Dec. 23, the Thunder will be in Detroit, the new home of Isaiah Joe, another July move made for draft picks.

• Feb. 25: Thunder vs. Knicks —

It’s a challenging way to come back from an All-Star break, facing the defending champs on their court. Then two nights later the Thunder are in Detroit to take on the hungry young Pistons, with a marquee matchup of MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander vs. Cade Cunningham.

• March 23: Thunder vs. Suns —

The Thunder play seven road games in the final three weeks of the season, including a back-to-back set at Phoenix that begins with this one.

>

Complete Regular Season Schedule

Preseason Storylines

Jalen Williams’ trajectory needs a reset. An All-Star, 21.6 ppg scorer, third-team All-NBA and second-team All-Defense pick two years ago, wrist surgery and hamstring troubles saw him take big steps backward in involvement and impact. If JDub learned anything last year, it should be how to get and stay healthy.

Holmgren was a force at power forward in 2025-26, averaging 17.1 points, 8.9 boards and 1.9 blocks while finishing second in Defensive Player of the Year voting. Then he faded in the West finals, dropping to 10.7 ppg and 7.1 rpg while making only 27% of his threes and passing up shots overall (just 7.3 attempts in that seven-game ouster). His confidence might need an early jolt this autumn.

Holmgren’s backup, Kenrich Williams is back on a 1-year deal in what will be his seventh Thunder season. Either he’ll assert himself early, or it could be his longest year yet.

Complete Preseason Schedule

* * *

Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him

here

, find

his archive here

follow him on X

.