Oklahoma City Thunder offseason recap, early 2026-27 season previewplayWhy SGA considers his season a failure (0:40)NBA InsidersMultiple AuthorsAug 20, 2026, 07:00 AM ET
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The 2025-26 season didn’t end as planned for the Oklahoma City Thunder, who were looking to be the first repeat NBA champion in eight seasons.
Instead, they fell to the San Antonio Spurs in Game 7 of the Western Conference and an offseason of change began.
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The Thunder’s impressive depth took a major hit as Isaiah Joe, Aaron Wiggins and Luguentz Dort were all traded away this summer in an effort to avoid the second apron. Will losing that production prevent them from taking back the West crown from the rival Spurs and reaching their second Finals in three seasons?
Despite the losses, Oklahoma City did retain center Isaiah Hartenstein and guard Kenrich Williams, on top of two top 20 draft picks, so the Thunder should be primed for yet another deep run led by their big three — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren.
ESPN’s staff of experts is looking back at the offseason and taking an early look at the 2026-27 season for all 30 teams, with 30 pieces — one for every team — rolling out each weekday through Sept. 18. We’re answering the biggest looming questions, evaluating X factors and much more for all 30 teams.
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Offseason at a glance
Key additions: C Aday Mara, G Bennett Stirtz
Key retentions: G Kenrich Williams, C Isaiah Hartenstein
Key subtractions: G Isaiah Joe, G Aaron Wiggins, G Luguentz Dort
The extensions for both Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren triggered in July, leading to a trio of financially motivated trades to slash the tax bill and cost-control the current roster.
They sent Isaiah Joe to Detroit and traded Aaron Wiggins and Lu Dort to Atlanta in separate moves, eroding their depth.
General manager Sam Presti made clear in an interview with The Oklahoman that the impression he’s been given from ownership is “the savings generated this summer, and from being out of the tax the last several years, will be re-allocated to future teams.”
That would mean extra breathing room to eventually extend core young players such as Cason Wallace and Ajay Mitchell. Wallace, the likely replacement starter for Dort, is extension eligible off his rookie contract into October. — Anthony Slater
Zach Kram’s offseason grade: C+
Oklahoma City’s new deal with Isaiah Hartenstein — $75 million over three years, replacing a $28.5 million team option for 2026-27 — was sneakily one of the best of the offseason, given the high-priced contracts for other centers.
But the Thunder’s other roster maneuvers were all about cost savings, as they dipped below the second apron after trading Luguentz Dort, Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe for a combined seven second-round picks. That’s an understandable course of action — but just because it makes sense doesn’t mean it’s right. The Thunder will be a bit worse, with considerably less depth, as a result. — Kram
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What Aday Mara brings to the Thunder
What we learned over the past few months
From Ben Golliver’s offseason lessons piece: Oklahoma City still believes in its big three.
The Thunder were bound to cut costs after their Western Conference finals loss. The only question was how they would do it. There were two potential paths: split up their costly big three to preserve their depth or sacrifice multiple role players to keep their star core intact.
The Thunder chose the second route, opting to trade Luguentz Dort, Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins in separate deals for minor draft assets. That series of maneuvers helped Oklahoma City avoid the second apron and retain starting center Isaiah Hartenstein.
These losses don’t look fatal: Joe and Wiggins were expendable bench players, and Cason Wallace and Ajay Mitchell should be able to step in for Dort, who was a cult hero and longtime starter in Oklahoma City. The Thunder enter next season as the NBA’s deepest team once again.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from Sam Presti’s summer is that he showed continued faith in Chet Holmgren, who had a rocky showing during the West finals, and Jalen Williams, who was limited by injuries for much of last season.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Holmgren and Williams will be on the books for a combined $150 million in 2027-28, meaning that Presti will need to reassess next summer whether Oklahoma City can continue to afford all three stars. Don’t forget: Wallace is extension eligible this summer and due for a big raise, too. — Golliver
The big question: Does the trimmed depth lower their ceiling?
After 57, 64 and 67 wins, the Thunder just became only the third NBA team since 1998 to capture the top seed in a conference three consecutive seasons.
That, in part, was due to beefed up depth down to the 13th men, allowing them to continually survive inevitable regular season injury trouble.
A chunk of those Dort, Wiggins, Joe minutes will shift to unproven youth like Mara, Stirtz and Nikola Topic. That should lower their regular season floor, but (considering a ton of wins and a high seed is expected regardless) does it ultimately impact their playoff ceiling?
If they get better health for Jalen Williams and growth from Wallace in an expanded role when the games matter most, they’d profile as a bigger threat to the Spurs than when they faded into the Game 7 background last May. — Slater
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Holmgren: Thunder departures part of ‘business of this game’
Basketball Power Index rank: No. 1
Here are the predicted Net Points per 100 possessions for the Thunder’s top seven players for the 2026-27 season:
OKC has eight players whose projected Net Points rate is positive. Yet, two of them — Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell — were unavailable in the late stages of their series loss to San Antonio and the rest of that depth couldn’t overcome it.
Caruso did his best, but a lot of the guys whose shot diet involved getting inside — like Gilgeous-Alexander, Hartenstein, and Williams — had a rough time with Victor Wembanyama and played well below their norms. — Dean Oliver
Read about how Net Points works here.
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Biggest X factor
G Bennett Stirtz, G Nikola Topic, C Aday Mara and C Thomas Sorber
It might be cheating to group four players together as an X factor. But after the Thunder felt compelled by financial reasons to trade away some of their depth this summer — losing Lu Dort, Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe in the process — they’ll be a bit more reliant on the youngsters to help them get through next season.
To be clear, Oklahoma City would still rank among the title favorites even if none of these four recent first-round picks plays a single playoff minute; the Thunder still go 10-deep in quality players without them. But the Thunder would surely like to see meaningful youth development to help in both the short term — to keep those 10 established contributors fresh in the regular season — and the long term — when a further financial crunch will likely strip away even more depth. — Kram
Fantasy insight from our expert
Cason Wallace is a breakout candidate after averaging 8.6 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.9 steals in 26.6 minutes per game last season. With Luguentz Dort and Isaiah Joe gone, he should see a bigger role and could move into the starting lineup. If the minutes increase, his statistical production could help push him into the top 100.
