Thunder Rookies Shine In Preseason Debuts

The Oklahoma City Thunder tipped off their 2026-2027 campaign with a preseason opener at The BOK Center in Tulsa on Tuesday night.

Never mind that the final score says the visiting New Orleans Pelicans defeated the Thunder 116-110. There's a whole lot of context missing if you just checked the scores tab on your favorite sports app of choice. First off, New Orleans played their full squad and OKC sat all their starters and a couple key backups. The Thunder were ahead by 15 points at halftime when their true rotation players played. That lead swelled to 24 points before Oklahoma City let the two-way and training camp players finish the game.

Most importantly, nobody is going to talk about preseason wins or losses because the only thing Thunder fans care about is the performances of the young players. And in that aspect, Tuesday night in Tulsa was a resounding victory.

Jared McCain did his usual sharpshooting thing, Ajay Mitchell had his moments and Kenrich Williams reminded everyone that he can impact the game in every facet, but it was the 1st Round rookies that stole the show.

Aday Mara, the #12 overall pick, looked like a completely different player than the one we last saw in Summer League. The big man finished with 12 points on 5-5 shooting, 9 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 blocks in only 18 minutes. His game was always going to be better suited in the Thunder's structured environment surrounded by NBA players than it was with a ragtag group in Utah and Las Vegas. But his body and conditioning were noticeably different as well.

“That's what I mentioned before the game with him. He worked really hard from the end of Summer League until he came back to Oklahoma City and then to the start of the training camp in OKC," Mark Daigneault said after the game. "That's a lot of days that he stacked up with his head down on his body and on his conditioning. And it showed up tonight. And he's obviously a very effective player because of his skill level on offense and the impact on defense. You gotta be in great shape to do those things and he's working towards that. That was a really nice start for him."

Bennett Stirtz, the #16 overall pick, showed everyone why OKC traded up one spot to draft him. The combo guard finished with 15 points on 6-9 shooting including 3-6 from deep, 5 rebounds and 6 assists. Like Mara, his game translates much smoother to the NBA environment. And he was able to play off ball more, a luxury he was not afforded in Summer League as the team's only ball handler and shot creator.

"He's used to having the ball in his hands. He was the highest usage player in college basketball last year," Daigneault said. "So moving off the ball is a little new for him. And I think during the week you could see him trying to calibrate the balance of aggression when he's got the ball in his hands and functionality. And today I thought was his actually his best day. Despite the fact that it was a game day. In terms of that, he took the right shots, he attacked on the right plays, he kept moving on the right ones on offense. I thought he had a nice blend as the whole team did. But he played very well on offense."

It's only one game. It doesn't even count in the record books. But Tuesday night in Tulsa was an encouraging debut for OKC's two 1st Round rookies.