While the Thunder look to avoid a 2-0 deficit to the Pacers in tonight’s Game 2 Finals matchup, around the league, teams are eyeing their roster construction with interest, writes Jake Fischer for The Stein Line.
That’s not just because of the success general manager Sam Presti has had building a small-market powerhouse, but also because the team currently has the maximum 15 players under contract for next season while holding three top-45 picks in the 2025 draft, two of which are first-round picks (15 and 24).
Fischer writes that the team has a unique level of flexibility that could allow it to make any number of roster moves. That could include declining rookie guard **Ajay Mitchell**‘s team option and bringing him back as a two-way contract, which would require some level of trust from Mitchell. It could also mean packaging picks to move up into the lottery, and Fischer reports that some teams in that range of the draft are expecting that possibility to present itself. They could also trade out of the draft, rather than up, to continue accumulating future draft assets and delay making a decision.
The Thunder are already set to add last year’s lottery guard Nikola Topic to the rotation after he missed the entirety of the 2024/25 season, so in addition to roster spots, there’s also a question of how many minutes will be available for rookies next year.
We have more Thunder news:
Speaking of Mitchell, the former second-round pick’s inclusion in the Game 1 rotation for the Thunder was somewhat unexpected, considering he had only played 64 playoff minutes heading into the Finals. However, that was what made it such a Thunder move, writes Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman. The team prides itself on its next-man-up approach, and on Thursday night, that meant Mitchell seeing the first Finals action of his nascent career. “I don’t think there’s more nervousness, I think maybe more excitement just because it’s the Finals. But at the end of the day, it’s basketball. Once you step on the court, there’s nothing really else that matters. When I step on the floor, it’s just basketball,” Mitchell said.
**Alex Caruso*‘s journey to the NBA Finals began with a 2016 Exhibit 10 contract tryout, a workout that quickly showed who he would be as a basketball player and teammate, writes ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. “By midway through the workout, he’s coaching the workout. He’s doing what he does*,” coach Mark Daigneault said. But even the oft-lauded Presti didn’t quite know what he had in the versatile defender, and Caruso eventually left for the Lakers without ever having been called up from the Thunder’s G League affiliate. It’s fitting that now, as a 31-year-old veteran with championship pedigree, he has returned to where it all began to help his former coach and organization, both on the court and as a mentor to the cadre of young, defensive-minded guards on the roster.
Daigneault has taken a lion’s share of the blame for Oklahoma City’s Game 1 collapse against the Pacers, who once again came back miraculously to steal Game 1 on the road. While it’s natural to look for a target for blame after such a dramatic let-down, SI’s Rylan Stiles writes that putting it all on the head coach is an inaccurate way to look at it. While changing the starting lineup that had gotten the team to the Finals before Game 1 was a controversial decision, the starting unit wasn’t why they lost the game, Stiles writes. Neither was playing Mitchell. While Daigneault could have, and probably should have, brought Shai Gilgeous-Alexander back into the game sooner in the fourth quarter or experimented with double-big lineups, ultimately, the team’s second and third options, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, weren’t good enough. If either had played even slightly better, Stiles writes, the Thunder would be up 1-0 and none of these questions would be popping up at all.
There are specific things the Thunder can do to ensure the end of Game 2 doesn’t play out as it did in Game 1, writes ESPN’s Zack Kram. The first thing is to put Game 1 out of their heads completely — something the Knicks seemed to struggle to do after losing Game 1 against the Pacers in similarly deflating fashion. As Stiles wrote, Williams and Holmgren need to step up, as they did against the Timberwolves, especially as the team sacrifices size and rebounding to keep up with the Pacers’ frenetic pace. They also need to move the ball quicker and not devolve into stagnant offensive possessions around Gilgeous-Alexander isolations. Indiana is counting on the MVP scoring, but where Oklahoma City can hurt them is by getting the supporting cast involved.