Hanifan’s offseason outlook: Evaluating the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 2026 offseason

Heat Thunder — (Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images)

The calendar has turned to September. You know what that means, right?! Our offseason outlook series is back for the third-straight year!

Hot Hot Hoops senior writer Matt Hanifan will provide his take on the offseasons of all 30 teams for the next 30 days! We will be going in alphabetical order, beginning with the Eastern Conference. To continue along, we will be diving into the Oklahoma City Thunder’s summer.

Previous offseason outlooks:

Evaluating the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 2026 offseason:

Additions: ———

Subtractions: Luguentz Dort, Aaron Wiggins, Isaiah Joe

Re-signed: Isaiah Hartenstein, Kenrich Williams

Draft: Aday Mara (No. 12 overall), Bennett Stirtz (No. 16), Otega Oweh

Hanifan’s outlook: With Jalen Williams’ and Chet Holmgren’s rookie scale max deals kicking in this season, the Thunder spent most of the offseason digging themselves out of the second apron.

Over the last three seasons, Sam Presti and Co. haven’t had to worry about any sort of second apron penalties infiltrating a dominant, deep core. Not this offseason, as Oklahoma City made three cost-cutting trades to effectively eliminate $38 million from this year’s payroll. Luguentz Dort and Wiggins were shipped to Atlanta in two separate trades, while offloading Joe to Detroit. The net cost? Seven second-round picks.

That’s a pretty big hit to their depth, although I think this will allow Cason Wallace, Ajay Mitchell and Jared McCain to flourish even more. This also opens the runway for rookie Bennett Stirtz, a ready-made pick-and-roll maestro, who the franchise drafted just outside of the lottery. This is still a very good team — but they’re not as dynamic as they were last year, or two years ago, when they won their first-ever title. I think that could be an issue in a deep Western Conference against San Antonio, the reigning West champions, Minnesota and Denver, the only team in the NBA that’s in the second apron.