Thunder Journal: The Ajay Mitchell Journal

We gotta talk about Ajay Mitchell.

The second-round sophomore from Santa Barbara is the Thunder storyline through the first five games of the 2025-26 season. Mind you, this is a team coming off a championship, featuring the reigning MVP and co-starring an on-the-mend All-NBA player, a 7’1” unicorn starting the year on an All-Star trajectory, and a host of other beloved players ranging from The Dorture Chamber to the man who saved basketball.

Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix believes Ajay has already wrapped up Most Improved Player.

Vegas now has Mitchell officially listed in their Sixth Man of the Year odds.

The Ajay Mitchell buzz is getting louder. Let’s get into the how and why.

Mitchell is averaging 18.2 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 1.2 steals per game. He's shooting 47.3% from the field, 34.8% from three, and is a perfect 13-for-13 from the free throw line. And these aren’t empty stats. They aren’t garbage-time stats. They aren’t stats padded against inferior competition. These are all in competitive minutes against four playoff contenders and one team that still believes they’re a playoff contender (as my grandma would say, bless those Kings’ hearts).

OKC has needed every single point, assist, rebound, and steal Mitchell has recorded. What would the defending champs’ record be right now if not for the play of the Belgian-born combo guard? I'm confident in saying it would not be 5-0. The league’s deepest team has been stretched thin early by injuries to Jalen Williams, Isaiah Joe, Nikola Topic, Kenrich Williams, Thomas Sorber, Alex Caruso, and Chet Holmgren. OKC needed a couple of guys to step up. Enter Ajay Mitchell and Aaron Wiggins.

While some outside observers may be shocked to learn that Sam Presti has uncovered yet another late-draft gem, the team knew Mitchell was this kind of player.

“He’s been huge in some really big games against really good teams. It’s no surprise he’s showed up in those moments ‘cause of how he approaches the game and how he works,” Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said after the win over Sacramento.

There are some draft gurus out there who may have seen this coming as well, because all of this stuff we are seeing on the court from Mitchell was also on his college game film. He averaged 20 points along with 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1.2 steals per game his junior season at Santa Barbara. Those stats look familiar? He also shot 50.4% from the field, 39.3% from three, and 85.8% from the free throw line. Guess he’s going to eventually miss some free throws. Bummer.

So why did a player who put up those impressive numbers fall to the second round of the 2024 NBA Draft? Small school. “Old” for a rookie. Not a top-tier athlete. Sometimes those guys fall in the draft due to the lack of a perceived ceiling and upside. But a lot of times, the most important trait is overlooked: the ability to hoop. Mitchell has that in spades.

“The more tools you have, the better off you are. He has so many tools, it doesn’t really matter what you do out there. He’s just showing the world that game by game," SGA said of Mitchell’s ability to attack defenses. Hooper translation: Ajay has a deep bag.

Of course, it didn’t end up mattering because OKC went on to win the championship, but if there was one specific need you could pinpoint during last year’s postseason run, many would say a third ball handler and creator—another playmaker and bucket-getter to take some pressure off of SGA and JDub. Topic could certainly be that guy in the future, but Mitchell has taken hold of the role and may not let go.

On that note, Mitchell isn’t going anywhere once OKC is fully healthy. Once JDub, Joe, Topic, and Kenny Hustle are back, minutes will obviously change up and down the roster. Who knows on any given night how much playing time any player outside of SGA, JDub, and Chet will receive. But I do know this: Mitchell is filling a role that is vital to this team’s continued success and doing it at a high level. His minutes may come down some, but he’ll stay in the nightly rotation.

Here’s the exciting part for Thunder fans: Ajay is just getting warmed up. He flashed this talent during his rookie season before it was cut short by injury. He’s only played a total of 41 career games—half an NBA season—but he’s impressed in almost every one of those games. He has obviously taken a leap from what we saw last year. And he’s still just scratching the surface of his development.

Ajay was asked what areas he feels he needs to improve in as a player.

“To be honest, every area. I’m still learning a lot. I still need to work on a lot of things,” Mitchell replied in the most Thunder-player way possible.

Look, I know we are working with a very small sample size here. I’m a Dallas Cowboys fan, so I lived the famous Bill Parcells “put away the anointing oil” quote in real time. But I don’t write thousand-word journals about sophomore reserve role players all willy-nilly. I think Mitchell will continue to help OKC win games with his scoring, creating, playmaking, ball handling, shooting, and, well, see, that’s the thing, he just does everything pretty dang well.

For the rest of the NBA, it’s the worst possible news. OKC got themselves another guy.