Ajay Mitchell is Proving He Can Sustain Success Offensively

Oklahoma City’s player development has been a sight to behold during the team’s rebuild. In many ways, it’s why this Thunder team was able to win the franchise’s first NBA championship a season ago. The staff has done such a good job of developing young talent on the roster, giving them a runway to improve, and putting them in a position to succeed. 

There are so many success stories of player development across the roster. It seems like every year, a new player steps up and shows they’re ready for an increased role. For the NBA community that doesn’t follow the Thunder’s roster intently, it feels like a ‘Here we go again’ situation every single season. Sometimes it’s just for a game or two that a player pops off and shows what they’re capable of. Sometimes it’s for a short stretch when the team is dealing with injuries. But sometimes, it’s real and sustainable — and the Thunder just found a rising star. This year, it really feels like the latter.

Ajay Mitchell was a fun story during the first few weeks of the season after an unbelievable Summer League stint. His stats were terrific even though the sample size was small.

But through 19 total games, a full month of data and usage, there’s no reason to believe that this version of Ajay Mitchell isn’t here to stay. This is just who he is as a player, and Mark Daigneault and the rest of the Thunder organization has made it pretty clear that they think he has a very bright future. It’s not a full season sample size yet, but he certainly looks special, and he hasn’t slowed down one bit.

He's averaging 15.9 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 1.7 steals. He's playing 27 minutes per game, and has truly had an impact on both sides of the floor. Everything he's doing is sustainable, too, and something that can be replicated the rest of the season. Even when the Thunder's roster is fully healthy, Mitchell will enhance each player, and open up the game just a little bit more for them.

This is what the Thunder envisioned in another ball handler next to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams to take the pressure off of them. It allows Daigneault to not have to worry about staggering minutes or trying to tinker with lineups to space out the two stars. For the last two off-seasons, it felt like a dynamic, creative guard was on Oklahoma City’s wishlist, and it turned out they already had him on the roster.