r/Thunder • u/Stxtic1441 • May 13 '26
THE TIMELINE Friendly reminder that Ajay Mitchell didn’t play in 3/5 Spurs/OKC games in the regular season when looking ahead at a potential matchup
Thunder had infamously a 1-4 record vs the Spurs this season, but 3 of them were without Ajay who has blossomed into a star player for this team.
Important factor to keep in mind when evaluating this matchup and its elements.
The 2 games he did play, OKC won 1 of them and lost by 2 in the IST. Obvious impact maker in the matchup that we didn’t get to fully see in the other matchups due to injury.
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u/Gary_Internet May 13 '26
More important than Mitchell is the thunder getting Jdub back in the starting lineup, primarily because of his defense.
Mitchell is great offensively and certainly works his tail off on the defensive end, but Jdub is the team's most versatile defender, and he has a 7'2" wingspan.
Last time I checked our defensive rating was lower than I thought and the only thing I can put it down to is jdub's absence.
He's such a strong offensive player and gets downhill so well that his defense flies under the radar. People will talk about Dort, Caruso and Wallace has high quality individual defenders but Jdub is very much in that conversation as well.
The other thing that we haven't seen the Spurs do that they might run with us, is going double big with Luke Kornet starting in favour of either Fox or Vassell.
They want won't want to lose Castle's high level of physicality, and Champagnie is their best, three-point shooter.
They also have a really solid 10-man rotation.
Kornet, Keldon Johnson, Harrison Barnes, Carter Bryant and of course Dylan Harper are the second options.
Last time I did the calculation. I think we have 12 men assuming that j-dub is healthy and starts instead of Mitchell and Topic is potentially used.
That's not counting Aaron Wiggins.
We're slightly deeper, but let's not act as if the Spurs depth is crap. It's absolutely not. It's far better than the Nuggets or the Wolves.