“Im a Winning Player”: Ajay Mitchell Making His Presence Felt for OKC Thunder
Of the seven second-round picks from the 2024 NBA Draft class playing at least 20 minutes a night on their respective teams, Oklahoma City Thunder guard Ajay Mitchell is the top scorer and best defender. Among the whole crop, the UC Santa Barbara alum has the second-best rating on both sides of the ball.
The difference between Mitchell and his peers is that he’s doing this with a league-leading 50-15 team that is defending an NBA championship.
“It’s amazing,” Mitchell told R.org in an exclusive interview in Cleveland. “Very grateful for the position I’m in. You’re just exposed to a lot of things, and you learn really quick. It’s amazing to be a part of this organization and learn from the guys we have and keep growing as a player.”
Usually, when a player’s statistical production increases to the level that Mitchell’s has as a sophomore, it indicates significant growth in skill set and self-belief. Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault acknowledges the great job he did over the offseason to improve his body, but he doesn’t quite see Mitchell’s breakout as a leap.
“I think if you really dig into how he played last season, it’s not,” Daigneault told R.org in his pregame press conference in Cleveland. “It would be in context. It looks like a jump optically, but he was kinda on this trajectory last year.
“He was playing rotation minutes right off the bat, and when he got hurt, he was really starting to gain some traction. The injury prevented him from this type of jump, if you want to call it, last season.”
It’s easy to forget that Mitchell averaged nearly 17 minutes per game for OKC as a rookie, cracking the 20-minute mark nine times before he suffered a right big toe sprain on Jan. 3 at Madison Square Garden. Disclosed as a turf toe injury, it required surgery to repair and put him out of action for three months.
Mitchell returned just in time for the last two games of the 2024-25 regular season, which was the prequel to the Thunder hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy on June 22. Unlike the first few months prior to his injury, he wasn’t in the daily mix; however, that doesn’t mean he didn’t benefit from the title run.
“I think he gained confidence from the preparation of the playoffs,” Daigneault said. “Those 23 additional games, he was one circumstance away from being in those games, and he was live for us in those series, even though he didn’t play a ton. I think that was helpful for him.”
“Unfortunately, he got hurt last year, put him back a little bit,” Thunder guard Lu Dort told R.org. “We all knew Ajay was really good. Obviously, when I’d seen him the first time, and I heard he was a two-way, I was actually shook.”
Acclimating to the Pros
Once the summer was over, Mitchell looked to pick up where he left off on the court.
“The injury, as bad as it was, kinda helped me get ready for Year 2,” Mitchell said. “At that time when I got hurt, it was a great time to work on my body; obviously, [I] had the whole offseason to work on that. And then, get back to what [it] was before the injury, building on what I’ve learned from my rookie year. And then, just keep getting better and working hard.”
“He gained the confidence from the experiences he had last year,” Daigneault added.
With just over a month left in the 2025-26 campaign, Mitchell didn’t just get off to a fast start in the first half that he played. It’s who he is. The second-year guard’s game is multifaceted, exhibiting the toughness and grit that exemplify OKC’s identity.
“He’s done an incredible job this season integrating with a team that was a really good team last year,” Daigneault said. “He’s highly confident and aggressive, but not at the expense of the team. And he doesn’t allow the team orientation to get in the way of his confidence and aggression.
“He’s just got an unbelievable feel for how to thread that needle; the team’s done a great job of allowing him to do that. I think how hard he competes, especially on defense, gives him a lot of margin for that.”
Mitchell, unfortunately, suffered an abdominal injury before the All-Star break that has held him out of the last 20 games, but he’s returning to play on Monday for the league-leading Thunder against the Denver Nuggets. It’ll be interesting to see how he reacclimates to the squad now that Jared McCain has entered the fold.
Still, according to NBA.com, Mitchell is atop the NBA with a 37.8% defended field goal percentage, minimum 350 attempts. Four of the top 11 names on the list play for the Thunder.
Chet Holmgren, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Isaiah Hartenstein all have dFG% below 43%, a perfect illustration of how difficult it is to establish any sort of rhythm against the champs.
“We have great defenders on this team, and there’s a lot of guys that you can learn from,” Mitchell said. “For me, that was a main emphasis. Getting in this organization, seeing the guys that we had — great defensive players, a lot of great system players too — I think learning from them, especially on the defensive side, was huge for me just to bring that to my game and being aggressive on that end.”
Try him in whatever play type you want. It won’t matter at this rate. Mitchell has flummoxed ball-handlers in pick-and-roll situations, yielding just 0.66 points per possession. Though roll men are 13-of-28 against him, opponents that want to put him in isolation are 2-of-19 collectively.
For the last two seasons, OKC has allowed fewer than 103 points per 100 possessions when Mitchell has been on the floor, according to Cleaning the Glass. That is also a 99th percentile figure among league players.
Mitchell’s Bag Is Deep
With a savvy handle and smooth change-of-direction crossover, Mitchell can create for himself consistently. Even if a defender is draped onto him, he wisely uses his stop-on-a-dime cadence or lowers his shoulder to get separation and get to where he wants to go.
“He’s really aggressive,” Dort said. “He’s a really good player. Second year, but he looks really mature. He’s real comfortable, and whenever he has the ball, we all know he’s going to make good reads. That’s the type of player he is.”
Mitchell likes to use his left-handed pull-up jumper frequently. He finds his zone just below the mid-range distance, whether it’s an eight-footer or a push floater over the top, and contact does not faze him.
“I think the more you’re exposed to different defenses, you kinda get to learn from all of them, so you can find solutions for all of them,” Mitchell said. “I think it’s a process. Obviously, it’s just my second year, so there’s still a lot to learn.
“It’s all about one, working on my body — getting stronger, being able to get to my spots — and then just reading the game and having that IQ and learning from the guys we have. When you look at Shai or guys like J-Dub [Jalen Williams] that can get to their spots easily, there’s a lot to learn there, too.”
With less than two years of NBA experience at 23, Mitchell believes he’s finding a healthy balance between attacking and getting the ball to proven players.
“You always want to be aggressive on both ends, play your way, but you’ve got to know who you’re on the court with, and you’ve also got to know what’s best for the team,” Mitchell said. “I think that’s really important. I’m a winning player. I want to make plays to win the game. So I think it’s really finding that fine line of being aggressive but then also knowing where your guys are, what situation we’re in.”
“He’s a really good ball-handler, and then, just controlling the game,” Dort added. “He’s a great driver. He drives a lot, makes a lot of tough shots, and at the same time, he creates for others. If you’ve got somebody like that off the bench, it’s really good for us.”
Mitchell has a larger workload this year. Staying on top of his recovery and making sure he’s ready “every single night” are a big part of handling that uptick.
“Obviously, my role is probably a bit bigger this year, more minutes,” Mitchell said. “But to me, it doesn’t really change the way I should see it or play. It’s the same mentality: getting out on the court and making plays to win.”
Everyday Contributor
With Hartenstein and Aaron Wiggins playfully egging him on after the Thunder’s rout of the Cleveland Cavaliers on MLK Day, Dort pointed to the French language as helping him connect with Mitchell when he got to OKC.
“I told him a lot of stuff about the league and how good he can be in the NBA,” Dort said with a grin. “I really helped him (laughs). Other than that, just the coaching staff and how it’s easy to contribute to a team like this.”
“He’s a guy that is laying it on the line, not just with the ball in his hands,” Daigneault said. “He’s playing every possession hard, regardless of whether it’s offense, defense, whether he’s on-ball, off-ball. He’s done an incredible job.”
“He was patient, and then he waited for his time to come,” Dort added. “And now, he got the opportunity and really used it. Whenever he got to play, he showed the type of player he is, and he’s been doing great for us.”
Mitchell’s rave reviews shouldn’t come as a surprise. He’s earned it.
With the playoffs creeping closer on the calendar, on a quest to repeat with the Thunder, Mitchell won’t take a chance like this for granted.
“I feel like this year, [I’m] just way more comfortable out there,” Mitchell said. “I’m just learning a lot from the guys on the team and was able to come out and just play my game. Your first year, you’re kinda exposed to a lot of new things and you just learn a lot and you soak everything up. I feel like that’s really what happened for me.
“I think going into Year 2, I had that confidence of, like, I’ve been through it, so I kinda know what’s going on in the NBA. And learning what the NBA is was really important for me. Now we’re here today, and I’m able to play that way, so it’s great.”