Thunder Rookies Aday Mara, Bennett Stirtz Climb the 2026 Redraft

Oklahoma City has two rookies in the top 11 of the live 2026 NBA redraft, and both are five spots above where they were picked. Aday Mara, the No. 12 pick, moved up to No. 7 after Wednesday's games. Bennett Stirtz, whom the Thunder traded up one spot to get at No. 16, sits at No. 11.

Neither would be playing this much on a healthy Thunder roster. OKC is 8-4 despite losing three starters to injuries in late October, and the minutes those injuries opened up are why both rookies are climbing. The question for anyone holding them in a dynasty league is which role lasts.

The numbers through Nov. 11

Both have played all 12 games, Mara at 21.3 minutes a night with a 61.7 true shooting percentage, Stirtz at 18.6 minutes and 63.1. The board runs through games of Nov. 11, about 11.3 team games in, with production weighted at 0.8. Mara's production score of 58.3 is sixth in the class, ahead of No. 1 pick AJ Dybantsa (45.5). Stirtz's is 49.1. Both production scores are well above their draft-slot priors (39.6 and 32.6), which is what a board climb looks like at this stage.

Per 36 minutes, worked out from their per-game averages, Stirtz is the slightly better scorer, and Mara's rebounding and shot-blocking stand out:

Stirtz points+15.3

Mara points+14.4

Mara rebounds+10.6

Mara blocks+3

Twelve games is still a small sample. One cold shooting week could take several points off either player's true shooting.

Why the minutes are there

The Thunder lost three starters in the space of a week. Jalen Williams broke his left fibula and dislocated his left ankle, and Cason Wallace had surgery for a torn labrum in his left shoulder. Both will be re-evaluated before the end of the regular season, the AP reported on Oct. 30. The same day, OKC said Chet Holmgren had a small right patellar tendon tear and would miss eight to 10 weeks.

Holmgren was getting up shots at shootaround in Portland on Tuesday, per ClutchPoints, but there's still no return date. Counting eight to 10 weeks from Oct. 30 puts his return somewhere from late December to early January.

That date matters more for Mara than for Stirtz. Mara is filling Holmgren's minutes. Stirtz is filling a guard spot left by two players who may not be back until spring.

Aday Mara: the rim protector the board likes

Mara leads all rookies with 1.8 blocks per game, twice as many as the next rookie, Caleb Wilson (0.9). His 6.3 rebounds rank third in the class behind Cameron Boozer and Yaxel Lendeborg, even though he plays 11 fewer minutes a night than either. He's shooting 60.3% from the field, and among the board's top 10 only Lendeborg has a better true shooting percentage.

The role is growing. Over his last five games, per NBA.com, Mara is averaging 11.4 points, 7.2 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 25.6 minutes on 25-of-39 shooting. He had 18 points on 8-of-10 shooting with three blocks in Saturday's 114-75 win over Washington, then a 10-point, 10-rebound game in Tuesday's loss at Portland. On Wednesday he started next to Isaiah Hartenstein and played 32 minutes, his first game over 30, FantasyPros noted. He finished with 11 points, six rebounds and a block in a 118-108 loss.

That two-big lineup is the detail worth watching. If coach Mark Daigneault keeps playing Mara and Hartenstein together, Holmgren's return doesn't send Mara back to 15 minutes a night. It moves him to a third big in a rotation that already uses two.

The weak spots are real. Mara has made one 3-pointer all season, so his scoring depends on dunks, putbacks and passes from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He's 6-of-13 at the line over the last five games. He turned 21 in April, and in our 2000-2021 sample, players drafted at 21 beat their draft slot 47.6% of the time. His player page still gives him a 54% pre-draft estimate once position and path are added in.

Why bigs keep climbing our redrafts

Mara fits the most reliable pattern in our past boards. Across our 2016-2025 live redrafts, 11 of the 50 top-five spots belong to centers and bigs who were drafted 10th or later:

The 2022 board has two of them in its top five. There's a caveat, though. Those boards rank players by career win shares and VORP, and this season's part is an estimate from box-score efficiency. Win shares favor big men who finish near the rim, rebound and don't turn it over. That's partly a model effect, but it also matches how front offices keep finding starting centers in the teens and 30s.

OKC has drafted this kind of player before. Mara's player page lists two other centers taken at No. 12: Steven Adams, Oklahoma City's pick in 2013 and now No. 4 in that class, and Dereck Lively II, drafted by the Thunder in 2023 and No. 9 in his class today.

Bennett Stirtz: efficient, but watch the 3-point rate

Stirtz has come off the bench in all 12 games and is shooting 20-of-44 from three, 45.5%. His 63.1 true shooting is second among the board's top 11, behind only Lendeborg. He scored 13 points in 18 minutes in Tuesday's loss at Portland, per Sports Illustrated's Thunder site, then went 2-of-9 for six points on Wednesday, with three steals in 25 minutes.

The job is bigger than the box score. Daigneault has said he'll use Stirtz as a ball handler more often because of the injuries, Roundtable's Anthony Halkias reported. The idea is to get the ball up the floor and start sets so Gilgeous-Alexander doesn't have to create every possession.

The doubt is the shooting. Stirtz made 35.8% of his threes in his one season at Iowa, per Hoops Rumors, and 44 attempts isn't enough to say he's become a 45% shooter. He was also 22.7 at the draft, so there's less growth to bet on than with most of the players around him on the board. Expect him to slip a few spots when the shooting cools.

What it means for redraft and dynasty leagues

Mara is the better long-term bet. He was ESPN's top-ranked center before the draft (No. 10 overall), he leads the class in the stat that holds up best for young bigs, and he's earning starts next to Hartenstein. In dynasty leagues he's a buy before Holmgren comes back and people assume his minutes are gone. Category leagues should value the blocks now.

Stirtz is the safer bet for this season, not for the long run. With Williams and Wallace possibly out for most of the regular season, his minutes are more secure than Mara's. If the 3-point percentage drifts toward his college number, though, he's closer to a rotation guard than a top-12 pick in this class.

What to watch next

The Thunder play at the Clippers on Friday, against fellow rookies Keaton Wagler and Baba Miller, then at Sacramento on Sunday against Darius Acuff Jr.. Keep an eye on whether Mara starts both games, and on any Holmgren update. The board refreshes every morning after the night's games. For the full guard picture, see our 2026 rookie guard rankings.

Watch the live 2026 NBA redraft →