Aday Mara, Bennett Stirtz Finished With 2026 NBA Summer League

The Oklahoma City Thunder are taking on the Brooklyn Nets, after battling the Dallas Mavericks, without Bennett Stirtz and Aday Mara who are finished with the Summer League period of their 2026 development.

Michigan Wolverines center Aday Mara (15) celebrates the team’s NCAA men's basketball tournament national championship victory Monday, April 6, 2026, after defeating the UConn Huskies 69-63 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Summer League is a fun time for NBA fans. The last taste of men's professional basketball until October's preseason rolls around, a two week stretch of full days of hoops to hold you over for the dark months of August and September where the basketball news and fix will be hard to come by as it relates to the NBA. It is also fans first time seeing the incoming rookie class, which makes the NBA world watch the first year group of players under a microscope that will wrongfully create plenty of hot takes and definitive judgements on who these players will be despite these summer time exhitions not mattering –– and having very little impact –– to the player's long-term NBA development.

The Oklahoma City Thunder will have played in eight Summer League games, dating back to July 4 in Salt Lake City for three games before joining the rest of the NBA in Vegas. The Thunder have put together a lackluster roster as is a product of not only how good the team has gotten but a pair of injuries to Nikola Topic and Thomas Sorber, leaving the Bricktown Ballers with only a few players worth monitoring throughout the Summer.

While it is fun each year to learn about G League hopefuls and get a glimpse of who might be able to fill out the OKC Blue roster for NBA sickos, the impact on the Oklahoma City Thunder is minor.

The only players that are currently on the Oklahoma City Thunder roster who played in Summer League are two-way guards Brooks Barnhizer and Josh Dix alongside the trio of rookies from the 2026 NBA Draft class in No. 12 overall pick Aday Mara, No. 16 overall pick Bennett Stirtz and No. 41 overall pick Otega Oweh who also landed on a two-way pact just before Summer League began. Oweh only played a game and a half with the Thunder Summer squad before being sidelined with an ankle injury.

Mara and Stirtz played deep into the Summer League before being shut down just minutes before tip-off against the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday, causing the two rookies to miss the final two games as both will be out against the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday. This is par for the course for first round picks, looking around the NBA most first round selections are done for the Summer and these two played even more Summer League games than most Thunder rookies do.

Mara 9.2 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.8 blocks per game across five tilts while shooting 56% from the floor. Stirtz turned in 14.4 points, 3.4 assists, 1.6 rebounds and 1.4 stocks (steals plus blocks) per game while shooting 45% from the floor, 30% from beyond the arc and 100% at the charity stripe across the same five games.

Now, sights turn to October where this duo will be a heavy part of the Thunder's preseason slate one has to imagine.