On Friday night in Memphis, Ajay Mitchell scored 35 points on 14-of-20 shooting in a 128-97 Thunder win. It was a career high, five points past the 30 he scored against Phoenix on Oct. 26, and the second 30-point game of his career. A night later, at home against Washington, he had 12 in a 114-75 win.

Through 10 games Mitchell is averaging 18.9 points, up from 13.6 a season ago. Seven of those games have been starts.

Ajay Mitchell’s points, game by game

Oklahoma City opened the season with Jalen Williams, Cason Wallace and Chet Holmgren in its starting lineup. All three are now out. Williams fractured his left fibula and dislocated his ankle in the fourth quarter against the Clippers on Oct. 25 and will be re-evaluated after the regular season. Wallace tore the labrum in his left shoulder. Holmgren has a small tear in his right patellar tendon and was given an eight-to-10-week timeline.

Mitchell and Jared McCain moved into the lineup the next night against Phoenix. Mitchell has started every game since.

1. Oct. 20–25Mitchell comes off the bench in the first three games: 4, 12 and 18 points.
2. Oct. 25Jalen Williams is stretchered off in the fourth quarter of a 108-101 win over the Clippers.
3. Oct. 26First start of the season: 30 points, then a career high, in a 125-114 win over Phoenix.
4. Oct. 28Williams has surgery to reconstruct the ankle ligaments. Mitchell scores 29 in a 120-96 loss at Dallas.
5. Oct. 30The Thunder say Holmgren will be out eight to 10 weeks with a patellar tendon tear.
6. Nov. 6Career-high 35 at Memphis, in his sixth straight start.

As a starter, Mitchell is averaging 22.1 points in 28.3 minutes and shooting 53.6 percent from the field (60 of 112). In his three games off the bench he averaged 11.3 points in 24.7 minutes on 45.5 percent shooting (15 of 33).

Most of the jump has come inside the arc. He is 8 of 26 from three as a starter, but he has made 27 of 33 free throws in those seven games, against 3 of 3 off the bench. He has scored at least 20 points in five of the seven starts.

Minutes and points, starter vs. bench

Mitchell, a Belgian guard from Namur, was the 38th pick in the 2024 draft out of UC Santa Barbara. New York selected him and traded him to Oklahoma City on draft night. As a rookie he averaged 6.5 points in 36 games and won a championship with the 2025 Thunder.

Last season he averaged 13.6 points in 57 games, started 16 of them and finished fifth in Sixth Man of the Year voting. He then averaged 15.1 points in 11 playoff games. This season, at 24, he is at 18.9.

Ajay Mitchell’s points per game by season

1. June 2024Drafted 38th by New York and traded to Oklahoma City the same night.
2. Oct. 24, 2024NBA debut.
3. June 2025Wins the championship as a rookie.
4. July 2025Signs a multi-year extension.
5. 2025-2613.6 points a game, fifth in Sixth Man of the Year voting.
6. Nov. 6, 2026Career-high 35 at Memphis.

Oklahoma City is 5-2 in Mitchell’s starts and 8-2 overall. The two losses came on the road, 120-96 at Dallas and 119-98 at Houston. The Thunder have won four straight since.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 29.9 points this season and 30.9 in Mitchell’s seven starts, including 43 and 42 in the two wins over Cleveland. In those seven games the pair has combined for 53.0 points a night, 46.3 percent of the 114.6 the Thunder have scored.

Mitchell and Gilgeous-Alexander, points in Mitchell’s starts

The Thunder play two straight games in Portland: Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 11 p.m. ET (6 a.m. Wednesday in Cairo) and Wednesday, Nov. 11, at 10 p.m. ET (5 a.m. Thursday in Cairo).

Williams and Wallace are not due to be re-evaluated until the end of the regular season. Holmgren’s eight-to-10-week timeline runs into late December at the earliest. Until then the guard minutes, and many of the shots, keep going to Mitchell.