Oklahoma City has to treat every game differently. 

The Oklahoma City Thunder have run into a big problem, as the team has been riddled with the injury bug very early in the season. These injuries include major ones, like Cason Wallace and Jalen Williams being out for possibly the whole season, and day-to-day injuries, as Chet Holmgren and Alex Caruso are out for the Thunder’s game on Wednesday night against the Mavericks. 

All of these different injuries are just another obstacle for the Thunder this season and have already thrown a wrench in the team's chances of making it back to the NBA Finals. However, while multiple stars have nagging injuries, the Thunder still have to go out and perform, and they have the roster to adjust on the fly for each game. 

Multiple players have already started to step up for OKC, including Ajay Mitchell. Mitchell showcased how much of a threat he could be by dropping 30 points in OKC’s last game, a new career high for the young star. Mitchell will be asked to move from a sixth-man role to more of a dominant scoring threat for OKC, and could be called upon almost every night. 

Additionally, the Thunder will have to change up some of its rotation depending on who is available each night. Some nights, rookies like Aday Mara and Bennett Stirtz could see heavy rotational minutes due to players being out. OKC could even let two-way players have a big role in some games, as it did on Monday with Josh Dix. 

Having different players available will lead to different game plans, something that OKC had to do last year when both Williams and Mitchell weren’t available for the Western Conference Finals. We could see multiple different game plans and rotations this year, whether that be the Thunder having to play the whole game with a one-big-man look, or certain guards running the offense rather than just being a shooting threat. 

Unfortunately, no matter what situation OKC is in for each game, it is unlikely that it will ever be normal. The squad has a lot of work to do to figure out what will be the best way to win this coming year as players go on and off the injury list, but there’s no doubt that the Thunder will find a way to succeed. Oklahoma City will have another opportunity to showcase this Wednesday night against Dallas and could continue to figure out just how deep its roster runs.