Jan. 8, 2026, 2:01 p.m. CT

Jan 7, 2026; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder guard Aaron Wiggins (21) dribbles down the court against the Utah Jazz during the first quarter at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

Shaking up the starting lineup, the Oklahoma City Thunder have had Aaron Wiggins join the usual other four starters. The results have been mixed. They went 1-1 with an embarrassing loss to the Charlotte Hornets and an uninspiring win over the Utah Jazz.

The Thunder went with the offensive scorer over the shutdown perimeter defender. While the changeup hasn’t paid off a ton yet, the thought process makes sense. Of the two sides of the ball, the offense needs more work. You can’t rely on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to bail you out every night.

Wiggins had 11 points and two rebounds in their loss to the Hornets. He had seven points, seven rebounds and four assists in their OT win over the Jazz. Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault went into further detail on why they had Cason Wallace come off the bench.

“The first thing is Caruso has been out. It just gets another point-of-attack guy on the bench to cover all 48 minutes,” Daigneault said. “So that’s really the main reason. It allows us to get Dort and Cason to cover the whole game that way. You could do it, but you’d have to rifle substitutions to do it.”

The Thunder have always leaned on defense first. That philosophy brought them their first Larry O’Brien trophy and could bring them another. That said, the defense has been up and down in recent weeks. It doesn’t help that they’ve been destroyed on the boards with such a thin frontcourt rotation right now.

Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!

While the Thunder have played great first-shot defense, giving up handfuls of offensive rebounds has led to demoralizing second-chance buckets. Heck, Lauri Markkanen was three seconds away from hitting a game-winner because he cleaned up Walter Clayton Jr.’s missed jumper for the go-ahead second-chance layup.

The other reason Daigneault laid out is to give Wiggins a quick confidence boost. Since he returned from his adductor strain, the numbers have dropped off. A shame, because he had a blazing hot start to the season as a secondary scorer who upticked his outside volume.

The Thunder desperately need someone else to step up as a scorer. Jalen Williams continues to work through a surgically-repaired wrist. His jumper has mostly betrayed him this season because of it. Chet Holmgren isn’t really the type of scorer who can scale up either. That means the role players need to put in a collective effort to help Gilgeous-Alexander’s unreal offensive load.

“Wiggins in the last few games has shown pretty good pop. This is around the time last year when he really got going. He started to show some flickers of that,” Daigneault said. “I thought even the way he started the game tonight, he was playing in a good rhythm and confidence. I thought we were able to kinda accomplish both of those things with the same move.”

The results have been pretty meh. But Daigneault has the right idea. They need Wiggins to snap out of his scoring funk. Once that happens, perhaps the rest of the roster can follow suit. Math says they’re due for some positive shooting performances.