Sept. 21, 2026, 9:05 p.m. CT
At this point, NBA expansion has been a talking point for years. Will the league go from 30 to 32 teams? Who knows. But most of the town’s talk suggests it’s an inevitability. The two markets most commonly associated with being gifted an NBA franchise are Seattle and Las Vegas.
A recent rumor suggests that the NBA could expand in the near future. According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the talk is to have something done for the 2028-29 season. If that materializes in a future board of governors meeting, then an NBA expansion draft will follow suit in the next couple of summers.
Who could the Oklahoma City Thunder lose in such a once-in-a-generation hypothetical? Bleacher Report recently worked out the thought experiment of a two-team NBA expansion draft. For the exercise, Seattle and Las Vegas were the markets chosen.
Bleacher Report’s NBA writers Dan Favale and Grant Hughes picked out the two respective rosters. As a rule, an NBA team can only lose one player. And the Las Vegas and Seattle teams must roster at least 14 players each. Doing basic napkin math, that means at least 28 NBA teams will lose one of their unprotected players.
And right off the bat, the Thunder lost a key depth piece. They left six players unprotected — Jaylin Williams, Jared McCain, Kenrich Williams, Nikola Topic, Thomas Sorber and Bennett Stirtz.
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With the No. 1 pick of the NBA expansion draft, Las Vegas selected McCain. The Thunder added him at the 2026 NBA trade deadline. He was previously with the Philadelphia 76ers. It didn’t take long for him to help OKC in the 2026 NBA playoffs. Look at his couple of scoring explosions in the 2026 Western Conference Finals as examples.
“Young at 22, very cheap at $4.4 million and already a scorer who’d proved himself against a great defense on a postseason stage, McCain became a player and a value whom I decided the Vipers couldn’t live without,” Bleacher Report wrote. “Slotting him into a prominent role meant my team would need defensive help up and down the roster, but I figured I could find that later. McCain’s low-cost scoring chops and upside were too good to pass on.”
Well, that’s interesting. The Thunder added McCain with the hope that he could be a key bench piece for the rest of their title window. He has two years left on his rookie-scale contract. The microwave scorer figures to help OKC keep its second-unit offense going. But in this hypothetical, it takes a brutal hit with his surprising departure.
It’s a fun thought exercise, though. And one that could become reality soon. We’ve heard about the NBA expanding for years now. But with several hurdles ahead to clear, it remains to be seen when — and if — that happens.