Ajay Mitchell Will Have To Balance His Scoring And Playmaking Next Season
Ajay Mitchell Will Have To Balance His Scoring And Playmaking Next Season
The rising OKC star will be needed to not only score, but to distribute. Grayson Buchanan|
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Oklahoma City ThunderOklahoma City’s next rising star will have to balance his responsibilities.
The Thunder are going to head into next season with a fairly different roster than when they started this past season. OKC has swapped the old for the new as they traded away role players like Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins and added three new rookies in this year’s draft.
With the addition of new faces, other Thunder players will now have to take on a bigger role and help lead next year’s squad. One player in particular is Ajay Mitchell. Mitchell was one of the Thunder’s breakout players last season, as he had an incredible jump in his sophomore season. Now, as he is entering his third year, he will have to help lead the team in more ways than one.
One of Mitchell’s greatest strengths is his ability as a scorer, and he showcased that last season, averaging the second most points per game in the postseason for OKC. This will have to be present all throughout next year’s regular season, but now Mitchell will also have to balance playmaking duties with that.
The young star is set to lead OKC’s second group next season, which will have less experience with the departures of Joe and Wiggins. So while Mitchell will be needed to help with scoring, he will also be responsible for helping the second group find their own shots.
Mitchell showed he was moving in the right direction last season, as he went from 3.6 assists in the regular season to 4.1 in the postseason. Now, with it being likely that Mitchell will be handling the ball more, it will be imperative that he continues this to get guys like Jared McCain, Jaylin Williams and Aday Mara good looks.
Of course, OKC will still need Mitchell to score. He will be the key contributor when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is off the floor, and can even find his shot playing next to the star. With teams so keyed in on the two-time MVP, Mitchell will have more opportunities for open shots and must capitalize on these chances.
The Thunder will be expecting a lot out of Mitchell next year, as he has the capability to be the next star in Oklahoma City. The next steps to that will be taken next year, and if Mitchell is able to round out his game in playmaking and scoring, then the Thunder will have an even better chance to get back to the top of the league next year.
Published 9 minutes ago
GRAYSON BUCHANANGrayson is majoring in sports media at Oklahoma State University. He’s covered various sports in the states since 2024.
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GOP Rep. Tom Kean Jr. explains his 'mysterious' 4-month absence from Congress
OAN Staff Lillian Mann
6:30 PM – Tuesday, June 30, 2026
In an emotional speech on the House floor, New Jersey GOP Representative Tom Kean Jr. revealed the reason behind his four-month long medical leave from Congress, telling his fellow lawmakers that he was in the hospital for depression.
Kean (R-N.J.) disclosed on Tuesday that he was recently diagnosed with depression following a hospitalization for undisclosed health concerns. He added that recovering from the mental illness has taken longer than expected.
“I am a private person by nature … talking about myself has never come naturally. But I believe that I owe an explanation to the people of New Jersey’s 7th District, to my colleagues in this chamber and to the American people for my absence,” he began from the podium Tuesday morning.
“I was given the diagnosis of depression. It is physical, it is emotional and, until you’ve experienced it yourself, it is difficult to fully understand how powerful this illness can be.”
The 57-year-old has missed more than 140 votes during his recovery, amounting to a 100% absence rate, according to the website GovTrack.
“I began to understand not only my diagnosis, but how long depression had been affecting my life,” he continued. “When people hear the word depression, many people think it simply means feeling sad. But depression is so much more than that.”
“When I first informed the public that I was dealing with a medical issue, I was still trying to understand what was happening myself,” he said of the secrecy of his absence.
Despite feeling hesitant when his doctors recommended he stayed at the hospital, he shared that he was ultimately grateful for the decision.
“When I said I hope to return in a matter of weeks, I believed it. Those were the best estimates that the doctor could provide. But as the over 48 million of my fellow Americans being treated for this illness have come to discover, there is no timeline for healing. There is no timeline for recovery. Only the work of getting better one day at a time,” he said.
“Today I am grateful that I listened to my doctors … I am grateful that I accepted help. Because today I stand before you healthier, stronger and excited to return to the work that I love.”
Although Kean’s condition was not made public until Tuesday, the details were apparently known by Capitol Hill colleagues –including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) — who said earlier this month, “I do know what his health issue is, but he’s asked me not to disclose that, and I’m going to honor that.”
Johnson also emphasized at the time that Kean’s absence is “not a scandalous thing at all,” telling reporters that “people deal with health issues. Maybe that’s a news flash for you, but even members of Congress get sick as well.”
During his absence, Kean secured the Republican nomination for a third term representing New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District after running unopposed in the primary. He will face Rebecca Bennett (D-N.J.) in November.
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These Whiskies From One of Scotland’s Underrated Distilleries Are the Perfect Summer Sippers
By Jonah FlickerJonah Flicker
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Fettercairn
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Whiskey brands and distilleries make a lot of claims about how they taste, but sometimes it’s all about the power of suggestion. Did you really taste Christmas cake and treacle as you sipped that single malt? Do you even know what those things taste like? In the case of this new pair of whiskies from Fettercairn, however, the claims hold true—these two single malt scotches are bursting with tropical fruit notes, making them perfect summer sippers.
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Fettercairn, a Highland distillery that is owned by Whyte & Mackay along with the Dalmore and Jura, is relatively new in the U.S. The distillery has been around for about two centuries, but the whisky only became available here last year with the launch of 24 and 28-year-old whiskies, the latter of which we found to be exceptional. It’s less common for a whisky to launch with higher age-statement expressions like these, although certainly not unheard of, but at the time a rep for the brand said younger expressions would follow. Well, they have arrived in the form of 12 and 16-year-old single malts, both of which are full of bright, fruity notes that will appeal to both newbies and seasoned whisky vets.
The distillery attributes its whisky’s tropical fruit character to the way in which it is distilled and cooled. There is a copper cooling ring near the top of the still that Fettercairn says means only the lightest vapors rise to the top, and those are said to contain the particular flavors that define the new make spirit and carry over through many years of maturation. “That process gives us a beautifully light, tropical spirit to work with, and from there, it’s about shaping that character with care—preserving its freshness while building texture and complexity through maturation,” said distillery manager Stewart Walker in a statement.
WATCHIf these technical details are a bit beyond your pay grade, try the whisky for yourself to see what you taste. The 12-year-old is aged entirely in ex-bourbon barrels and bottled at 46 percent ABV with natural color and no chill filtration. Look for notes of pineapple, banana, mango, vanilla, citrus, and ginger on the palate. The 16-year-old, also naturally colored and without chill filtration, was also aged in ex-bourbon barrels and bottled at a slightly higher 46.4 percent ABV. There’s a bit more oak on the palate here, as you might expect, along with notes of papaya, ripe pear, green apple, custard, cinnamon, and milk chocolate.
Both the 12 (SRP $55) and the 16 (SRP $90) were released in late spring and are available to purchase now from retailers around the country and at websites like Total Wine. And you can still find the excellent (and expensive) 24 and 28-year-old whiskies at websites like ReserveBar.
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Jonah Flicker
Flicker is currently Robb Report's whiskey critic, writing a weekly review of the most newsworthy releases around. He is a freelance writer covering the spirits industry whose work has appeared in…
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14 House Republicans vote down procedural rule over 'SAVE America Act,' halting week's legislative calendar
OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
4:00 PM – Tuesday, June 30, 2026
A coalition of fourteen House Republicans paralyzed the legislative floor on Tuesday, tanking a procedural vote and forcing GOP leadership to abruptly scrap the week’s legislative calendar.
The coalition, led by Representatives Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Chip Roy (R-Texas), choked off legislative business as conservative holdouts dug in on demands for stricter federal voting regulations — specifically targeting the passage of the SAVE America Act.
The full list of the 14 Republicans includes:
- Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) — Coalition co-leader
- Chip Roy (R-Texas) — Coalition co-leader
- Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.)
- Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.)
- Eric Burlison (R-Mo.)
- Eli Crane (R-Ariz.)
- Randy Fine (R-Fla.)
- Andy Harris (R-Md. )
- Thomas Massie (R-Ky.)
- Max Miller (R-Ohio)
- Keith Self (R-Texas)
- Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.)
- Mike Turner (R-Ohio)
- Steve Scalise (R-La.) — Voted “no” strictly for procedural routing
The immediate casualty of the intraparty disagreement was a $1.15 trillion defense spending bill. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had engineered a plan to merge the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) with the SAVE America Act, packaging the conservative voting priorities into a must-pass piece of legislation before sending it to the upper chamber.
However, the faction rebelled against this strategy, sinking the routine procedural rule vote 224–198.
Luna described the leadership’s legislative bundling as a “procedural head fake,” arguing that merging the bills would make it far too easy for the Senate to simply strip the election provisions out during conference negotiations.
Instead, Luna and like-minded House members demanded that the voting regulations — including mandatory photo ID and documentary proof of citizenship to register for federal elections — be written directly into the base text of the NDAA via amendment, thus making it legally harder to unravel.
Analysts say that the legislative standoff represents a massive bottleneck for the thin Republican majority, where Speaker Johnson can only afford to lose three votes on party-line measures.
Notably, this procedural loophole allows Republican leadership to bring the rule back to the floor for reconsideration at a later date without being forced to send the massive defense package back to the House Rules Committee.
Confronted by an unyielding wall of opposition, GOP leadership admitted defeat just hours after the failed vote, canceling all remaining legislative business for Wednesday and Thursday. Lawmakers were sent home for an early Fourth of July holiday recess, postponing any further action on the defense bill or pending appropriations measures until the House reconvenes on July 13th.
A visibly frustrated Speaker Johnson defended the derailed defense package, noting that it contained roughly 65 of the Trump administration’s core priorities and executive orders (EOs). Johnson lamented that a handful of his own members chose to halt very important progress because of their grievances with Senate Democrats.
Meanwhile, thee ultimate destination for the SAVE America Act remains highly contentious.
While the bill represents a core pillar of the Trump administration’s platform, it faces friction in the upper chamber. Even if the House successfully advances the measure, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has struggled to gather the necessary support to cross the 60-vote filibuster threshold, with several Senate Republicans joining Democrats to vote against the measure in a recent 48–50 vote.
As the House enters a multi-week cooling-off period, Johnson indicated he would use the recess to regroup and work on the holdouts, though hardliners have pledged to block all subsequent floor traffic until their strict voting integrity parameters are met.
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