Part of the 2025 NBA champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder said goodbye to another player who helped them win their first Larry O'Brien trophy. After two years on a two-way contract, Branden Carlson signed a one-year standard deal with the Portland Trail Blazers this offseason.
Always tough to see another member from an NBA championship roster leave. Even with Carlson's departure, he'll forever be immortalized in OKC lore as part of the historically dominant 2024-25 Thunder. They went a franchise-best 68-14 in the regular season and defeated the Indiana Pacers in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals.
So when is Carlson going to return to OKC in the 2026-27 regular season? As divisional rivals, the Trail Blazers will make two visits to face the Thunder
— the first on Sunday, Jan. 17 at 2:30 p.m. CT; the second on Tuesday, Feb. 9 at 7 p.m. CT.
I know Carlson won't get the same level of love as Lu Dort, Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins, but he should still receive a nice round of applause if he checks into either game. He helped the Thunder be a regular-season win machine over the last two years. It'll be a nice subplot to follow when Portland makes its annual two trips to Paycom Center.
Reflecting on his time on the Thunder, I think the writing was on the wall for Carlson's exit this summer. Through his two years as a two-way player, he proved to be too good for the semi-NBA gig. He averaged 4.9 points and 2.4 rebounds in his time in OKC. He shot 34.9% from 3 on 2.1 attempts.
While most agreed that Carlson was an actual NBA player hidden away on a two-way spot, the Thunder simply didn't have the standard roster space to convert him to a standard deal. The rich-person problem was that OKC was too deep and too loaded in its frontcourt room to let anyone go in favor of the 27-year-old.
Instead, Carlson proved to be a valuable innings-eater for the Thunder. Juggling injuries over the last two years, he showed he could produce when asked to. The seven-footer is a stretch center who can also throw down ferocious dunks. At the G League level, he dominated the competition. Further showing he was too good to be at that spot.
His reward for being a good organizational soldier? A championship ring and a place where he cemented himself as a fringe NBA player. Not bad for somebody who went undrafted out of Utah in the 2024 NBA draft. He leveraged that to a $2.5 million salary — over twice as much as he made as a two-way player.
As one of OKC's better developmental stories, it shouldn't be a shocker to see Carlson sign a standard roster spot deal. On the Trail Blazers, he should be a nice depth piece who can play spot minutes. Ahead of him are Donovan Clingan, Robert Williams III and Yang Hansen.
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: When will Branden Carlson return to OKC in 2026-27 regular season?
