Nearly two years after their No. 2 overall pick (Chet Holmgren) suffered a foot injury that sidelined him for his entire rookie season, the Thunder used their 2024 lottery pick on another player they expect to have a redshirt season.
Head of basketball operations Sam Presti told reporters on Wednesday that Oklahoma City isn’t counting on 12th overall pick Nikola Topic being available to play in the NBA in 2024/25.
“Our expectation is that he probably won’t be playing for us next season,” Presti said of the Serbian point guard, who suffered a partially torn ACL earlier this year (Twitter link via Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman).
Topic is still expected to join the Thunder shortly and spend his rookie year around the team like Holmgren did in 2022/23, Presti confirmed (Twitter link via Rylan Stiles of SI.com). That experience benefited Holmgren, who finished second in Rookie of the Year voting this spring after averaging 16.5 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks per contest while starting all 82 games for the Thunder.
New rules implemented in the 2023 CBA related to prospects’ medical info ensured that the Thunder got the opportunity to view Topic’s medicals prior to the draft . They were comfortable with everything they saw in regard to his knee, Presti said (Twitter link via Stiles).
Topic at 12 is a real steal!
Hopefully it can compensate for the flop of giving away Giddey for Caruso, that was so very bad!
Giddey is currently Ben Simmons 2.0 but like a lighter version (stat wise and ability wise not skin color wise).
He can score some points rebound a little get assists but his 3 game just isn’t there so teams aren’t as afraid of Giddey.
That might be something he needs time to improve and could improve but Thunder don’t have the luxury of giving him time to figure it out. They’re ready to compete now and some tough decisions financially are coming up sooner than later.
Plus Thunder have been pretty good at identifying talent in the draft. So not like they can’t replace Giddey
They gave away Sengun in the draft… so not much point in identifying talent if you give it away for nothing, right?
They have the luxury of red shirting him, he is going to be the Giddey replacement and hopefully come off the bench.
I still would have liked them to get a true big guy but I guess they will get Ihart
They will use a roster spot on him?
Yes they still count as a roster spot. They won’t 2 way contract him, not like teams like 15 players. OKC does have a deep rotation of 10-11
Disagree with El Don, Giddey lost his confidence again. Caruso is a way better defender and shooter. Giddey can be a great playmaker but with SGA & Williams as the 1 & 2 Giddey didn’t fit. He wasn’t a respected shooter so he hurt them on offense. He isn’t a good defender for his size either.
Bulls should be a god spot for him to run a team since that was not happening in OKC.
I thought OKC was in win now mode why not go after KD and bring him back where he started. They still have several picks. Make a move to Knicks did with Bridges and stay away from IHART
Because KD is a soul sucker.
He wouldn’t help with their issue which was rebounding.
Not to mention the injuries. I’m not mortgaging everything for that kind of bet