OKC Thunder Excited to Add Nikola Topic Next Season

The Oklahoma City Thunder are one win away from its first NBA championship in team history. The Thunder have the deepest roster in the NBA while also being the youngest squad in the playoff field. There is still plenty of development in store for the OKC Thunder who very well could capture hardwood this series.

In the midst of these Finals, it is hard to not think about the lottery pick waiting in the wings for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Nikola Topic was viewed as a top five talent in the 2024 NBA Draft before tearing his ACL ahead of last year's June draft.

Now, Topic has spent an entire season rehabbing as he takes a redshirt year in the similar vein of Chet Holmgren who missed the entire 2022-23 campaign after suffering a Lisfranc Fracture in a pro-am game in August of 2022.

Mark Daigneault was peppered questions about Topic's rehab ahead of the Game 5 which the THunder won 120-109 to take a 3-2 series lead in the NBA Finals.

"It's hard to tell right now. We obviously saw him in the draft. He's exciting when you watch him on film. In terms of what he's doing right now, he's still x amount of time post-op. He's still return-to-performance. I don't think he's the player right now that he will be in training camp," Daigneault said.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have already been impressed with Topic as he continues to make progress toward a return.

"The thing that's most impressive about him to see is he's incredibly young, he's stateside for the first time, in the NBA for the first time, coming off a long-term injury and he's been unbelievably consistent and mature and professional in his approach. When you watch somebody go through that, you can learn a lot about them. They are part of the team but they are disconnected in a lot of ways. He didn't travel on most of our trips, and he's an arm's length away a lot of the time. Yet he again approached that with great poise and professionalism. Inserted himself into the mix in a very appropriate way. The guys really respect the way that he approaches things. He's an old soul. He's way beyond his years and so that bodes really well for him, regardless where he starts as a player on the court. That stuff translates, and he's been very impressive with that," The Thunder head coach explained.

The first chance the Thunder could get a glimpse at Topic is NBA Summer League next month, if the 2024 NBA Draft pick plays in the event it would become must-watch TV in Oklahoma City.