Why OKC Thunder Isn’t Worried About Specific Lineups for Nikola Topic

Over the last few years, Oklahoma City has made it a priority to acquire positionless players — whether that’s via the draft, free agency, or trades. The Thunder have clearly looked to add basketball players that fit the system, and the rest is left to be figured out later.

It has worked out pretty well, too, as Oklahoma City has found a way to exploit opponents in so many different ways. While they don’t exclusively use a small-ball lineup anymore like they did during the rebuilding years, they bring it out occasionally to wear teams down and run them out of the gym. To put it in simpler terms, Oklahoma City has been the king of unconventional lineups over the years, and that won’t be changing anytime soon.

With a loaded group of guards both in the starting lineup or off the bench, it’s easy to question where Nikola Topic will fit into that group. That’s not how the Thunder is thinking, though. They just need to get him on the court, see his full skillset, and decide what lineups he fits best in. It’s not necessarily a position thing, it’s a battle to get the best players on the court.

The Thunder have done it with certain players and lineups in the past, and can now do it again with Topic.

“Yeah, I think you're making a great point. I would bring it back to we come into every year with, like, we're looking at it as a blank canvas, and if we didn't, we wouldn't have discovered or figured out a lot of different ways to win,” Sam Presti said in his preseason press conference. “Whether it was Chet at the 5, then — if we were just tied to how we did things, we wouldn't have gone and gotten Hart or played Kenrich at the 5.

“One year we played three point guards at the same time with CP, Dennis, and Shai; we played two bigs with Kanter and Adams. That type of discovery — I could go down like a laundry list of these attempts, and not all of them were fruitful. But I think for us, we don't come in and say, well, this is established. We're saying, how can this get better.”

The Thunder’s lineup with Chris Paul, Dennis Schroder, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander kicked off the Thunder’s unconventional lineup situation. It has continued through the years with players like Kenrich Williams at center.

Topic could certainly share the court with Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams, that’s what the regular season is for. Finding out where he fits in will be a job for the coaching staff — and one they’re certainly excited about.

He’s a talented offensive player with creation skills and Oklahoma City could certainly use a player like him. He’s tall enough to fit into most lineups too. The Thunder will give him a runway to improve early on, and continue evaluating throughout the season.

“So with respect to Topic, we just have to see where he is, how the team performs, where the combinations are, and give that some time and not overreact if things are not smooth immediately, with any players specifically,” Presti said. “Because a team is, like I said, the sixth youngest team in the league still, so there's still going to be a ton of growth within the team during the year, let alone what's been done in the off-season.”