Another Thunder lottery pick expected to miss entire first pro season

Thunder rookie Nikola Topic has undergone successful surgery to address his torn left ACL, the team announced Wednesday (h/t HoopsHype's Michael Scotto).

According to Thunder, the procedure was performed in Los Angeles by Dr. Neal ElAttrache, with team medical personnel in attendance. As expected, Topic is projected to miss the entire 2024-25 season, postponing his NBA debut until the fall of 2025.

Word initially broke in early June that Topic had suffered a partially torn ACL, so the Thunder weren’t caught off guard by the need for surgery when they drafted the Serbian point guard with the No. 12 overall pick a few weeks later. Head of basketball operations Sam Presti confirmed when speaking to reporters following the first round of the draft that Oklahoma City expected the lottery pick to be unavailable for all of 2024-25.

Topic will be the second Thunder lottery pick in the past three years to essentially get a redshirt season. Chet Holmgren, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2022 draft, suffered a foot injury later that summer that cost him all of 2022-23.

Topic is still expected to join the Thunder shortly and spend his rookie season around the team like Holmgren did two years ago. 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.

Topic will earn a $4.9M salary in 2024-25 while he recovers from ACL surgery. He has a guaranteed salary of $5.2M in 2025-26, followed by team options of $5.4M and $7.5M in his third and fourth seasons.