OKC Thunder Lottery Pick To Miss Entire 2024-25 Season

Now where have we heard this before? An Oklahoma City Thunder lottery pick is set to miss the entire season, for the second time in three years.

The team has announced that No. 12 overall pick Nikola Topic has undergone successful surgery for an ACL tear.

Nikola Topic underwent successful surgery to repair a left ACL tear. He is expected to miss the entire 2024-25 season. pic.twitter.com/WnYwaLjxQv
— Basketball Nation (@nba_latest_) July 25, 2024

It was the summer of 2022 when OKC's No. 2 overall pick Chet Holmgren went down with a foot injury that kept him out for the entirety of what would have been his first pro campaign. He came back healthy in 2023-24 and didn't miss a beat, finishing second to Victor Wembanyama for Rookie of the Year honors.

As for Topic, the 19-year-old actually has suffered two knee injuries within the past season, and was known to have a partially torn ACL just weeks before the NBA Draft. That, of course, caused his potential top-five status to slide down the draft to #12, but the Thunder were willing to take that chance, aware that he could miss the coming season.

The 6'6" point guard is an elite playmaker, as he's shown over the last couple of years in the EuroLeague and the ABA (an Adriatic league that features teams from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia).

Topic will stay with the Thunder this coming season while undergoing his rehab, a scenario that greatly benefited Holmgren in 2022-23, to prepare him for NBA life in his rookie season. The team is hoping for the same result with Topic. The Serbian will be paid $4.9 million not to play this coming year.