Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Nikola Topic just can’t seem to catch a break in his young and still-untouched NBA career.
After missing his entire first year in the association while recovering from a partially torn ACL suffered while playing overseas, many were excited to finally land the 12th overall pick in the 2024 draft, who will be taken to the hardwood for the regular season in 2025-26.
Based on his production throughout Summer League and in the club’s preseason opener against the Charlotte Hornets, where he showed off his impressive skill set while finishing with a stat line of 10 points, 7 assists and 4 rebounds on 44.4 percent shooting from the field, it looked like he was more than ready to do it himself.
Unfortunately, this long-awaited start will have to be postponed once again.
On Monday, reports surfaced that the ringleader had underwent a surprise testicular procedurewhich will keep him sidelined at least until the rest of October and possibly longer, as his re-evaluation deadline has been set at four to six weeks.
Naturally, this type of update could easily sour the mood of fans and team personnel. After all, Topic approached this year’s campaign with such hype around him.
However, head coach Mark Daigneault chooses to go against the grain and remain optimistic in the face of this unfortunate turn of events.
Mark Daigneault believes the Thunder goaltender will recover easily
At a press session after news of Topic’s injury was revealed, a reporter asked him what his first thoughts were about the reverse of his floor general selected by the lottery, coach Daigneault could not help but highlight the goalkeeper’s mentality and his already well-established dynamism, two attributes that keep him confident that he will make a full recovery.
“I have the utmost confidence in him. If there’s anything we learned from him last season, it’s his level of maturity that he brings to every situation. He definitely proved that he will handle this with the same level of maturity,” said Daigneault.
Even though he’s only 20 years old and has yet to play any part of the NBA regular season, Topic’s maturity is a quality that has regularly caught the attention of Thunder boss Daigneault in particular. just saying last week that his maturity is “beyond his years”.
As was the case in the redshirt guard’s first year with OKC, hopefully this will help him stay focused and in good spirits as he recovers from his latest health scare, the one Hall of Famer Manu Ginobili suffered in 2016 that kept him out for about a month.
