A projected top ten pick in the 2024 NBA Draft suffers a knee injury within a month of the event. On Wednesday, Nikola Topic’s agent, Misko Raznatovic, confirmed to ESPN that the guard has a partially torn ACL.
Right now, Topic is in Treviso, Italy, participating in the NBA Draft, which saw him pass the NBA medical exam, including imaging.
Topic was transferred mid-season from Mega MIS to Red Star Belgrade, where he promptly injured his knee in January. He has missed the last four months of competition in the Adriatic League. He returned to the field in April, although he only played in three games before re-injuring the same knee in the playoffs.
The 18-year-old guard’s draft pick is not expected to drop due to the injury, given his youth and early reports of the injury. Soon, Topic will travel to the United States where he will be examined in more detail and will make a decision regarding his surgery and rehabilitation.
“The doctors who checked the stability of the knee confirmed that it was in excellent shape,” Raznatovic told ESPN.
Topic is a 6-foot-7 playmaking guard with an incredibly high ceiling and is the youngest projected selection in the first round. He averaged 18.6 points and 6.9 assists with Mega MIS last season. His 3-point shooting was inefficient, at 29 percent, but he shot 65 percent from the floor on 2-pointers.
The Serbian guard has elite size for his position and can penetrate a defense incredibly well, making him an incredible prospect for teams looking for a point guard to facilitate the offense. With his professional basketball experience from a young age, Topic has high upside in what is considered a “weaker” draft class.
The NBA Draft will take place June 26-27, with the first round taking place on the first day of the event at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
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