Nikola Topic, the Oklahoma City Thunder’s No. 12 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, has now completed his first NBA Summer League after more than a year recovering from a torn ACL, an injury known to general manager Sam Presti on draft night.
Topic saw the year unfold, similarly to Chet Holmgren, who was also sidelined for the duration of what would have been his rookie season, but Topic saw it in a very different way. NBA championship fashion, if you will. That laid the groundwork, and with Oklahoma City’s 2024 first-round pick not even seeing the court for its title-winning roster, the Thunder have a lot to look forward to with the 19-year-old Serbian point guard.
This was evident during Oklahoma City’s summer league performance, where Topic showed flashes of what he could bring to the Thunder at the highest level of basketball, not just summer league. While it hasn’t all been a clean, precise, error-free game – which makes sense, he hasn’t competed in basketball since his tear when he was just 19 – but he showed off some of his strengths, and they could certainly bode well for Oklahoma City this upcoming season.
An 18-point, six-assist, four-rebound performance against the Brooklyn Nets saw him as a true playmaker on every team at the Summer League in Las Vegas. He’s shown he can make things happen, and that could translate to the Thunder’s current roster in due time and with experience.
For Topic and Oklahoma City to get the most out of his game, he’ll need to be efficient, and he’ll need to be equipped with weapons around him that can knock down open jumpers, navigate to open space, cut effectively, and know how to work with a true playmaker. That shouldn’t be a problem for a championship-defending team that hasn’t lost a single piece of its roster — and of course, these guys complement one of the league’s best point guards, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Paired with players like Isaiah Joe, Aaron Wiggins and Jalen Williams on the perimeter, it would be heaven for a rookie in a new situation: having tough, smart slashers who can also hit the trey ball whenever called upon. As for the bigs, you can’t go wrong with choosing Chet Holmgren or Isaiah Hartenstein to accompany Topic in a pick-and-roll, where the guard can do damage by feeding his big men down low.
Topic will need to find comfort in certain players to get up to speed and feel comfortable at this level, but he will also need to have an overall approach to fit in well with the rest of his teammates. He will have a difficult battle, but that will be mitigated a little by the caliber of players that his teammates are.
