The Thunder just got some VERY good news...

The Thunder just received some very good news. An injury designation changed for a 2024 lottery pick, Nikola Topic. His designation has changed as of this morning, and he is available to play as early as tonight for the Oklahoma City Thunder. And this could not come at a better time for a franchise that is just decimated with injuries, that is continuing to lose more and more offensive creation. More and more point guards, true ball handlers, while Nikola Topic, that is exactly what Sam Presti drafted him for with the 12th overall pick two years ago, and now he is available to play here tonight. This man, you've got to feel so happy for him in what has been maybe the most unlucky start to a career in NBA history. When you look at his calendar, which we're going to do in today's video, all the things that he has dealt with from an ACL tear pre-draft to testicular cancer last year. Through a back injury this offseason that kept him out to begin the year, this dude is a fighter, this dude wants to play, and he is available to play tonight. Obviously, this is a very, very good help for the Thunder. We're going to go into why this matters for OKC right now, what we can realistically expect from Nikola Topic, and all the details that we know about this as of this moment in time before the Thunder go out to Los Angeles and play the Clippers tonight in their second NBA Cup game. So, the breaking news, Nikola Topic returning to game action, and what we know is that he is available to play tonight, that comes from Thunder PR as well, so what that tells me is that he is flying out to Los Angeles to meet the team in LA and be an available player and a presence off the bench to play for you against the Clippers here in this game, and as I mentioned, his road back has been absolutely ridiculous. An ACL tear that took him from being a consensus top five pick in that draft to falling all the way to pick 12. Sam Presti loved him anyway, took a chance, and basically just kind of put him on the back burner to just recover and focus on getting comfortable and getting re-acclimated to basketball. Well, then he gets the shocking cancer diagnosis of testicular cancer. He comes back in February of last year, makes his debut. He plays in just over 15 games throughout last season. Then he has a lumbar microdiscectomy, which costs him summer league, costs him training camp, keeps him out for the first couple weeks of the regular season. And now finally, finally, finally, after getting a couple of games with the OKC Blue last week, he is back and ready to play for the Thunder. And we'll get into why this matters. First, let's get a word from our sponsor, Anson Belt & Buckle. Speaking of fit, they've got you covered there. Being a Thunder fan, this season especially is stressful enough. 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And since Anson is sponsoring today's video, when you click the link in the description or down in the comments, or if you use this QR code right here on screen, you'll get two bonus pieces, a buckle and a strap completely for free. That's three total buckles and three total straps, which can make nine unique belt combinations all in one box. It's an exclusive deal you won't get anywhere else. So click that link, scan the QR code. Build your set and upgrade your belt game today. Trust me, your wardrobe and your game day fandom will thank you. So the Thunder were without A.J. Mitchell in their second game against Portland a couple of nights ago, and offensively, it was a complete disaster in his absence, and you continue to be without J. Will, who has back spasms. He's going to miss his sixth consecutive game with bat here tonight. AJ Mitchell has gone from out to being questionable, so we do not know as of yet when this video is going out as to whether he will play, but you look at the cost of all of those ball handlers being out, and Shea not really having anybody else that can reliably handle the basketball. The Thunder had 16 team turnovers in that game. You see their offensive efficiency rating was terrible, and they just had so many bad matchups defensively with Portland as well. That it was a disaster in both games against the Blazers, but you could feel the absence of A.J. Mitchell in that second game. And so him logging in here and giving you some time, we saw what he could do last season in limited action, and you can't expect the world from a guy who really hasn't played much, but he has played in a couple of short stints with the OKC Blue. At Osceola, that is the Magic's G League team, and at Rio Grande Valley, I believe that's the Suns' G League team. 10 points in the first game, 8 points in the second game, very limited action, they didn't want to overstress anything with him, so that sample size obviously showing, okay, well he's getting back into form, but with that being the only time he's played, nothing else since then, I wouldn't expect to see a ton, a ton of minutes from him here tonight, but I do have thoughts on how we can see him, and I'll give that here at the end of this This video, he had four steals in the game, five assists. He did have five turnovers. He is usually known as being a pretty cautious person with the basketball, takes good care with the ball in his hand. So he'll just have to get reused to the action in game time. And this is what he has done throughout his career so far. I mentioned that he's not played a ton of games. This was last year in the regular season. He played in just 10 games and he didn't really have a lot to show for it as a result. I mean, the points, 5.2 points a game. You see his assists though. He is a true facilitator. Defensively, I think you could probably look at. Maybe not the quickest guard you could have out there. He is very tall. He's a big body. He's a guy that can get rebounds. And his shooting splits, even though it's limited sample size, his shooting splits were very good last year. Now, in the playoffs, he did play in a handful of games, but he really wasn't much of a factor in the nine playoff games that he did play in. You see that he only averaged 2.4 minutes a game. So this will be the Thunders pretty much their first time they get to see him in actual Regular season basketball action that truly matters in his career because he came back and played in those 10 regular season games in the twilight of the regular season last year when the Thunder pretty much already had the one seed locked up. You set all of your starters for those final two to three games. He plays a ton of minutes. And so he didn't really get a ton of chance to gel with this starting lineup. As an assister, I think he'll be a great addition to this team here tonight. As you see what he did in the regular season, 6.8 assists per game in the last five that he played, and obviously that came with a big jump in his minutes. I expect him to be closer to the first five games in terms of minutes than the second five games in terms of minutes, at least coming back in here to start out this stretch with the team. 38% assist rate. A positive assist to turnover rate. His usage percentage will not be that high, although maybe it'll be higher than what you would think considering A.J. Mitchell and his questionable status for the game. And if this dude can shoot 40% from three, even though it was a small sample size, if he can shoot 40% from three, the Thunder need that. Like the Thunder need as much shot making around Shea as they can get. I would be interested to know if you're going to see staggered minutes with Nikola and Shea or if you get Topic out there to help bring the ball up the floor. with Shea on the basketball floor to help keep him kind of off ball. I made a video on that though yesterday and some of the Thunder differences that they've had this season, specifically Shea. Go check that video out if you have not already. But just kind of to wrap up this video here today, you look at it in just over two and a half years, Nikola Topic has played very little basketball. I mean, 15 games with the Blue, 10 games in the Thunder regular season, that's 25 games. And then at nine games in the playoffs, this dude has played 34 games in nearly 28 to 29 months of action since he has been drafted by the Thunder. And it hasn't been the same thing that's kept him out. You hope that this can be the start of what will now be a very successful, fruitful career for him, whether he stays in OKC for the long term, or this is only his one year or his one stint that he is with OKC truly before you have to move off from him for his salary reasons. Either way, the Thunder getting Nikola Topic back gives them another initiator for this offense, something you can look to as a big boost in your depth chart that is obviously hurting right now. I would say it would be your predicted starting five here tonight. If you do not have A.J. Mitchell, you would get Shea, Jared, Caruso, Kenny Hustle, Hartenstein, although you could move Mara up there to the four, and that may be what they decide to do instead. They had Mara up there in that last game against Portland, a lot of it because of the size of the trailblazers that you just could not match very well. If AJ plays tonight, he obviously would slot into that starting lineup and obviously you change it from there. But Nikola Topic, he absolutely is needed in this backcourt right now. And so whether or not we're going to see him for a ton of minutes, I think that he has a chance to really build something here strong. Running that offense, whether it be with Shea on the floor or with just specifically the second unit, get back to game speed, take advantage of your opportunity that you're going to get with all of these injuries. And just be a creator. Be what the Thunder drafted you to be out of Serbia, which is a wizardrous creator that has a lot of size and has a ton of upside in this league. Let me know down below what you guys expect from Nikola Topic here tonight. Do you think he'll get decent minutes and then build from there? Do you see it being more limited or do you see him not even playing tonight? Do you see him just coming out to join the team and then maybe playing his first game? against Sacramento this weekend. We're not going to be live tonight, by the way, on the channel with a live stream. I've got a game that I've got to call for high school football. But we will be live on Sunday, and we will have that game for you here on the channel. And then for our comment of the day, this one comes from whoever this is, Wolfbane610, that was able to see into the future. Nikola Topic to the rescue. At the end of the week, he'll be back. Brother, who do you know? What do you know? Who are you? Are you, is this Sam Presti's burner account? Wolfbane calling it before the week began, that Nikola Topic will be back at the end of the week. And here we are at the end of the week on Friday. And Nikola Topic is, as a matter of fact, back tonight. So well done, Wolfgang. Hats out to you for calling that one the way that it actually ended up going. Appreciate you guys so much for your support on the channel. Excited to see what Nikola Topic can do for this team tonight, potentially, and going forward, especially. We'll let you know. Have videos going, obviously, after this game here tonight. Give you our main takeaways from that. And then we'll have videos over the weekend. And again, we will have our live stream on Sunday for the game against Sacramento. So stay on the lookout for that. Appreciate you guys yet again. We'll see you guys later here on Thunder Digest.