The Thunder just got HORRIBLE news...

This is a truly awful development for the Thunder as rookie guard Otega Oway went down in overtime last night against the Pacers with what appears to be a very significant lower leg injury. And Otega Oway, one of the guys that was seen as the potential 15th man of this team and somebody that was going to get some good minutes going forward during the course of the regular season, but of course now things can change in an instant in the league and you get a game that goes to overtime where do you really need to play those extra minutes? I mean, that's either here nor there, but what really matters is that Otega Oway looks like he's going to be missing some very considerable time in Oklahoma City. We're going to go over the injury, what exactly happened, what we know and what we still don't know, and how this is going to be kind of a ripple effect for Oklahoma City. So the Thunder got a win last night against Indiana, and we'll certainly talk about the game, but the main story today is Otega Oway's non-contact injury that he suffered, and it was one that immediately would have happened middle of overtime. Everyone kind of knew what the diagnosis was going to look like. Non-contact, took a negative step with his back foot and collapsed and then had to be carried off the floor. I think you can put two and two together here as to what the fear would be. If you're anything like me, then you'll understand that frustrating struggle of finding the perfect belt to go with a great outfit. And that's exactly why I'm excited to have Anson Belt and Buckle as the sponsor of today's video. And instead of holes, Anson uses a micro-adjustable track system, so your belt's going to fit you perfectly every single time. And if you're wondering what is so special about Anson, well, they are family-owned and operated, and they have been since day one. And because Anson Belt and Buckle is sponsoring today's video, when you click the link in the description or scan the QR code at the bottom of your screen, and you go to build a box set, which is two straps and two buckles, you will get two bonus pieces, another buckle and another strap, completely for free. That is three total buckles and three total straps for nine unique belt combinations all in one pristinely packaged box. It's an exclusive deal that you will not get anywhere else. So click that link, scan that QR code, build your set and upgrade your belt game today. Trust me, your wardrobe will thank you. There hasn't been an official diagnosis yet on Otega's injury. He finished that game with eight points. He was plus six and it was honestly his best shooting game that he has had in the entire preseason he was working his way back from an ankle injury from before all of this happened but if you didn't see the injury last night I'll show it to you really quickly we're not going to replay this just one time you'll see exactly kind of what happened to Otega here goes back on the right foot and grabs the Achilles pretty much immediately it's the type of injury that has happened a lot in the NBA and almost every single time that it has happened here as of late it has been entirely because of those negative steps so just gut wrenching heartbreaking and if you don't know Otega's background a lot of people here in the state have an affinity for Otega Oway because he started his career with Oklahoma he was there for a couple of years went to Kentucky finished out his career there with a second team All SEC player at Kentucky made it to the NCAA tournament and he ended his career in actually a lot of really really good numbers. Let me pull this up for you guys really quickly. You can see his career numbers, 18 and a half points per game his senior year. His three-point shooting was never really his game. Otega Oweh, he was going to be the hardest working player on the court every single minute that he was out there, and he was prepared to bring that to Oklahoma City, but now it looks like he's going to be out for quite some time, which, I mean, it's just awful. It's just awful. Coach Mark was pretty direct to the point when asked about it after the game, just saying how tough it was I mean that's that's really all you can say and again we don't have a confirmation that it's an Achilles tear but I mean it it looks like that's what it is folks and it's just it's just sucks and it follows the recent trend the curse that the Thunder cannot seem to break of rookies missing an entire season due to injury Chet Holmgren with his foot fracture Nikola Topic with his ACL Thomas Sorber with his ACL and now Otega Oweh with what looks like the Achilles so this now creates a pretty big cause and effect for the Thunder rotation as it looked like Otega Oweh was kind of the odds-on favorite to slot in as that 15th man so now what do the Thunder do with this information we're going to get into that now so I think a lot of people would have said that the biggest weakness of this team was just a true straight up wing player and Otega Oweh kind of did fit that bill now of course you're going to have to pivot from here Mark Dagnall talking about his physicality his athleticism saying that he's a true prototype wing defender and with his defense being his strength I think that you could put a lot of callbacks into like what the Thunder were getting from guys like Lou Dort early on in their career and the numbers really look back that up as well let me make this a little bit bigger for you guys defensive rating you see how much better it was this preseason when Otega was on the floor 12 points better you see how many fewer points you're allowing per 100 possessions when Otega Oweh is on the floor now the difference in that as well as you see how much better the offensive rating was when he was not playing either so he had a long ways to go to become a reliable impactful offensive player but the defense that he has in his arsenal and the upside that he had there's a reason why he was taken in the second round by Sam Presti and there's a reason why he looked like he was going to be the guy, he was going to be kind of perfect to get in there and do your dirty work. Navigating screens, you know, fighting through contact, being a tough physical presence on the outside and on the inside, a Lou Dort prototype. I mean, that's exactly what he was going to be this season. But now, here you are in an instance where you're going to have to evaluate what that perimeter depth looks like and evaluate what your rotation is gonna be for the rest of what's gonna be the entirety of a season now where you don't have a 15th man. Who's it gonna be now? The thought is, okay, probably gonna be one of your two-way players. Brooks Barnheiser, perhaps. Josh Dix, maybe. OKC could have an opportunity to sign another player to a two-way deal as well from their G League team. So there's some options here. Here's what those guys did in this last preseason game if you're interested. Brooks Barnheiser, seven points. he was three of eight from the field he was 25% from three he was just barely in the positive in the plus minus he played 20 minutes in that last game and then here is Josh Dix as well who they brought in as another two-way player he played 24 minutes really didn't put that many shots up seven rebounds plus six in the plus minus he had just two points on three shot attempts in that game and then another guy that honestly could be a beneficiary of getting more minutes now not that it was going to be that Kenrich Williams was going to need minutes relying on what Otega Oway was going to do but if you're going to spread more minutes out Kenrich Williams could be a guy that could absorb some of those minutes and I think people would be in favor of seeing more Kenny Hustle he did okay last night nothing great nothing horrible but we all know kind of at this point what Kenny is going to bring to the table here is that overall box score for how the Thunder did last night Chet Holmgren in fact did not play in that game so we were able to see a lot of a DiMara coming in, giving you 18 minutes. He had another good game. Jared McCain off the bench was your leading scorer with 20 points. Isaiah Hartenstein got his first run last night. It was a good, efficient first half for SGA before he came out of that game. 15 points. You know, he led the team in assists. J-Dub looked good as well. Zaire Smith, you see him down there kind of near the bottom of that box score on the bench. He played only five minutes. He had seven points in that Zaire Smith is a veteran presence was a first round pick eight years ago maybe he becomes the guy that becomes your new two-way player that could be in contention for that 15th man spot and opening week is basically here right i mean the back half of this week you're gonna have that rockets game in the preseason finale i would be absolutely stunned if anyone of importance plays in that game, especially with kind of that scare that you got last night with Otega Oway having what looks like the Achilles injury. What to expect the next time we see most of the guys out being when the season starts on the road in San Antonio on next Tuesday, October 20th, and so now after what happens next, we're going to have to evaluate kind of what the Thunder are going to do from here. Oway's official diagnosis, which will get coming here in the next few days, some availability changes that final preseason game but really at the end of this video I want you guys to let me know what stood out last night give me your thoughts on the Otega Oway situation did you watch it do you kind of have the same thought as me and everybody else on what it looks like it is who do you think is going to be a potential 15th man now that Otega Oway looks like he's going to be missing some considerable time what were your thoughts on the rest of the guys last night AD DiMara as well he had another solid game so let me know on all of that down below and then as we wrap up today's video i want to do it as we have as of late with our comment of the day this one from MJ Cards talking about Ajayi Diop in the video that i made a couple of days ago the answer comes from the season opener okay yeah i can get behind that if chet looks kind of the same way that he did against san antonio in the playoffs last year then maybe you see what you've got from the big fella very early on in that game against Wimby and against the Spurs yeah I'm in favor of that who wants to spot I mean it's Chet's spot until he loses it obviously and he's not going to lose it I don't think because he's an all-NBA guy defensive guy that is a superstar he's just got to figure out the Spurs and that's not easy to do when you've got Wimby on the other side but I am really excited to see what Diop can bring against Wimby and against the Spurs team that you know is your biggest op going into this season so yeah that's kind of how we're going to wrap up today's video but again just a gut-wrenching update for Otega Moses follows along with that thunder rookie curse where you've had four guys that have had season-long injuries into their rookie season since 2022 just a crazy awful stroke of bad luck for oklahoma city and Otega Moses looks like he is joining that. So appreciate you guys for watching today's video. A little bit of a heavy type of video when you have an injury like that. Obviously nobody likes to talk about stuff like that, make videos like that. Hoping for a speedy recovery for Otega. Hopefully we can see him on the court sooner rather than later. And yeah, so we'll see you guys tomorrow. We'll have some more videos then here on Thunder Digest.