Nikola Topic Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Thunder Exercise 2026/27 Options On Topic, Wallace

October 19th, 2025 at 3:25pm CST by Rory Maher

The Thunder have exercised their 2026/27 team options on guards Nikola Topic and Cason Wallace, the team announced in a press release.

Wallace, the 10th overall pick of the 2023 draft, will now earn a guaranteed $7,420,806 in ’26/27, which will be his fourth season. He will be eligible for a rookie scale extension next summer.

Topic, the 12th pick of last year’s draft, will earn $5,429,760 in ’26/27 (his third season). Both players already had guaranteed contracts for ’25/26.

Wallace, who turns 22 next month, has been a rotation regular over the past two seasons for the defending champions. In 68 regular season games (27.6 minutes per contest) in ’24/25, the defensive stalwart averaged 8.4 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.8 steals on .474/.356/.811 shooting.

Topic, 20, missed his entire rookie season due to an ACL tear. He won’t make his regular season debut until at least November after undergoing a testicular procedure earlier this month.

We’re tracking all the 2026/27 rookie scale option decisions here. They are due by October 31.

Thunder’s Nikola Topic To Miss At Least 4-6 Weeks

October 6th, 2025 at 3:28pm CST by Luke Adams

After missing his entire rookie season due to an ACL tear, Thunder guard Nikola Topic won’t be available when his second NBA season tips off either.

The team has announced that Topic underwent a testicular procedure on Monday and will be reevaluated in four-to-six weeks. That means his regular season NBA debut won’t happen until sometime in November, at the earliest.

The 12th overall pick in the 2024 draft, Topic essentially had a redshirt year during the Thunder’s championship season and had been gearing up to compete for rotation minutes this season. He played 31 minutes in Oklahoma City’s preseason opener on Sunday against Charlotte, registering 10 points, seven assists, and four rebounds while making 4-of-9 shots from the floor.

The Thunder have plenty of backcourt depth, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Alex Caruso, Cason Wallace, Isaiah Joe, Aaron Wiggins, and Ajay Mitchell among the guards available to head coach Mark Daigneault, so Topic’s injury shouldn’t have a major impact on the rotation to open the season.

Still, it’s an unfortunate setback for a player who has been on an NBA roster for the last 15 months and has yet to see any regular season game action.

The Thunder will also be without Thomas Sorber (ACL tear) and Kenrich Williams (knee surgery) when their season gets underway later this month.

Western Notes: Topic, Rockets, Podziemski, Suns

October 5th, 2025 at 2:54pm CST by Luke Adams

The rotation the Thunder use this fall will look awfully similar to the one that won a championship earlier in the year, but there could be one notable new addition. Nikola Topic, the 2024 lottery pick who missed his entire rookie season due to a torn ACL, has impressed his teammates in training camp as he makes a bid for regular playing time, writes Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman (subscription required).

“It really stands out the way he sees the game,” Chet Holmgren said of the Serbian point guard. “Even without the ball in his hands, the way he cuts and finds open space. Sees plays up ahead of him and gets the ball out of his hands early. It’s impressive for a young guy, but that’s what got him noticed in the first place is his ability to see and read the game.”

Teammate Jaylin Williams also expressed admiration for Topic’s court vision and awareness: “You can see he really reads the game. Great passer, great facilitator out there.”

All 12 players who averaged at least 16 minutes per game for the Thunder last season are still on the roster, and all 12 except for Kenrich Williams (knee surgery) are healthy, so it remains to be seen whether Topic will be able to crack the regular season rotation.

However, he should get plenty of opportunities to show what he can do during Oklahoma City’s preseason schedule, which tips off on Sunday, Mussatto notes. According to head coach Mark Daigneault (Twitter video link via Rod Boone of The Charlotte Observer), several of the Thunder’s top players didn’t travel to South Carolina for Sunday’s preseason opener, the first game in a back-to-back set.

We have more from around the Western Conference:

The Rockets will likely deploy different starting lineups during the preseason as head coach Ime Udoka gets a feel for how certain groups look in game settings, according to Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required). Udoka also said that forward Tari Eason and center Steven Adams will sit out Wednesday’s game vs. Utah after playing on Monday vs. Atlanta for precautionary reasons. Both players returned last season from major injuries.
Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski spoke to Mark Medina of Sportskeeda about a variety of topics, including how he’d evaluate his 2024/25 season, what he focused on this offseason, and why he thinks incorporating newcomers like Al Horford will make for a “seamless transition.”
Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic shares his key takeaways from the Suns‘ victory over the Lakers in their preseason opener on Friday, including the fact that second-year wing Ryan Dunn started as the team’s de facto power forward.

Northwest Notes: Bailey, Blazers, Thunder, Nuggets

September 26th, 2025 at 8:43am CST by Luke Adams

Jazz rookie Ace Bailey has decided to part ways with manager Omar Cooper and is seeking new representation, reports Tony Jones of The Athletic. League sources tell Jones that Bailey and his camp have interviewed potential reps but haven’t yet made a decision on who they’ll hire.

Cooper made waves during the pre-draft process by discouraging Bailey from visiting with or working out for any teams with picks in the top five. The widespread belief, as Jones writes, was that Cooper was trying to steer his client to the Wizards at No. 6, but Utah ultimately drafted him one spot before that.

Cooper is the father of guard Sharife Cooper, who signed a two-way contract with Washington last week.

Here are a few more items of interest form around the Northwest:

RAJ Sports, a company run by the Bhatal family that reportedly made a bid to buy the Trail Blazers, has filed a lawsuit against the Cherng family, which joined Tom Dundon‘s prospective Blazers ownership group earlier this month. Jason Quick and Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic have the details on the suit, which was first reported by Law360.com. RAJ Sports is claiming that the Cherngs – who own Panda Express – breached an exclusivity agreement and has asked a judge to stop them from buying a stake in the Blazers.
Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman passes along some highlights from Sam Presti‘s preseason press conference following a Thunder offseason highlighted by continuity. Presti preached patience when it comes to Nikola Topic‘s integration into the rotation, expressed confidence that Chet Holmgren will “only be better,” and said rookie big man Thomas Sorber was “playing great” before suffering a season-ending ACL tear. “It’s a really tough situation, but he’s got the right mindset. He’s got great natural energy,” Presti said of the 15th overall pick. “He’s going to get something out of this year, 100 percent, and I think it’ll position him well going into next season. But it’s certainly disappointing.”
Bennett Durando of The Denver Post (subscription required) explores what the Nuggets‘ depth chart might look like in 2025/26. While the starters – Jamal Murray, Christian Braun, Cameron Johnson, Aaron Gordon, and Nikola Jokic – seem pretty clear, there could be some spots up for grabs on the second unit, including at point guard, where Bruce Brown projects to be Murray’s backup, and at the forward spots.
The Oklahoma City Blue and Grand Rapids Gold – the Thunder‘s and Nuggets‘ G League affiliates, respectively – completed a trade sending the returning rights to Justyn Hamilton to the Gold in exchange for the returning rights to Andrew Funk and a 2026 second-round pick, tweets Rylan Stiles of SI.com. The deal could be a precursor to Hamilton signing an Exhibit 10 contract with Denver and/or Funk signing one with Oklahoma City.

Nikola Jokic Headlines Serbia’s Roster For EuroBasket

August 23rd, 2025 at 12:03pm CST by Rory Maher

The Serbian national team has officially announced its roster for the upcoming EuroBasket tournament, according to FIBA. The 12-man group is headlined by Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic, the three-time NBA MVP who won Finals MVP en route to Denver’s first title in 2023.

While Jokic is the most noteworthy name on Serbia’s roster, the team has three other active NBA players in captain Bogdan Bogdanovic (Clippers), Nikola Jovic (Heat) and Tristan Vukcevic (Wizards). The roster also features a handful of European stars, some of whom have NBA experience.

Here’s the full 12-man roster:

Aleksa Avramovic
Bogdan Bogdanovic
Ognjen Dobric
Marko Guduric
Nikola Jokic
Nikola Jovic
Stefan Jovic
Vanja Marinkovic
Vasilije Micic
Nikola Milutinov
Filip Petrusev
Tristan Vukcevic

Thunder guard Nikola Topic and former Warriors big man Alen Smailagic were on Serbia’s preliminary roster but did not make the final cut.

Serbia is considered the favorite for the tournament, which begins on August 27 and ends on September 14. The team went 7-0 in exhibition games leading up to EuroBasket, per FIBA, defeating Bosnia and Herzegovina, Poland, Greece, Cyprus, Czechia, Germany and Slovenia.

The Serbian national team won a bronze medal at the 2024 Olympics in Paris and a silver at the 2023 World Cup (Jokic didn’t play after the Nuggets’ playoff run), but was surprisingly eliminated by Italy in the round of 16 during the last European championships in 2022. Spain won that edition of the tournament.

Western Notes: Topic, Beal, Abdelfattah, Holsopple

August 12th, 2025 at 6:05pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Nikola Topic, a 2024 lottery pick, spent his entire first season in the NBA rehabbing a partially torn ACL in his left knee that required surgery. The Thunder guard took some positives from his long road to recovery, he told Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman.

“I didn’t play a basketball game for a very long time, and that was really hard,” Topic said. “But as you go through that process, you learn something about yourself that you didn’t know you had. … I took positives from it and learned from it.”

Topic returned to action during the Summer League. He averaged 10.8 points, 5.8 assists and 1.8 steals in 27.3 minutes per game in five appearances.

“I feel more confident,” Topic said. “Going into a game, sleeping before a game and just everything about it, I feel way more confident.”

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

Bradley Beal‘s primary motivation to sign with the Clippers was the opportunity to join another contender. “I need a ring. I want one bad. I feel like I’ve got a new life of rejuvenation, for sure, a new hunger. I’m excited about the opportunity, new city, a new environment but a hungry environment, too,” he told KMOV’s Tamar Sher (video link). After getting bought out by the Suns, Beal signed a two-year, $11MM contract with a player option.
The Timberwolves are hiring Mahmoud Abdelfattah as head coach of their NBA G League affiliate, the Iowa Wolves, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype tweets. Abdelfattah will also be an assistant coach for USA Basketball’s AmeriCup Qualifying Team. He was previously the head coach of Australia’s Sydney Kings.
The Lakers are hiring Jeremy Holsopple as their new head strength and conditioning coach, Marc Stein of The Stein Line tweets. As the Mavericks’ athletic performance director, Holsopple was named as the NBA’s top strength and conditioning coach in March 2021.

And-Ones: Hollis-Jefferson, LeBron, Sophomores, G. Arenas

July 31st, 2025 at 8:59am CST by Luke Adams

After recently going viral on NBA Twitter for a tweet in which he made his case for an NBA roster spot, veteran forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson spoke to Cyro Asseo of HoopsHype about his quest to get back into the league.

“I feel like, given the time I was in the NBA, I think it was very important for me to self-reflect and think about all the things that I could have done differently that kind of shaped me into the person I am today,” Hollis-Jefferson said. “I was just sitting there the other day thinking about it. I was thinking about it all, man. Just where I’m at, how far I’ve come, the growth, the experiences, everything that I’ve been through.

“… It was one of those days where your wheels are turning. And I said, man, I should be in the NBA, dude. I know everyone knows how hard I work, how much I care about basketball, but that’s really where it stemmed from.”

A first-round pick in 2015, Hollis-Jefferson appeared in 305 regular season games for three teams from 2015-21. While he has been out of the NBA for four years, he has continued to compete in professional leagues around the world, spending time in Turkey, Puerto Rico, South Korea, the Philippines, and Lebanon.

Still just 30 years old, Hollis-Jefferson says a desire to be closer to home is a big part of the reason why he’d love to make it back to the NBA.

“Just wanting to be on that big stage and really, really wanting to be closer to home, to be closest to my kids,” he said. “It’s one thing for them to take a max five-hour flight to, say, California, versus a 20-hour travel day to Asia or somewhere else.”

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Despite some speculation that a recent meeting between LeBron James, his business partner Maverick Carter, and Nikola Jokic‘s agent Misko Raznatovic was a recruiting trip, they were actually discussing plans for an international basketball league that is being spearheaded by Carter, multiple sources tell Ben Horney, Daniel Roberts, and Alex Schiffer of Front Office Sports.
Jeremy Woo of ESPN.com identifies the 10 most interesting second-year NBA players he’ll be watching in 2025/26. Woo’s list includes first-year standouts, like reigning Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle, players recovering from major injuries, such as Thunder guard Nikola Topic and Sixers guard Jared McCain, and youngsters who will be in line for major role increases as sophomores, including Rockets guard Reed Sheppard.
Former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas was among six people arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of hosting illegal high-stakes poker games at a mansion in Los Angeles owned by Arenas, according to a report from The Associated Press. The press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office detailing the specifics of the case can be found right here.
A man has been found guilty for second-degree murder in the killing of former NBA forward Adreian Payne, per Silas Morgan and Cristobal Reyes of The Orlando Sentinel (susbcription required). Lawrence Alexander Dority, who shot and killed Payne in May 2022, claimed that he thought the 31-year-old was reaching for a gun and cited self-defense, but Orange County Sheriff’s Office investigators concluded Payne didn’t have a weapon on him and that he didn’t pose a threat to Dority, who is scheduled to be sentenced on August 29.

Nikola Jokic Headlines Serbia’s Preliminary EuroBasket Roster

July 28th, 2025 at 8:32am CST by Luke Adams

As expected, Nuggets center Nikola Jokic is among the 17 players listed on Serbia’s preliminary roster for this year’s EuroBasket tournament, the Basketball Federation of Serbia announced in a press release (hat tip to BasketNews.com).

Jokic is one of a handful of NBA players on the Serbian roster, along with Clippers guard Bogdan Bogdanovic, Thunder guard Nikola Topic, Heat forward Nikola Jovic, and Wizards center Tristan Vukcevic.

There are also several other players in the group who have previous NBA experience, such as Vasilije Micic, Marko Guduric, Filip Petrusev, and Alen Smailagic.

The Serbian national team is convening on Monday to begin training for EuroBasket and will play a series of exhibition games in August leading up to the event, which tips off on August 27.

The Serbians will face Estonia, Portugal, Latvia, the Czech Republic, and Turkey in the EuroBasket’s group phase. The field is made up of four groups of six teams apiece, with 16 of the 24 total clubs advancing to the knockout round of the tournament.

It will be the second straight summer in which Jokic has represented Serbia in an international competition — he led the team to a bronze medal finish at the Olympics in Paris in 2024. However, the Serbians were eliminated in the round of 16 by Italy in the most recent EuroBasket tournament in 2022, despite 32 point and 13 rebounds from Jokic in that game.

Thunder’s Nikola Topic Could Return To Action This Summer

June 17th, 2025 at 9:38pm CST by Dana Gauruder

With his team one win away from a championship, Thunder 2024 lottery pick Nikola Topic has been a forgotten man. He missed the entire season after undergoing surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee last July.

However, Topic could return to action as soon as next month during the Las Vegas Summer League, according to Jordan Davis of The Oklahoman.

“In terms of what he’s doing right now, he’s still X amount of time post-op,” coach Mark Daigneault said. “He’s still return-to-performance. I don’t think he’s the player right now that he will be in training camp. The thing that’s most impressive about him to see is he’s incredibly young, he’s stateside for the first time, in the NBA for the first time, coming off a long-term injury and he’s been unbelievably consistent and mature and professional in his approach. When you watch somebody go through that, you can learn a lot about them.”

Word initially broke weeks before the draft that Topic had suffered a partially torn ACL, so the Thunder weren’t caught off guard by the need for surgery when they drafted the Serbian point guard with the No. 12 overall pick.

Topic, 19, is expected to compete for backup minutes next season. He has a guaranteed salary of $5.2MM in ’25/26, followed by team options of $5.4MM and $7.5MM in his third and fourth seasons.

The organization is pleased by how he attacked his rehab.

“Inserted himself into the mix in a very appropriate way,” Daigneault said. “The guys really respect the way that he approaches things. He’s an old soul. He’s way beyond his years and so that bodes really well for him, regardless where he starts as a player on the court. That stuff translates, and he’s been very impressive with that.”

Topicc averaged 15.1 points, 3.2 rebounds, 5.9 assists and a steal in 18 games with the Adriatic League’s Crvena Zvezda club during the 2023/24 season.

NBA GMs High On Thunder’s Offseason Moves, Celtics’ Title Chances

October 8th, 2024 at 9:40am CST by Luke Adams

The Thunder made the best roster moves during the 2024 offseason, according to the NBA’s general managers. Within his annual survey of the league’s top basketball decision-makers, John Schuhmann of NBA.com writes that 37% of his respondents picked Oklahoma City as having the best summer, with the Sixers coming in second place at 33%. The Knicks got 20% of the vote share, while no other club received more than a single vote.

It was one of many favorable outcomes in the survey for the Thunder, who were overwhelmingly selected as the team with the best young core — 60% of GMs selected OKC, compared to 20% for the second-place Magic.

New Thunder guard Alex Caruso was chosen by general managers as the most underrated offseason acquisition, receiving 23% of that vote share, while last year’s Most Valuable Player runner-up Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was picked as this year’s MVP favorite (40%), narrowly edging Mavericks star Luka Doncic (30%).

The Thunder also received a handful of votes from the league’s GMs as the team that will win the 2025 NBA Finals, but at 13%, they finished a distant second to the Celtics, who earned a whopping 83% of the vote. Besides those two clubs, only the Mavericks (3%) received a vote to become this season’s champions.

Here are a few more interesting results from Schuhmann’s GM survey, which is worth checking out in full:

New Sixers forward Paul George got 60% of the vote as the offseason acquisition who will have the biggest impact in 2024/25, followed by new Knicks Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns at 13% apiece. The Towns trade, meanwhile, was named the most surprising offseason move, eking out George leaving Los Angeles for Philadelphia (27% to 23%).
Unsurprisingly, Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama was the overwhelming choice (77%) for which player the GMs would most want to start a franchise with. Gilgeous-Alexander and Nuggets center Nikola Jokic each earned three votes in that category, while Doncic got one.
The league’s general managers are high on No. 3 overall pick Reed Sheppard — the Rockets‘ guard is their pick to win the Rookie of the Year award (50%) ahead of betting favorite Zach Edey of the Grizzlies (30%). Sheppard also comfortably received the largest vote share (43%) when the GMs were asked which rookie will be the best player in five years. Spurs guard Stephon Castle (17%) and Hawks forward Zaccharie Risacher (13%) were the runners-up in that category.
There was no consensus among the GMs on which 2024 draftee was the biggest steal. Wizards guard Carlton Carrington, Kings guard Devin Carter, Pacers wing Johnny Furphy, Lakers forward Dalton Knecht, Timberwolves guard Terrence Shannon, and Thunder guard Nikola Topic each received three votes to lead the way.
Among newly hired head coaches, Mike Budenholzer of the Suns is the one GMs feel will have the biggest impact on his new club. Budenholzer received 40% of the vote, beating out Kenny Atkinson of the Cavaliers and J.B. Bickerstaff of the Pistons (20% apiece). Meanwhile, Spurs guard Chris Paul (30%) and Raptors guard Garrett Temple (20%) are the active players that GMs feel would make the best head coaches down the road.
Asked what they’d change about the NBA, 20% of GMs said the rules related to the tax aprons, trades, and roster construction are too restrictive and/or should be “indexed to (a) team’s market,” per Schuhmann, making it the top response.