Directly after winning the 2025 NBA Finals, the OKC Thunder found themselves running into champagne problems in a literal sense, as big man Isaiah Hartenstein recently admitted the ball club struggled mightily with opening up their celebratory bottles of Moët & Chandon.
Now, during their upcoming follow-up campaign, Oklahoma City may run into champagne problems in a more figurative sense.
Though having one of the deepest rosters in the association was widely celebrated as an edge the Thunder had over virtually every team in last year's postseason, the unfortunate reality of such a luxury is that finding proper minutes for all worthy and deserving players is almost impossible.
Sure, guys like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren may be unscathed by this overabundance of talent found on the roster, but the vast majority of the club's non-core members are bound to feel the negative ramifications.
Nikola Topic, in particular, is someone who should be expected to endure these hardships.
Thunder backcourt far too crowded to give Nikola Topic ample minutes
Despite being the 10 overall selection in the 2024 NBA Draft, having the distinction of being a top-five lock had he been a part of this June's festivities, and impressing with his overall play in the Summer League, fans shouldn't expect to see Topic logging a ton of minutes with the varsity team during his debut campaign in 2025-26.
Even outside of the likes of Gilgeous-Alexander and Luguentz Dort, coach Mark Daigneault heads into year six at the helm with a slew of backcourt talents that have already proven themselves capable of successfully contributing toward winning ways and shining within the headman's on-court scheme.
From Cason Wallace and Aaron Wiggins to Isaiah Joe and Alex Caruso, there are already a number of guards returning to the team who, during OKC's title-winning season, saw north of 19 minutes per game.
On top of this, following the rookie year he put forth and his All Summer League Second-Team-earning play out in the Salt Lake City and Las Vegas-based games this offseason, Ajay Mitchell is someone who's only bound to see a bump in his minute-per-game averages that were already at 16.6 to begin with.
If it weren't for his wonky jumper (shot just 31.9 percent from the floor during the Summer League), there still may have been a realistic possibility that Topic would have been a regular, 15-plus minute player within the Thunder rotation this coming year, especially considering how the team could use a facilitator during non-SGA minutes whenthe offense has grown stagnant.
However, with these factors at play, it should be expected that the win-now Thunder will look to utilize guys like Mitchell and Wallace as their secondary ones while allowing their lottery pick to gradually ease into his NBA career by seeing both spot minutes with the club and extended run with the OKC Blue down in the G League throughout his rookie season.
While it may not last the entirety of the campaign, until he gets completely comfortable with his new situation in Oklahoma City, fans should anticipate coach Daigneault taking things slow with his exciting young guard.