3 not-so-obvious Thunder who should be off limits in a Lauri Markkanen trade

Thunder Player No. 2) Nikola Topic

The OKC Thunder used their lone lottery pick in this past June's draft on Nikola Topic, a player who is slated to miss the entirety of the upcoming campaign as he rehabs from a successful surgery to repair his partially torn ACL.

However, despite his expected redshirt season, Presti and co. must not lose sight of the value they got with the 18-year-old falling to them at 12 overall on the board.

Prior to initially sustaining his knee injury in January, and then re-aggravating it in April, many viewed Topic as a possible option to be selected with the top overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft.

With his crafty ball-handling skills and top-flight court vision, all packaged together in a 6-foot-7 frame, a player of Topic's ilk is incredibly valuable in the association, especially on a team like the Thunder that prides itself on positional versatility.

While he may not be able to show his worth to the team any time soon, perhaps they could find themselves gearing up for a backcourt iteration similar to Chet Holmgren's story, one where he, too, sat out his rookie campaign due to injury, only to break onto the scene and become a key member of this title-hungry core during his first season of eligibility in 2023-24.

OKC could also use another facilitator within their arsenal following the trade of Josh Giddey earlier this summer, adding even more incentive to hold onto the high-end potential that Topic possesses rather than shipping him out for an immediate impact player like Markkanen.