OKC Thunder Prospect Among Final Cuts for Team Serbia EuroBasket Squad

Oklahoma City has a roster full of players that take serious pride in representing their home countries. Whenever it’s time for global competition in the basketball sphere, the Thunder is usually well represented. That was certainly the case last summer during the olympics with Team Canada, and there’s potential for Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams on Team USA moving forward, too.

Even the Thunder’s prospects take part in the global competition. Ousmane Dieng has rich history with France, although he was left off the final roster for this summer’s circuit. And most recently, Nikola Topic has been practicing with his hometown Team Serbia ramping up for the upcoming EuroBasket.

Unfortunately for Topic, his journey with Team Serbia ended before EuroBasket began. Serbia announced its final roster on Saturday, and Topic was the most notable omission. As a player who could truly help the future of Serbian basketball and is already ultra talented, it is disappointing, but not the end of the world. Topic is still so young, and is laying the foundation for what could be a special future.

Like Dieng, Topic got valuable court time all summer long against strong international competition. Topic was even able to learn from one of the world’s best in Nikola Topic, and picked up a few lessons along the way.

🙌🇷🇸 Nikola Jokic didn’t like the fact that Nikola Topic didn’t high five to everybody on the bench when he was subbed and made him get up an greet all his teammates. #Eurobasket

True leadership 👏 pic.twitter.com/JIPA4mDTpq
— Eurohoops (@Eurohoopsnet) August 16, 2025

It’s certainly a disappointment for Topic as he competed until the buzzer to make the final roster cuts. It’s also disappointing from a Thunder perspective too, as Topic will miss out on valuable on-court, live reps. For a rookie that was injured the entirety of his first NBA season, any live reps help. Overseas in high stakes games would’ve been perfect for Topic.

He flashed during his Summer League stints, but struggled with his shot at times and had a turnover problem. The highlights were special, though, and some of his stat-lines were truly eye-popping. Rust was to be expected after missing a full season. All things considered, it was a very positive Summer League for Topic.

For Thunder fans, that’ll be the last image of Topic they’ll get until the season begins. While watching him during the EuroBasket slate would’ve been fun, Oklahoma City will have to wait on Topic’s Serbia career.

It's not clear what Topic's role will look like immediately in Oklahoma City, but he's in the best possible situation to succeed. He'll have a coaching staff and a roster ready to help him improve and contribute to a championship level squad.