OKC Thunder Without All-NBA Forward for Season Opener

The Oklahoma City Thunder will begin their season on Oct. 21 by playing host to the Houston Rockets on ring night as the team drops their first NBA championship banner in team history. A fun subplot? Former franchise icon Kevin Durant is in town, joined by still beloved Steven Adams and Jeff Green on that Rockets sideline to watch the celebration ensue.

This will be the final organizational party of last year's title team, before they get back to buisness of being one of 82 and with their typical 0-0 mindset.

On top of the massive achievements the Thunder are celebrating on Tuesday and this being the first game of the 2025-26 regular season for the NBA at large, this also represents the first contest back on NBC as the league's new TV partner.

Oklahoma City though heads into this title defense season with some question marks that could only be answered by the first injury report of the year.

It was already announced that the Thunder would be without rookie big man Thomas Sorber for the entire season after he tour his ACL in an offseason work, veteran swingman Kenrich Williams who underwent an offseason knee scope and rookie point guard Nikola Topic who is sidelined until mid-November after under going a testicular procedure following Oklahoma City's first preseason game against the Charlotte Hornets. Both the TCU product and Topic will be sidelined until around the middle of November.

However, the real mysteries were with All-NBA swingman Jalen Williams, second year guard Ajay Mitchell, sharpshooter Isaiah Joe and defense-ace Alex Caruso to varying degrees.

The All-star forward played through torn ligaments in his wrist last postseason before undergoing offseason surgery. Williams did not partake in any of the six preseason games for Oklahoma City with Mark Daigneault referring the media to tonight's injury report for an update.

Joe, Mitchell and Caruso all exited preseason games early throughout this exhibition slate and it was unclear if those ailments would linger into the regular season slate.

On Monday evening, the Oklahoma City Thunder posted their first injury report of the season which featured Sorber (ACL), Kenrich Williams (Knee), Topic (Surgery recovery), Joe (knee) and Jalen Williams (Wrist) as out for their season opener on Tuesday.

The Thunder will have Ajay Mitchell and Alex Caruso for their season opening against the Houston Rockets.

This initial injury report updates hourly and before the game tips off the Thunder bench boss will address the media to provide further clarification of the team's designations.

Houston has already alerted their media to the starting lineup for tomorrow night showing the team is at full go after the preseason. The first five on the floor will be Amen Thompson, Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith Jr., Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams.

The only Rocket on the injury report are expected. Fred VanVleet who is sidelined for the entire season is joined by Dorian Finney-Smith who is recovering from an offseason ankle procedure, Jae'Sean Tate (Ankle) is also out with Isaiah Crawford (ankle) is questionable.

Now, all that is left to do is tip-off this season for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Stay tuned to Thunder on SI for complete coverage of this season for the Bricktown Ballers.