The Oklahoma City Thunder are experiencing an unfortunate recurrence of last offseason.
Oklahoma City announced on Friday that rookie big man Thomas Sorber suffered a torn ACL in his right knee during an offseason workout this week. The release noted that Sorber is now set to miss the entire 2025-26 NBA season as a result.
Sorber, 19, was OKC’s first-round draft pick this year (No. 15 overall) via a selection the LA Clippers originally owed them from the infamous 2019 Paul George trade. At 6-foot-10, Sorber averaged 18.5 points, 10.8 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 2.6 blocks per game last season as a freshman for Georgetown University.
The Thunder are the defending champions and likely would not have had much ability to develop Sorber at the NBA level next season. But that is still obviously a brutal break, especially for a taller player like Sorber who is in a crucial phase of his development as a player and could have made a case for NBA playing time.
This also brings back some bad memories of last summer for Oklahoma City. Their 2024 first-round draft pick, forward Nikola Topic, also tore his ACL in the last NBA offseason (video here). As a result, Topic missed his entire rookie season as well (though Topic is expected to be available for the Thunder in 2025-26).
Meanwhile, Oklahoma City will likely have to rely on more of the same in their frontcourt next year after Sorber’s injury. Chet Holmgren, who just got a monster extension from the team this summer, and Isaiah Hartenstein once again project to be the starting bigs. Behind them, small-ball pieces such as 6-foot-9 Jaylin Williams and 6-foot-6 Kenrich Williams (as well as possibly unheralded seven-footer Branden Carlson) may get a look.
