How Nikola Jokic's injury affects the OKC Thunder

6 days ago 2

One bad landing and the NBA's 2025-26 season has had its first significant curveball nobody expected. Nikola Jokic suffered a hyperextended knee in the Denver Nuggets' loss to the Miami Heat on Monday. Considering how gruesome it looked, the three-time MVP winner avoided the worst-case scenario.

Jokic will be re-evaluated in four weeks. That means he will miss at least a month. A brutal injury for the title contender, who is also without Aaron Gordon, Christian Braun and Cam Johnson due to injuries.

Of course, when the NBA's best player misses a month. That shakes up the foundation of the basketball world. The trickle-down effect will even land on the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Here are five ways Jokic's injury affects the Thunder:

MVP race likely over

The third part of one of the NBA's most epic trilogies has flopped at the box office. Halfway through the season, it was going to come down to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokic. This season was supposed to settle the score. Jokic won two years ago; Gilgeous-Alexander won last year.

Both players have defined this era in the NBA. Last year's Round 2 playoff series was the most consequential and served as the pseudo-NBA Finals — no offense to the Indiana Pacers' miracle run. Now, Jokic's injury will likely knock him out of the race. He will probably be disqualified because of the 65-game minimum rule for awards.

And considering how betting odds have shifted, the question will be by how huge a landslide Gilgeous-Alexander will win his second straight MVP award. Could he join Stephen Curry as the only other unanimous MVP winner? We'll see. But this injury has really popped the balloon of another historic MVP battle.

Playoff implications

For the entire season, the Nuggets have looked like the team most thought could usurp the Thunder. They were off to an unreal start and were in contention for the second seed. Denver's offseason additions have been largely successful. More importantly, though, Jokic continued to one-up himself.

The three-time MVP winner has averaged 29.6 points on 60.5% shooting, 12.2 rebounds and 11 assists. The efficient 30-point triple-double machine was on his way to another all-time season. Now that he's out for at least a month, Denver could fall in the standings quickly.

The Western Conference is unforgiving. The Nuggets will play 18 games in January. That's a good chunk of the season. One small losing streak or step down in competition could see them tumble down the standings. If they fall below the top four, they'll become everybody's most popular upset choice in the playoffs.

Possible Round 1 matchup

Which segues to my next point. Barring a collapse, the Thunder will likely cruise to the first seed for the third straight season. Even with their San Antonio Spurs dilemma, they've made easy work of the rest of the league. The same can't be said about the Nuggets — even when Jokic played.

The Nuggets are only four games up from the play-in tournament range. A couple of bad weeks could see them fall there. In that scenario, there's a non-zero chance that Denver is the eighth seed and OKC is the first. Imagine that. A Round 1 series that has the makings of a championship decider.

We're playing hypotheticals, but it's something to keep in mind. I'm sure the rest of the NBA will root hard for that to manifest itself. Have arguably the two best teams in the league get into a heavyweight fight from the jump.

OKC-Denver dates lose appeal

Penciling in teams, the NBA schedule-makers saved all four matchups between the Thunder and Nuggets for the second half of the season. The plan makes sense. Once the NFL season is over, all eyes go to basketball. Of course, you'd want some of your higher-stakes matchups on national television when that happens.

The Thunder will travel to Denver for NBC's first 'Sunday Night Basketball' event on Feb. 1. They will then host the Nuggets on ESPN on Feb. 27. Repeat that on Mar. 9 on Peacock. And finally, the final clash will be on Apr. 10 on Amazon Prime in the regular-season penultimate episode.

Jokic should be back by the latter two matchups. If he misses the finale, it'll be because seeding has already been finalized. But the first two matchups, he could miss — specifically the Feb. 1 one. That would be a bummer for the entire NBA world.

NBA rules could change

Looking at NBA history, most seismic rule changes happen after an NBA superstar is affected by it. Fair or not. You've seen that happen in recent days. After Jokic was diagnosed, the talking heads have rallied together to put an end to the 65-game requirement for awards.

Is it a little unfair to start that protest now, just because it's Jokic? Maybe. But that's the sports world — and to a larger extent, life. The three-time MVP winner could still suit up for 60-plus games. Some believe that should be enough for him to win the prestigious award.

Now, if Gilgeous-Alexander plays 70-plus games, the gap between games played is too large to ignore at that point. But regardless of what happens this season, you have to wonder if the league will at least consider changing the 65-game rule because one of the greatest MVP races ever stopped before it even had a chance to gain momentum.

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: How Nikola Jokic's injury affects the OKC Thunder

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