Before the 2025-26 regular season even begins, the Oklahoma City Thunder have already run into their first speedbump. They announced on Friday that Thomas Sorber will miss the entire season as he sustained a torn ACL in an offseason workout.

Sorber was taken with the No. 15 pick of the 2025 NBA draft. He joins Chet Holmgren and Nikola Topic as Thunder players who missed their first year due to injury. Just a brutal blow for the 19-year-old, who saw his Georgetown season cut short with foot surgery.

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In the short-term future, the Thunder should be fine. Sorber was buried on the depth chart. Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein and Jaylin Williams were all ahead of him. He likely would’ve received minimum playing time and seen the floor more often on the G League’s OKC Blue.

That said, Sorber’s ACL tear does throw a curveball at the Thunder’s roster-building plans.

After winning an NBA championship, the Thunder quickly did their offseason homework. They signed Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Holmgren to contract extensions that could be worth up to $822 million total. Once the latter two’s new deals start in the 2026-27 season, OKC’s trio will account for around 85% of its payroll for the foreseeable future.

That’s a lot of money tied up in three players. That means difficult roster decisions elsewhere will likely need to be made. One is Hartenstein’s 2026-27 $28.5 million team option. When the Thunder added the 27-year-old, he signed an expensive two-plus-one contract. They had cap space to spend. Why not fix your rebounding woes with a traditional big?

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After one year, the deal remains an A-plus grade. Hartenstein had a career season as a double-double machine who averaged 11.2 points and 10.7 rebounds. The Thunder looked their best when he started alongside Holmgren. It was their double-big lineup that won them both Game 7s against the Denver Nuggets and Indiana Pacers.

But when you win an NBA championship, the rest of the league circles you like vultures. Even though the Thunder will have amazing roster continuity for the 2025-26 season, they could see some shakeup with their role players starting in the 2026 offseason.

In all likelihood, the Thunder won’t pick up Hartenstein’s team option. The $28.5 million is just too bloated to take in considering what Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams and Holmgren will combine to make. In comes Sorber.

His college tape and prospect report suggest he could be a one-for-one replacement. Sorber has real size as a traditional center with his 6-foot-10, 255-pound frame. For reference, Hartenstein is 7-feet, 250 pounds. And that’s with an eight-year age gap.

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At Georgetown, Sorber showed flashes of being a secondary playmaker. If you squint your eyes and tilt your head, you could see him operate the same DHO actions that Hartenstein has perfected over the years.

While the 19-year-old rookie likely wouldn’t have played a major role on the NBA champion, you could’ve at least seen if being Hartenstein’s eventual replacement was feasible. Now, the Thunder will have to make that decision with zero NBA data to work with from Sorber.

Could that open the door to Hartenstein staying beyond this season? Maybe. The Thunder have used the decline-and-sign approach with other role players. They could execute the same with him. But the decision is also equally his. Depending on the free agent market, there will surely be teams — like the Los Angeles Lakers — who would be willing to give him another payday to be their starting center.

And if the Thunder decide to sign Hartenstein to a second contract or simply pick up his team option, what trickle effect will that have on the rest of the roster? Players like Lu Dort, Cason Wallace and Kenrich Williams are also due new contracts in the immediate future. Alex Caruso is on a movable contract that other contenders would love to absorb.

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Long-term roster building is already a fluid art. Plans change as the NBA is a 24/7 business with constant turnover. That said, the Thunder had a pretty straightforward approach to Hartenstein’s future, with Sorber learning under him for his rookie year.

Now that Sorber is out for the season with a torn ACL, that makes the Thunder’s plans with Hartenstein murkier. A lot is still unknown about how Sam Presti will handle the role players’ contract situations. While Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams and Holmgren get all the glamor for their NBA championship, they wouldn’t have reached that point without their rich depth.

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Isaiah Hartenstein’s future in OKC murkier after latest Thunder injury