{"id":336554,"date":"2025-12-09T06:19:05","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T06:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/336554\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T06:19:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T06:19:05","slug":"rising-aussie-basketball-star-alex-toohey-faces-nba-crossroads-after-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/336554\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising Aussie basketball star Alex Toohey faces NBA crossroads after injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex Toohey has been waived by the Golden State Warriors<\/a> after it was revealed this week that he requires season-ending knee surgery.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old forward, who made a name for himself in the NBL with the Sydney Kings<\/a>, was drafted No.52 overall in the 2025 NBA Draft as part of the seven-team trade that sent Kevin Durant to Houston.<\/p>\n

Toohey earned the NBL Next Generation Award in 2024\/25 after starting 25 of 29 games for the Sydney Kings, averaging 10.6 points and 1.4 steals per game, and helping lead the team into the play-in tournament.<\/p>\n

Known for his basketball IQ, passing, and versatility as a two-metre forward, Toohey missed the Warriors\u2019 pre-season due to his knee injury and played only two games for their G League affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors, averaging seven points and three rebounds.<\/p>\n

MORE: Aussies in the NBA: Which stars will have the biggest impact in 2026?<\/a><\/p>\n

Golden State quickly moved to fill the roster spot by signing former Oklahoma City forward Malevy Leons to a two-way contract. Leons has spent the past two seasons primarily in the G League with the OKC Blue and also appeared in six NBA games for the Thunder<\/a> during the 2024-25 championship season, bringing depth to the Warriors\u2019 bench.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Toohey was one of four Australians drafted in the second round this year, alongside Cleveland\u2019s Tyrese Proctor, Minnesota\u2019s Rocco Zikarsky, and Chicago\u2019s Lachlan Olbrich.<\/p>\n

Despite the setback, Toohey\u2019s potential remains significant. Once fully recovered, his skills and experience suggest he could still carve out a successful NBA career, with teams likely to monitor his rehabilitation closely.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, it is a disappointing end to Toohey’s first stint in the NBA, with the Warriors seemingly an ideal landing spot for his skillset and their future bench needs.<\/p>\n

Depending on his recovery, we may very well see Toohey back in the NBL next season as a way to showcase both his rehabilitation and immense talent to prospective NBA teams.<\/p>\n

At just 21, Toohey still has a long career ahead, and for the young forward, there remain hopes of further opportunities on the NBA stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Toohey has been waived by the Golden State Warriors after it was revealed this week that he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-336554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}