OKC Thunder Star Explains NBA World 'Forced' to Watch Chet Holmgren Rise

Running it back doesn't have to mean remaining the same. The Oklahoma City Thunder have brought back 99% of its championship roster from a year ago. Not out of complacency or hubris but rather improvement.

2One of the biggest ways the Oklahoma City Thunder will improve this season is through Chet Holmgren's continued rise.

The No. 2 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft has played in 114 games in his NBA career. After redshirting the 2022-23 season with a Lisfranc fracture, Holmgren played all 82 games of the 2023-24 campaign before suffering a hip fracture ten games into the Thunder's 2024-25 title run.

After an intense rehab process, the Gonzaga product got back on the floor faster than even the Thunder's own timeline projected. His defensive impact helped vault Oklahoma City to a championship.

Though many expect Holmgren to take a massive step forward on the offensive end this season. The seven-footer is able to space the floor due to his gravity as a shooter, his threat to cut and play off the catch getting downhill and has more upside as a playmaker at his disposal.

Everyone is banking on a leap from the third-year big man, perhaps no one as definitively as his superstar teammate, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

"I think everyone in the world that watches basketball can see that Chet isn't even a fraction of the player he's going to be. He's missed so many games. And on the biggest stage and the biggest game of basketball possible, he has, I think, it was, like, five or whatever blocks and completely changes the game," Gilgeous-Alexander detailed. "He's the kind of guy that just -- Chet's the kind of -- he's made to play basketball and he's made to be successful in basketball, from his height to his instincts to his feel. And he's just going to continue to grow, because he has a mentality that sets him apart."

"So on top of all the things that are God-given and you can't teach, he has work ethic and he's driven and he wants way more for himself," the Thunder superstar explained. "So the universe, people in the universe have no choice but to watch Chet Holmgren grow into the player that he's going to be."

As the NBA MVP highlights, Holmgren's defensive prowess mixed with lofty ceiling, work ethic and baseline talent makes the Gonzaga product an easy player to bank on having a breakout season.

The Oklahoma City Thunder also need a big year from their third-year center.

For the Bricktown Ballers to buck the current parity era that has fallen upon the league for the first time in NBA history - with the past six champions failing to even make it out of the second round, much less hoist a consecutive Larry O'Brien - it will take a massive step forward on the offense end from Holmgren.

This is an all encompassing task. Holmgren needs to get to that 20 point per game threshold, or closer to it than his career-best 16.5 average from his rookie campaign facilitated through more shot attempts set up by his teammates. Those attempts are likely to come at the top of the key beyond the arc where the seven-footer has shined flirting with being a 40% shooter from distance each of his first two campaigns bringing his career average 37% from 3-point land heading into this season.

With an uptick in 3-point volume and hit rate, Holmgren can use that to expand his offensive game. Getting to the basket as he showed in every game prior to his hip fracture last November, leading to free throws and easy buckets for the big fella.

As defenses bend more toward the former No. 2 overall pick, it opens up his ability to pass as a plus-playmaker as a center he can easily help the Thunder avoid the scoring lulls they fell into at times last postseason by keeping their matchup guessing and in a blender with how to shut down all the different ways OKC could then score with a step forward from Holmgren.

Running it back is rooted in this expected change from the 23-year-old. As his superstar point guard explains without mencing words, this was an easy bet for the big man who donned a dice diamond necklace on draft night.