Chet Holmgren’s Defense Will be Pivotal to Eventual OKC Thunder Contention
Sitting at 10-4 overall and No. 3 in the Western Conference, the Oklahoma City Thunder have officially taken a leap.
Although their team-wide near-50-40-90 shooting splits likely won’t hold, and their schedule is only set to get harder, the team has clearly taken a jump due to the talent infusion it’s gained in the past two offseasons.
Perhaps the biggest addition was Chet Holmgren, who was selected No. 2 overall in the 2022 NBA Draft, and is galvanizing the team with length, interior defense and hyper-efficient scoring.
Despite his unreal efficiency at all three levels, Holmgren was drafted as a defensive anchor, and he’s been exactly that through the first 14 games.
The former Zag is averaging 2.1 blocks per game, and currently ranks sixth in the entire NBA in stocks, factoring in both steals and blocks, at 3.07 per game. Even more, his 7-foot-6 wingspan has done a great job in altering the oppositions shots or erasing them altogether.
And in a league where players like Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid, Anthony Davis and more frequent both MVP ladders and the postseason, Holmgren's skillset is going to be critical to the Thunder's eventual contention.
In the last NBA Playoffs alone, all four teams had star-level big men, including Jokic, Davis, Miami's Bam Adebayo and Boston's Defensive Player of the Year candidate Robert Williams.
Of course, there's none too many players in the entire league that are going to be capable of stopping the likes of Jokic, Embiid, Davis, etc. But at his peak, Holmgren will be more than capable of limiting all of the aforementioned superstars, especially around the rim.
Suffice to say, the Thunder were already going to rely on Holmgren's three-level scoring, but they'll leaning on his defense even more as they further develop their championship core.
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