Thunder big man Chet Holmgren is continuing to make progress in his recovery from a right iliac wing fracture, according to the club, which announced on Friday that he’ll be reevaluated in approximately three-to-five weeks.
Holmgren suffered the injury, a form of pelvic fracture, on November 10, with Oklahoma City announcing the following day that he would be reevaluated in eight-to-10 weeks. That was approximately nine-and-a-half weeks ago, so an update from the team had been expected around this time.
The Thunder have handled Holmgren’s absence admirably, posting a 26-4 record without him. For most of that time, they’ve started Isaiah Hartenstein at center in place of Holmgren, though Hartenstein has missed some time with health issues of his own — he’s currently on the shelf with a left soleus strain.
Oklahoma City still hasn’t gotten a chance to see Hartenstein, the club’s top offseason free agent addition, on the court at the same time as Rookie of the Year runner-up Holmgren, since the two big men have yet to be healthy at the same time. There’s still hope that will happen at some point before the end of the regular season, but Holmgren’s recovery process will take at least a few more weeks.
Before getting injured in his 10th game of the season, Holmgren had averaged 18.2 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 2.9 blocks in 28.9 minutes per game across nine outings, with a .519/.400/.776 shooting line.
In other Thunder injury news, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is expected to be a game-time decision on Friday vs. Dallas due to a sore right wrist, tweets Christian Clark of The Athletic.
Fingers crossed. OKC is the best story in basketball these days, and Chet’s a big part of that. Sounds like OKC will be hoping he’s ready for the playoffs.
Holmgren will miss 2 of his first 3 seasons. He’s up for a 5 yr extension this summer, worth the $50M max if you can count on him…but there are haunting similarities to Sam Bowie & Shawn Bradley, super tall & skinny, who
were continually breaking bones. I wouldn’t want to be Sam Presti.