Even if the Thunder don’t complete any more trades before Thursday’s deadline, they’re set to make a major addition to their lineup this week.
Big man Chet Holmgren, who has been sidelined for nearly three months due to a right iliac wing fracture, is no longer on the team’s injury report and is expected to make his return on Friday vs. Toronto, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
Holmgren suffered the injury, a form of pelvic fracture, on November 10 when he fell awkwardly on his side after trying to contest an Andrew Wiggins shot at the rim. Oklahoma City announced the following day that he would be reevaluated in eight-to-10 weeks.
The Thunder followed up in mid-January to say Holmgren’s next exam would come in approximately three-to-five weeks. Exactly three weeks after the team made that announcement, the 2024 Rookie of the Year runner-up will reportedly be back on the court on Friday.
Holmgren averaged 16.5 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks in 29.4 minutes per game across 82 starts in his first full NBA season in 2023/24 after he missed his entire ’22/23 rookie year due to a foot injury.
He had gotten off to an even better start this fall, averaging 18.2 PPG, 9.2 RPG, and 2.9 BPG in 28.9 MPG across nine healthy outings, with a .519/.400/.776 shooting line.
Although the Thunder, who hold a league-best 40-9 record, hardly needed additional reinforcements, Holmgren’s return is an exciting development for the club, which still hasn’t gotten a chance to see the 22-year-old play alongside fellow big man Isaiah Hartenstein, OKC’s big free agent addition of the 2024 offseason. Hartenstein was recovering from an injury of his own at the start of the season when Holmgren was healthy.
Really good news that Chet is back. I’d believed they’d hold him out a few more weeks, possibly to the playoffs.
IMO, the larger significance of Chet’s return is the impact on his ~$250M rookie extension deal this June. If Chet hadn’t returned until the playoffs, he would have entered that negotation having lost, basically, 2 of his first 3 regular seasons to injury. The vulnerability to injury has to remain a concern (at best, he will have missed 1/2 of this team’s games over his first 3 seasons), but the picture seems much brighter now.
Yes, these unicorn giraffe types have physical limitations. But wow, the skill is just off the charts. Handles, shot, defense. These guys have it all. Wemby, Chet, Porziņģis.
My concern from watching the thunder as they are very SGA reliant.
If He goes down for a few games, I believe it will hurt them in the playoffs. They need to get something going now before the playoffs where he sits out a week and they can find their way.
The dude‘s amazing but it’s gonna be Luca-ish. He’ll need to score 60 every night to get a chance to win. I love OKC, best team in the west, but this is a flaw in my opinion.
Gary, I agree that they are dangerously reliant on SGA on offense. Still, I think they have as good a lineup without their superstar as any team in the league.
A lineup without SGA that could excel offensively in the playoffs would lean more on Holmgren in addition to J Williams. Caruso would take SGA as the PG, and space the floor. They’d also lean more on the scorers on their bench like Joe and Aaron Wiggins.
To me, this SGA-less lineup can win a first round playoff series:
Caruso
JWilliams
Dort
Holmgren
Hartenstein
Bench: Joe, Wiggins, Wallace
It is a concern but without watching every game. Maybe teams are loading up to stop others and daring SGA to win by himself. Usually when others like Wiggins and Joe go off early the game is out of reach by half. The Wiggins 40pt game was done. Joe has had a few explosions usually game over early. They are still playing with a line up and rotation, they maybe 1 of 3 teams that play 10+guys every night.