A summer filled with celebration nears its end. Only a little over a month exists until the Oklahoma City Thunder start the 2025-26 regular season. The NBA champion has enjoyed its accomplishments, but soon a new marathon will start with them at the top.
Bringing back mostly the same roster, the Thunder are the consensus title favorite. They’re viewed as a team that could pull off the rare feat of being a back-to-back NBA champion. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren all signed contract extensions this offseason to keep their title window wide open.
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To prepare for the 2025-26 regular season, Thunder Wire will lay out three goals for all 17 players on the roster. OKC has 15 standard players and two two-way players. Let’s look at Holmgren and what he could accomplish this upcoming year:
Stay healthy
This has been Holmgren’s biggest hurdle since he arrived. Injuries have plagued two of his three seasons. He’s missed half the time he could’ve played. A Lisfranc injury cost him his first season and a hip fracture cost him most of last season. While you can categorize them as two freak incidents where there should be no lingering effects, you can’t explain away that much missed time. Let’s see if he can enjoy better health luck this upcoming season. If so, he’ll be a sure-fire premier player.
With a massive contract on the way, the Thunder will need Holmgren to be durable. His importance to their championship window only magnifies. Safe to say you can’t risk him missing another season or start to seriously consider his long-term fit, even with his new deal. While that might be an unfair burden to put on the 23-year-old, that’s what happens when you’ve been unavailable for half of your three-season tenure. The talent is worth the absences, but the pendulum must swing the other way now.
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Become first-time All-Star
While it was still early in the season, it looked like Holmgren was well on his way to join Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams as All-Star players. He averaged 18 points, nine rebounds and three blocks in nine games before he sustained a season-altering hip fracture. On the runaway first seed, those look like All-Star numbers. Even though he won an NBA championship, he’ll be hungry for some overdue individual accolades.
The first in line could be an All-Star bid. While Holmgren played well enough to capture a Larry O’Brien trophy, there’s still room for him to grow as an offensive player. You saw that with what he did from the outside and off the dribble to begin last season. His free-throw numbers jumped as he attacked the basket more often. Now it’s about expanding the sample with better health luck. The Thunder are the NBA champions and consensus title favorite for next season. Three All-Star representatives aren’t that far-fetched.
Shoot well in playoffs
Again, it’s difficult to be too critical of an NBA championship run. Especially when you’re the third-best player of that playoff quest. But for a second straight playoff trip, Holmgren saw his efficiency numbers dip across the board. He shot an ugly 29.7% from 3 on four attempts. Those numbers won’t suffice in most postseasons. The Thunder might’ve won a championship, but they did so with an inconsistent offense that dried up on the road. You won’t survive that scenario more times than not.
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If the Thunder hope to repeat, Holmgren has to graduate as a scorer. That means being more efficient from the outside. Sure, efficiency typically falls off in the playoffs because the defensive intensity is amped up, but he still needs to be better on his catch-and-shoot looks. Or risk being sagged off and dared to shoot from the outside. That’s what makes the seven-footer a modern-day center. He’s shown he can shoot it well in the regular season. It’s now about doing the same in the playoffs.
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: OKC Thunder 3 goals: Chet Holmgren can be All-Star if healthy