MIAMI — Chet Holmgren called an audible.
His Oklahoma City Thunder teammate, Lu Dort, chased Houston Rockets star Kevin Durant around a dribble handoff. Holmgren cozied up to the screen but chose not to stick with his matchup, instead switching onto Durant and calling for Dort to take center Steven Adams.
This was not the game plan.
Dort was supposed to chase Durant over the screen. If all went according to the blueprint, Holmgren, a 7-foot-1 defensive everythingman, would have stayed on the larger Adams. But he was feeling good. He called out the switch and followed the former MVP to the free-throw line, where Durant missed a pull-up jump shot.
At the next stoppage, Jalen Williams, another stalwart inside the Thunder’s stifling defense, approached head coach Mark Daigneault.
“Are we switching?” he asked.
They were not, but guys can be in their bag even without the basketball.
Ask Daigneault for Holmgren’s biggest improvement since entering the NBA four seasons ago, and he mentions this concept.
The Thunder give their defenders freedom to improvise. Dort will pitter-patter his feet or swipe up instead of down on a closeout, against all fundamentals, to mess with the head of a shooter. Alex Caruso will jump a passing lane in a manner no one knew possible. Big men Isaiah Hartenstein or Jaylin Williams will, out of nowhere, blitz a pick-and-roll.
And now, it’s Holmgren’s call to decide the coverage — not every possession but every once in a while.
“He’s developed very, very high-level tactical instincts to go with his technical instincts that he already had when he came in,” Daigneault told The Athletic.
Holmgren is possibly encroaching on his first All-Star appearance, not just because his scoring and efficiency are up, but also because of the defense that comes every night. He’s fourth in the league in blocks per game and allows just 47.6 percent shooting on dunks and layups that he contests, third in the NBA, according to Second Spectrum. Hartenstein is second.
Guys on the perimeter can sprawl for steals because a back line is there to help them. And ones down low can get creative, understanding Oklahoma City’s wings and guards will suffocate ballhandlers.
It’s how the Thunder create this product — one where Holmgren understands the system well enough to deviate from it.
“When you commission a piece of art — if somebody said (to Da Vinci), I want you to paint the Mona Lisa, you’re telling him what you paint,” Holmgren said in a recent conversation. “You’re not gonna tell him to stroke the brush like this.”
The Athletic recently chatted with Holmgren for an extended film session that detailed some of his best defensive plays of late, including ones during which, in his words, he “went rogue.”
Here are his breakdowns:
Let’s start with slash. A week ago, Holmgren swatted a possible layup away from one of the NBA’s high flyers, Houston Rockets swingman Amen Thompson.
However, Holmgren’s first reaction to the block is self-critical.
“I don’t even think I talked,” he said. “I just ended up going on this one.”
Holmgren’s first responsibility here is transition defense. He picks up fellow All-Star center Alperen Şengün, his main assignment. He doesn’t swivel his head to the dribbler until Thompson goes into a pick-and-roll on the right side.
“If I was really on my P’s and Q’s, I’d be communicating to them, like ‘I’m low! I’m low!’ And then I’d go make this play,” Holmgren said. “But I think they kind of just recognized that I was going.”
The opponent allows for this play, too.
The Rockets can beat teams down, but they also take the second-fewest 3-pointers of anyone in the league.
“Their spacing on the weak side isn’t amazing,” Holmgren said.
The pick-and-roll on the left side leaves three Thunder defenders on the weak side: Holmgren on Şengün, Dort on Kevin Durant and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on Josh Okogie. It’s the faith in Dort, who made the NBA All-Defensive First Team last season and is the only aforementioned defender who can handle a long-range threat, that allows Holmgren to go rogue.
“We don’t know where KD’s gonna end up going, but no matter where he goes, Lu is probably not gonna leave him,” Holmgren said. “So that basically leaves me and Shai in a two-man show. So it’s like, if I go then Shai’s the first pass guy. And it’s not like it’s two lethal shooters out there, so we can play that closeout game.”
For what it’s worth, Daigneault disagrees with Holmgren’s tone while analyzing this play, insisting that while Holmgren may not have called out his actions as he could have in a perfect world, he would never call the center out on it.
“What I would say to him is, ‘You put out plenty of fires for the rest of the team, so if they have to put out a fire for you once in a while, that’s OK,’ ” Daigneault said. “As a general framework, we wanna be a team that fails aggressively. If we’re gonna have a bad possession, it’s because we’re overaggressive rather than passive, because the upside of the aggression is higher. The cost-benefit of that will net out for us.”
Holmgren doesn’t even finish watching this play before he blurts out a reaction.
“I give more credit to Ajay on that one,” he said.
Ajay Mitchell is the Thunder defender who begins on the ballhandler, Brice Sensabaugh, then darts down low to break up the lob attempt to Utah Jazz power forward Taylor Hendricks. It’s a ferocious hustle play, but one that doesn’t occur without a unique trait of Holmgren’s.
Not many players have the height, length, footspeed and smarts to simultaneously guard two players on pick-and-rolls, attaching to the roller while also deterring a shot from the dribbler. Holmgren is one of the few.
“I can’t get beat,” Holmgren said. “I can’t get caught high and give up a lob behind me. If the handler gets into a shot, if it’s a running floater or a midrange, it’s on the guard to contest. But if it gets within the restricted (area), then it’s then I gotta (close out).
“Ajay does a great job of seeing that and then peels to take away the lob. Now, that’s Taylor Hendricks. If that’s … Jaxson Hayes or Daniel Gafford, maybe it’s a little different. Maybe that ball is put two feet higher, and Ajay can’t get to it, but that’s a great play by Ajay.”
Of course, if Holmgren isn’t there, maybe there isn’t a lob at all.
As Dort puts it, “Whenever you drive and you see Chet, you kinda question yourself a little bit.”
At this point, because of his size, presence, skill set and reputation, dribblers are less likely to shoot the floater or go to the rim in those scenarios, one reason Holmgren’s blocks are a smidge down this season.
Holmgren understands the dynamic.
A subtler way he’s started freelancing is in these scenarios.
“There are times where it’s like, you’re up a little higher and almost bait them into the lob, and then you can still jump backwards and break up the path,” he said. “And then there’s a couple times where you bait them. Like, you’re high, and then you drop, and then he’s stuck. He’s picked the ball up here because he was about to throw a lob. But then you jump back. It’s a mind game.”
Let’s return to the Houston game for another block and another example of Holmgren manning two players at once.
Adams attempts one of his go-to moves as Rockets forward Jabari Smith drives to the hoop, sealing Holmgren off, hoping it will keep a potential help defender away from the dribbler. However, Holmgren’s arms are too long.
There is no dump-off to Adams. And clearly, there is no clean look at the basket.
“It’s kind of a weird play because Jabari was going away from where (Adams) was trying to seal me,” Holmgren said. “But Stevo does that a lot. Like, the Rockets have really weird spacing because they play a lot of non-shooters. That is one of the weirdest spacing plays that you’ll ever see.”
But more important than cramped spacing is Holmgren’s understanding of it.
This is technically his fourth NBA season, though it’s only the third he’s played in, since he was injured during his rookie campaign. He said he understands opposing players’ habits better than ever, if only because he’s played against them repeatedly. Adams is a veteran.
Not only is Holmgren, who resembles Gumby more than most potential All-Stars, able to bump with Adams. He’s also able to anticipate his moves.
“(Adams) has never been a shooter, so he has different ways of eliminating the help,” Holmgren said. “He basically just f—— ducks you in or pushes you out of the way, pushes you out of position, or kind of just gets in your way. He keeps you from being able to get off your feet. He’s got a lot of little weird wrestling tricks.”
One thought enters Holmgren’s brain as Phoenix Suns lightning rod Dillon Brooks attacks the basket.
“Oh yeah, he’s looking to score that s—,” Holmgren said before letting out a chuckle.
Holmgren’s quest to memorize tendencies extends beyond just the big men he most often has to guard. No one inside the Thunder has a more hybrid role than the 23-year-old does.
At times, as in many of these recent clips, when Hartenstein was hurt, Holmgren would anchor the defense at center. When Hartenstein is on the court, Holmgren will slide to power forward. The Thunder anticipated this after drafting him in 2022.
At the time, Holmgren’s greatest strength was his ability to guard multiple positions. The team knew it could switch him onto quicker perimeter players, so it went in the opposite direction with his development. They played him in drop coverage on the back ends of pick-and-rolls.
“(It was) an intentional decision on our part to flood him with those reps,” Daigneault said.
Especially because Hartenstein wasn’t yet in OKC, leaving Holmgren to play more center than he does now, 60 percent of the drop coverage Holmgren has played in his career came during his rookie season.
Now, he’s mastered the timing of it. It helps especially when he understands the opposing personnel. Once Brooks reaches below the free-throw line, Holmgren knows he’s going to the rim.
“A lot of guys have very common tendencies,” Holmgren said. “Like, Dillon Brooks is gonna come off the screen. He’s gonna try and hold you in jail (keeping his defender on his back). He’s gonna snake it. And if he doesn’t have an opportunity to get to the cup, he’s gonna bump you and shoot a fade. Or he’s gonna get it in the post; he’s gonna bump you and he’s gonna shoot a fade.”
On this play, Brooks does end up in the paint as Suns center Mark Williams, who sets the screen but lingers behind the dribbler, hangs back for a possible dump-off pass. It leads to one of Holmgren’s signature moves.
Holmgren will change a shot contest into a passing contest in midair, and he’ll contort his body so he can do it.
He has five kicked balls so far this season. They often come on plays like this one, when a driver pushes too deep into the paint, then has to whip a panicky pass to the perimeter.
“He kind of got under the rim and had no look to score,” Holmgren said. “So from there, I was just trying to break up the path to pass. A lot of times you’ll see, I’ll be leaning one way and somebody will pass it that way, and I’ll kick my foot up. Like, I’ll get kicked balls.”
However, on this play, Holmgren gets a hand on the ball instead of a foot. The Thunder, who lead the league in takeaways, create another steal.
Of course, Holmgren is quick to credit others. Williams is in Brooks’ grill. Gilgeous-Alexander is quick to rotate onto Williams. Even if the pass slips through Holmgren’s limbs, the reigning MVP may have snagged the steal anyway.
“I don’t think anybody would wake up and feel relieved that they get to play against our defense,” Holmgren said.
Even after their league-best record has come down to earth in the past month, falling to 37-8, the Thunder defense remains in its own class, more than three points per 100 possessions better than any other.
“In football, they used to talk about the defenders that you just have to account for. Like a D-end that can just get to the quarterback,” Daigneault said. “It’s like, every play the quarterback breaks the huddle, they’re looking for where that guy is. …
“(We) have multiple of that on the court together. You’ve gotta do that with Caruso. You’ve gotta do that with Dort. You’ve gotta do it with Wallace and (Williams). Now, you gotta do it with Hartenstein and Chet.”