{"id":712211,"date":"2026-04-17T05:47:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712211\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T05:47:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:47:02","slug":"what-would-an-nba-all-defensive-team-nod-mean-to-chet-holmgren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712211\/","title":{"rendered":"What would an NBA All-Defensive Team nod mean to Chet Holmgren?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> have sat on the NBA throne all season. It was another year where they were at the top of the standings and had a league-best 11.1 point differential. By all measurements, they’ll enter the 2026 NBA playoffs as the title favorite.<\/p>\n

That type of territory comes with its feats. One is the Thunder being heavily featured in the NBA award ballots. Expect Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> to win back-to-back MVP trophies \u2014 without really needing to stress over it, either. Should be a runaway win for him.<\/p>\n

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Elsewhere, Chet Holmgren<\/a> should likely finish runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year. All the momentum suggests Victor Wembanyama<\/a> will win that award unanimously. He led the league in blocks by a wide margin and has all of the advanced metrics and eye-ball tests to back up his dominance on the side of the floor.<\/p>\n

A second-place finish is basically a lock that Holmgren will be named to the NBA All-Defensive Team. Anchoring OKC’s league-best defense, it feels inevitable he’ll receive that honor as he’s enjoyed a career year that featured a first-time All-Star berth.<\/p>\n

How much would it mean to Holmgren to get the special recognition? A lot, but he won’t let it define him.<\/p>\n

“Individual awards are great. I think they’re around to reward players for the hard work that they put in,” Holmgren said. “Anytime I’m able to be honored for something like that, I never take it for granted. I always appreciate it and hopefully.”<\/p>\n

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The Thunder have had the NBA’s clear-cut best defense over the last two seasons. They rode that side of the ball on their way to a Larry O’Brien trophy last year. While the offense went through its ups and downs, OKC’s chaotic nature of lockdown defense was always there. It’s the one variable they could’ve counted on.<\/p>\n

Holmgren has been the face of that. He’s been one of the best shot blockers since he joined the NBA. Injuries are the only reason why he hasn’t had an All-Defensive Team honor yet. But that will change soon \u2014 and possibly for his teammate Cason Wallace<\/a>, too, who led the league in steals.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019d be lying if I said I didn’t want to earn something like that. But at the end of the day, my focus is on our team and what we have coming up in the playoffs,” Holmgren said. “We got this First Round coming up, so that’s where my focus is. Me sitting here and thinking about it isn’t going to change things one way or the other.”<\/p>\n

Just like last year, the Thunder will get a lot of love among the NBA’s awards. Gilgeous-Alexander and Holmgren \u2014 OKC’s All-Star duo \u2014 will be at the forefront of it. They’ve helped them navigate through an injury-riddled year for the rest of the squad.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: What would an NBA All-Defensive Team nod mean to Chet Holmgren?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Oklahoma City Thunder have sat on the NBA throne all season. It was another year where they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3783],"tags":[7,205,366,6,13393,310,475,179,3966,3965,209,312,693],"class_list":{"0":"post-712211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oklahoma-city-thunder","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cason-wallace","10":"tag-chet-holmgren","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-nba-all-defensive-team","13":"tag-oklahoma","14":"tag-oklahoma-city","15":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","16":"tag-oklahomacity","17":"tag-oklahomacitythunder","18":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","19":"tag-thunder","20":"tag-victor-wembanyama"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116418476011707740","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}