{"id":714481,"date":"2026-04-20T08:25:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T08:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/714481\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T08:25:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T08:25:18","slug":"nba-announces-chet-holmgren-as-defensive-player-of-the-year-finalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/714481\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Announces Chet Holmgren as Defensive Player of the Year Finalist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">The most elite defenders of the NBA\u2019s 2025-26 season include <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nba\/teams\/san-antonio\/\" data-i13n=\"sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link\" data-ylk=\"slk:San Antonio Spurs;sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link;itc:0\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;San Antonio Spurs&quot;,&quot;ySubModuleName&quot;:&quot;anchor_text&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">San Antonio Spurs<\/a> center <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nba\/players\/10094\/\" data-i13n=\"sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link\" data-ylk=\"slk:Victor Wembanyama;sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link;itc:0\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Victor Wembanyama&quot;,&quot;ySubModuleName&quot;:&quot;anchor_text&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Victor Wembanyama<\/a>, <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nba\/teams\/detroit\/\" data-i13n=\"sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link\" data-ylk=\"slk:Detroit Pistons;sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link;itc:0\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Detroit Pistons&quot;,&quot;ySubModuleName&quot;:&quot;anchor_text&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Detroit Pistons<\/a> guard <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nba\/players\/10096\/\" data-i13n=\"sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link\" data-ylk=\"slk:Ausar Thompson;sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link;itc:0\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Ausar Thompson&quot;,&quot;ySubModuleName&quot;:&quot;anchor_text&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ausar Thompson<\/a>, and Oklahoma City Thunder center Chet Holmgren.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Holmgren is coming off an NBA All-Star appearance for the first time in his young career. He\u2019s on the chase for a second-straight NBA championship, becoming the fourth Zag to win an NBA title last summer (<a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nba\/teams\/la-lakers\/\" data-i13n=\"sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link\" data-ylk=\"slk:Los Angeles Lakers;sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link;itc:0\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Los Angeles Lakers&quot;,&quot;ySubModuleName&quot;:&quot;anchor_text&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>\u2019 Adam Morrison in 2009 and 2010, <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nba\/teams\/miami\/\" data-i13n=\"sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link\" data-ylk=\"slk:Miami Heat;sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link;itc:0\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Miami Heat&quot;,&quot;ySubModuleName&quot;:&quot;anchor_text&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Miami Heat<\/a>\u2019s <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nba\/players\/3963\/\" data-i13n=\"sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link\" data-ylk=\"slk:Ronny Turiaf;sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link;itc:0\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Ronny Turiaf&quot;,&quot;ySubModuleName&quot;:&quot;anchor_text&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ronny Turiaf<\/a> in 2012, and San Antonio Spurs\u2019 <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nba\/players\/4620\/\" data-i13n=\"sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link\" data-ylk=\"slk:Austin Daye;sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link;itc:0\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Austin Daye&quot;,&quot;ySubModuleName&quot;:&quot;anchor_text&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Austin Daye<\/a> in 2014).<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Through 69 starts for the Thunder, the 7-1 talent averaged 17.1 points on a shooting split of 55.7 percent from the field, 36.2 percent on three-pointers, and 79.2 percent at the charity stripe. His 8.9 rebounds per game rank tied for No. 11 in the NBA, while his 1.9 blocks per game are tied for No. 2. StatMuse lists a defensive rating of 104.1 for the world\u2019s up-and-coming basketball star.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">At the start of the first round of the 2o26 NBA Playoffs, No. 8-seeded Phoenix Suns forward <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nba\/players\/5858\/\" data-i13n=\"sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link\" data-ylk=\"slk:Dillon Brooks;sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link;itc:0\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Dillon Brooks&quot;,&quot;ySubModuleName&quot;:&quot;anchor_text&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dillon Brooks<\/a> made it clear he was going to annoy No. 1-seeded Oklahoma City\u2019s man in the middle during the entirety of the series. Holmgren got the last laugh in Game 1\u2019s 119-84 victory, dropping 16 points on 5-10 shooting, seven rebounds, two steals, and two blocks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Arden Cravalho\u00a0is a Gonzaga University graduate from the Bay Area\u2026 Follow him on X @a_cravalho<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The most elite defenders of the NBA\u2019s 2025-26 season include San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, Detroit Pistons&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1026,12463,7,366,188,1195,150,189,6,3220,11,310,475,179,472,21277,474,3209,693],"class_list":{"0":"post-714481","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-ausar-thompson","9":"tag-austin-daye","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-chet-holmgren","12":"tag-detroit-pistons","13":"tag-dillon-brooks","14":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","15":"tag-miami-heat","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-nba-championship","18":"tag-nba-playoffs","19":"tag-oklahoma","20":"tag-oklahoma-city","21":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","22":"tag-phoenix-suns","23":"tag-ronny-turiaf","24":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","25":"tag-usa","26":"tag-victor-wembanyama"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116436089331063631","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714481","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=714481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}