Oklahoma City Thunder’s Isaiah Hartenstein (55), Aaron Wiggins (21), and Chet Holmgren (7) watch the closing moments of their loss to the San Antonio Spurs through the second half of Game 7 of the Western Conference finals of the NBA basketball playoffs series, Saturday, May 30, 2026, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
OKLAHOMA CITY — Chet Holmgren attempted two shots in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals. He absorbed loads of shots from critics afterward.
And the Oklahoma City Thunder spent Day 1 of the offseason making clear that they support him.
If the ballyhooed matchup within the West finals was Holmgren vs. San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama, then it was a one-sided one. Wembanyama had the superior numbers within the series and the Spurs wound up prevailing, while Holmgren was barely an element offensively with the Thunder season on the road Saturday night.
READ: Wembanyama, Spurs dethrone Thunder in Game 7 to succeed in NBA Finals
“Every minute Chet Holmgren’s been on the team, we’ve been the 1 seed within the Western Conference,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said Sunday, when the team gathered for end-of-season meetings. “And it wasn’t the case before Chet was healthy.”
Holmgren had likely his best season, with career-highs of 17.1 points and eight.9 rebounds per game. He made All-NBA for the primary time, All-Defensive for the primary time as well, got his first All-Star nod, plus was second within the Defensive Player of the Yr balloting.
He finished second in that voting behind Wembanyama — identical to he did for Rookie of the Yr in 2024, and identical to the Thunder did in these West finals.
“We want Chet. We want Chet Holmgren,” Thunder guard and back-to-back reigning NBA Most Helpful Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Before Chet was here, we weren’t who we’re today. We didn’t have the success we had today. When he’s the most effective version of himself, we’re the most effective version of ourselves and it’s no secret.”
It’s easy to ascertain the West finals matchup — Thunder vs. Spurs — becoming a rivalry for years to return. Each teams have young, obviously highly talented corps, and now they’ve the ingredient that each one rivalries truly need, that being a playoff matchup, to assist provide fuel.
READ: NBA: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander suggestions his cap after Game 7 loss
“I definitely think that they’re different when it comes to I don’t think there’s one other team that has their play style, their personnel,” Holmgren said. “They’re unique in that way. You possibly can’t just type of play like a base normal, ‘that is what we type of do on a mean Tuesday night’ kind of thing.”
And while the skin world might need checked out Holmgren as considered one of the the reason why Game 7 didn’t go Oklahoma City’s way, the remainder of the Thunder disagreed.
Gilgeous-Alexander, for instance, pointed to himself — and that was after he had an excellent 35-point effort within the deciding game against San Antonio. He even went so far as to explain a second straight MVP season as “a failure.”
“I failed at my goal,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I didn’t achieve what I wanted to realize, but through my experiences, I learned probably the most about myself and I make the best amount of increases I even have in my profession after I fail at my goal and don’t get what I need. And I have a look at this no different. I didn’t get where I desired to go this season. There’s a reason for that. Now I even have to take a look at that reason and take a look at to make certain it never happens again.”