Only Two of the Thunder’s Opening Night Starters Are Healthy. Chet Holmgren Is Out 8 to 10 Weeks.
Chet Holmgren will not play again until Christmas at the earliest, and Oklahoma City is running out of healthy starters.
The Thunder announced Friday night that Holmgren underwent what the team described as a biological treatment on a small patellar tendon tear in his right knee. He is expected to make a full recovery and return in eight to 10 weeks. Eight weeks from Friday is right around Christmas. Ten weeks puts him into the second week of January.
That is not surgery, and the distinction matters on this roster, because two of his teammates just had the real thing. Holmgren felt mild discomfort in the knee on Oct. 25 against the Clippers, saw specialists, and further testing turned up the tear.
Two Starters Left Standing
Oklahoma City opened 4-1 and looked like the best team in basketball for about a week. The Thunder then went to Dallas on Oct. 28 and lost 120-96, and the injury report explains most of it.
Six players were ruled out for Saturday night in Houston. Jalen Williams fractured his left fibula and dislocated his ankle in that same Oct. 25 game against the Clippers, and had surgery Wednesday that included ankle ligament work. Cason Wallace tore the labrum in his left shoulder on the same night and had surgery Friday. Alex Caruso sprained his right ankle against Phoenix. Thomas Sorber and Nikola Topic have not debuted at all, both still working back from offseason procedures.
Add Holmgren and the math gets ugly. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Isaiah Hartenstein are the only members of the opening night starting five who are available.
What Oklahoma City Actually Loses
Holmgren was averaging 12.0 points, 9.3 rebounds and 3.0 blocks in 30 minutes across three games, all Thunder wins. The scoring was down and the shooting was cold at 40.7 percent from the field, but the rim protection was exactly what it has always been.
Last season was his best. He made third-team All-NBA and first-team All-Defensive, finished runner-up to Victor Wembanyama for Defensive Player of the Year, and put up 17.1 points, 8.9 rebounds and 1.9 blocks in 69 games. The Thunder gave him a five-year rookie maximum extension in July 2025 that can reach $250 million.
The Availability Problem Is Not New
This is the part Oklahoma City cannot keep waving off. Holmgren missed his entire rookie season in 2022-23 with a Lisfranc injury in his right foot, suffered in a pro-am game weeks after he was drafted second overall. He played all 82 games in 2023-24. He then fractured the iliac wing of his right hip on Nov. 10, 2024 and finished that season with 32 games. He played 69 last season. He has now missed two more.
Four seasons in, the fully healthy version of Chet Holmgren has shown up exactly once.
Who Fills the Minutes
Hartenstein holds the starting job. Behind him, Jaylin Williams and rookie Aday Mara take the backup five minutes, and Mara has made the most of the opening with 11 points and 10 rebounds in 20 minutes against Phoenix. Ajay Mitchell has carried the backcourt, scoring 29 against Dallas after a career-high 30 against Phoenix.
Oklahoma City also reversed course on a roster addition. The Thunder had been expected to sign free agent Ochai Agbaji, then backed off and are re-evaluating the open spot, with sources telling ESPN that Agbaji’s health was not the reason.
Neither Mark Daigneault nor Sam Presti has spoken publicly about the knee. The team release is the only direct language on it so far, and Holmgren has not commented either.
Oklahoma City is still 4-1. It is also down to two healthy opening night starters before Halloween, and the player it just lost is the one who makes the defense work.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
