Thunder Make Decision on Chet Holmgren Future After Bad Spurs Series: No Trade Coming
Chet Holmgren had the worst series of his NBA career against the Spurs. He scored four points on two shot attempts in Game 7. The Thunder lost the Western Conference Finals in seven games and watched San Antonio advance.
None of that changes the plan.
According to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, Sam Presti and the Thunder front office have already made a decision on Chet Holmgren’s future. They are not trading him. The idea is not even on the table.
“I can promise you this, Sam Presti will not be taking that advice,” MacMahon said this week, referring to suggestions that Oklahoma City should move off Holmgren after his postseason collapse.
Of course they are not trading him. This is the right call.
Holmgren is 23 years old. He is 7 feet tall, can shoot from the perimeter, protect the rim, and run the floor. He averaged 17.1 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per game during the regular season. He made the All-Star team. He made All-NBA. He was named to the First Team All-Defensive squad. He was the runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year.
One bad series does not erase any of that.
The Spurs matchup was a brutal one. Victor Wembanyama is the kind of player who can erase entire game plans. The Thunder asked Holmgren to defend Wemby, handle the floor spacing, and produce as a third option behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams. He got squeezed. The shots stopped falling. The confidence wavered. It happens.
What Sam Presti understands is that you do not blow up a top-three roster in the league because of a seven-game series. The Thunder finished 64-18 in the regular season, posted the best record in the NBA, and reached Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals. That is championship-contender territory.
The fact that they fell short does not change the trajectory.
Presti has spent half a decade building one of the most talent-rich rosters in basketball. The Thunder have draft picks for the rest of the decade. They have Shai locked in as the MVP. They have Williams emerging. They have Holmgren as the long-term anchor. The infrastructure is too good to panic.
If you are watching the Thunder offseason for what comes next, the moves will be around the edges. They have a first-round pick at No. 12 this year. They have flexibility to extend Lu Dort. They will look at veteran depth. Sam Presti always finds value at the margins.
What they will not do is treat one bad playoff series like the end of the world.
That is the discipline that separates the well-run franchises from the panicked ones. The Mavericks blew up their roster after Luka Doncic fizzled in 2022 and have spent every offseason since chasing the wrong type of talent. The Wolves overreacted after Anthony Edwards’ postseason loss and ended up making moves they had to walk back. The Thunder are too smart for that.
Holmgren is the long-term centerpiece. Period.
The summer will give him time to reset. He will work on his body. He will work on his post game. He will come back next October with more strength and a clearer head, and the Thunder will be right back in the championship conversation.
Sam Presti is not trading Chet Holmgren. The basketball world should stop pretending otherwise.
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.
