Victor Wembanyama so dominated the talk of the rookie phenomenon that Chet Holmgren got lost in the trees. Holmgren finally comes out of the forest. Scoring 36 points and tying the three-pointer in an overtime win over the Golden State Warriors will be an eye-opener. Holmgren’s brilliance may be masked by the deep talent bunker that surrounds him in Oklahoma City, compared to the solid but lackluster group Wembanyama plays with in San Antonio. For example, against the Warriors, Holmgren And Shai Gilgeous-Alexander looked like the tandem of the future.
The SGA-Chet Holmgren 1-2 punch showed its KO power early. A year ago, Gilgeous-Alexander’s name was everywhere in trade conversations amid questions about how much tanking he could tolerate.
Oklahoma City was one of the favorites to land Wembanyama. The emergence of SGA and the emergence of Jalen Williams as a do-it-all wing has accelerated their rise. Now, Sam Presti reigns over the best in basketball rising collection of neophytes. It’s starting to look a lot like the Durant, Harden and Westbrook years again. On Sunday, SGA and the Thunder team showed how much can change in one year. Basketball is evolving at dizzying speed. Golden State’s advantages have become obsolete.
When I wrote about the The NBA’s defensive counter-revolution last month, Holmgren was who I had in mind as a lieutenant in the perimeter defense revival. However, Oklahoma City has more horses in its stable than San Antonio. Williams has played 84 percent of his minutes this season as the four on Oklahoma City’s roster without giving up too much size due to his pterodactyl arms and is on the verge of a 50/40/90 split this season.
During the first month of the new campaign, the Oklahoma City offense displays the highest 3-point shooting percentage in the league, ranks in the top 10 in defensive rating, offensive rating and field efficiency percentage. Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid favor the big man’s return, but this week Holmgren presented a more prime-time-ready game than Wembanyama, who is still finding his sea legs half the time.
The long, lanky players Presti assembled in Oklahoma City begin to form their Voltron. Holmgren is 7 feet 1 inch tall with a wingspan of 7 feet 6 inches. SGA is 6 feet 6 inches tall with a wingspan of 6 feet 11 inches. Jalen Williams steps in as a 6-foot-5 small four with a 7-foot-2 wingspan. Aleksej Pokuševski is still only 21 years old and has a 7-3 wingspan on a fragile, but 7-foot wing frame. On switches, 6-foot pointy god Chris Paul had to hold off Holmgren’s skeletal frame and an onslaught of long wings from the Thunder.
Awkward length is nothing new. But a team of long, efficient spacers who can also be classified as legitimate playmakers and two-way disruptors makes Oklahoma City special. These Thunder put the Golden State Warriors to shame. Steph Curry still plays up to his role as His Majest-3 behind the arc, but a 6-foot-3 combo guard alongside CP3. Klay Thompson is 6-foot-6 with a 6-foot-9 wingspan, but Curry is the rare example of an undersized player with a near-negative wingspan, standing at 6-foot-3 with a 6-foot-4 wingspan.
Even Draymond Green is a reminder of the small ball era. His free-roaming instincts were supported by a 7-foot-1 wingspan on the body of a burly 6-foot-6 forward. Holmgren looks like the elongated skeleton of Draymond Green, but he intimidates with a different level of verticality and agility that makes him a threat on switches. But it’s the added bonus of his penchant for buckets that makes him a true unicorn. During his equalizing triple corner to extend the action into overtime, his length allowed him to recover from the competition of Andrew Wiggins.
In overtime, SGA scored 10 and used that length to reject a triple from Curry and earned its second victory against the Warriors in three days. Golden State is being phased out by basketball Darwinism and Oklahoma City holds the crystal ball that predicts the future. This is happening faster than we imagined.