When it rains, it pours, and in Oklahoma City, it may as well be monsoon season at this point. Less than a week removed from Jalen Williams suffering a gruesome leg injury, and Cason Wallace tearing his labrum, the Thunder announced that Chet Holmgren will now miss the next 8-10 weeks due to a patellar tendon tear.
After earning first team All-Defence and third team All-NBA honours last year, Holmgren will now be possibly sidelined until the new year after consulting with several specialists over the last few days. While the team has labelled the tear “small” it’s nevertheless a major blow to an OKC squad that is running low on starting players all of a sudden.
Both Wallace and Williams underwent surgery for their respective injuries this week and will be “re-evaluated before the end of the season” to determine if they can rejoin their team for the homestretch of the regular season or playoff run.
With three key players now on the shelf, Oklahoma City announced that they were pausing their pursuit of free agent forward Ochai Agbaji in an effort to re-evaluate their needs. Prior to the rash of injuries, the Thunder were deep in talks with Agbaji’s camp to fill their open roster spot. But with so much turnover in less than a week, the front office will re-open their search in an effort to fill the minutes void created by injuries.
Holmgren averaged 17.1 points, 8.9 rebounds and 1.9 blocks on .557/.362/.792 shooting in 69 regular season appearances last season (28.9 minutes per game). The 7 footer also finished as runner up to Victor Wembanyama as Defensive Player of the Year, meaning there’s a massive hole on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball for Sam Presti & Co. to attempt to fill.
All of this is before even broaching the topic of the injuries the team was already dealing with before this stretch of bad luck. Oklahoma City had been playing without Nikola Topic (back) and Thomas Sorber (knee) to begin the season. The team’s second-round pick Otega Oweh also suffered a torn Achilles tendon during the preseason and Alex Caruso is nursing a sprained ankle.
OKC is already over the first tax apron, meaning that they’ve also got some financial constraints to worry about when scouring the free agent market. Luckily they still have some maneuverability before reaching the second apron so long as they can keep their additions as cost effective as possible.
With Holmgren sidelined and the team’s free agent plans currently in flux, it appears as though Kenrich Williams, Aday Mara, and Jaylin Williams could be in line for a bump in playing time over the teams next few games. OKC is next in action on Saturday night at 8:30pm ET against the Houston Rockets.
Photo: HutchDoesStuff. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.