Chet Holmgren didn’t duck the uncomfortable part of Oklahoma City’s summer. He didn’t wave it away, and he didn’t try to dress it up.
At Thunder media day on Monday, Holmgren was pressed again about the Western Conference Finals loss to the Spurs, the way that matchup exposed him, and what it means heading into a new season. The questions came after a rough seven-game series in which he managed just 10 points, seven rebounds, an assist and 1.8 stocks per game while shooting 51% from the floor and 27% from deep. Game 7 was especially quiet: four points, four rebounds and only two shot attempts.
That kind of series can linger. Holmgren made it clear he’s not letting it define his motivation.
"I feel like I've always had personal motivations. Over time, I've tried to distance them from outcomes, good or bad, because outcomes change, as we know.
Outcomes change a lot, night to night, year to year. If you base your motivation based on outcomes, your motivation is going to go up and down.
I feel like I have very consistent motivations, and I try to stick to those," Holmgren explained of his offseason motivation.
That’s not the kind of answer that dodges accountability. It’s the opposite.
Holmgren was essentially saying the work has to stay steady whether the result is a title, a dud, or something in between. If motivation only shows up after a bad night, it’s too easy to lose it when things go right.
He pointed back to last summer as proof. Even after Oklahoma City won its first championship, Holmgren said he didn’t treat the trophy as a reason to stop evaluating himself honestly. He looked at the film and saw a version of himself that wasn’t moving the way he wanted after fracturing his hip earlier that season.
"Yeah, I think I learned a lot from the year that we won it, and I honestly think that my approach was very similar. Obviously the emotions of it were different, but I don't think my process changed at all.
After we won it, obviously it's good emotions. You're at the highest of highs, but at some point -- which was still relatively pretty quick.
You have to flush those emotions and look at the reality of what the tape is and then figure out how you can kind of improve on those things. I'd say that was no different after last season.
Obviously different emotions, but you still have to get to a baseline where you can look at things objectively and then figure out how to try to improve from there," Holmgren further detailed in a followup question.
That same mindset carried into how he described his offseason work. Holmgren said the goal was to balance what already shows up in Oklahoma City’s system with the things he still wants to add, the skills that won’t matter until he can do them at the level required.
"I'd say it's a combination of things. One, I'd say there is no perfect balance, but you have to try and find the best balance for yourself of, you know, kind of what is currently showing up within your situation based on how your team plays, how other teams play you and your team.
And then there's also a mix of things that you inspire to do, that you aspire to be able to do, that can't show up until you work at them to be able to do them at the level you need to do them at for them to show up. You can't spend all your time working on one or the other.
I think I found a good balance of that this summer, as I have in the past. I'm always excited to chase improvement," Holmgren said of his offseason work.
None of that changes the central basketball issue. Holmgren has to be better in the Spurs matchup, not just in the season opener or the two regular-season games that follow, but in the playoff series that looks almost inevitable between these teams. Still, the bigger takeaway from Monday was how he handled the scrutiny: direct, calm and unflinching.
Now the Thunder are waiting to see that mindset turn into production.
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