Chet Holmgren agrees to rookie max extension with Thunder
Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder star and 2025 NBA champion Chet Holmgren has agreed to a totally assured five-year most rookie contract extension that would attain $250 million, agent Invoice Duffy of WME Basketball instructed ESPN on Wednesday morning.
After lacking three months throughout the season due to a hip harm, Holmgren returned in February and got here again stronger to assist lead the Thunder and their younger core to the NBA title. Holmgren’s deal doesn’t embody a participant choice or group choice.
Oklahoma Metropolis officers will transfer towards locking in All-NBA celebrity Jalen Williams, who has momentum in his rookie extension talks.
The second-youngest group in NBA historical past to win a championship, the Thunder have now locked in Holmgren and league MVP and Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to long-term most extensions. On Tuesday, Gilgeous-Alexander signed a four-year, $285 million contract extension by the 2030-31 season.
Holmgren, 23, is a part of a tightknit Thunder core set to play with one another and contend for an NBA championship for a number of years to come back.
The No. 2 choice within the 2022 draft, Holmgren suffered the second main harm of his NBA profession after he broke his pelvis in early November. He additionally missed his total rookie season on account of a ligament tear in his proper foot.
Holmgren returned from the pelvis harm shortly earlier than the All-Star break in February and completed the season averaging 15 factors, 8 rebounds and a pair of.2 blocks whereas capturing 49% from the sphere and 37.9% from 3-point vary. He went on to play in all 23 video games throughout Oklahoma Metropolis’s title run, and his plus-169 plus-minus was one of the best mark of any participant within the 2025 postseason, in response to ESPN Analysis.
A lanky, 7-foot-1 heart recognized for elite instincts and profitable attributes, Holmgren is a key a part of the Thunder’s traditionally nice protection. He contested 93% of opponent’s shot makes an attempt because the closest defender, the second-highest charge within the league for the reason that begin of final season, and led the NBA in discipline objective proportion allowed on layups and dunks final season amongst gamers to contest 100-plus pictures, in response to GeniusIQ. He additionally allowed the bottom discipline objective proportion (33%) of anybody who defended a minimum of 40 pictures on this yr’s NBA Finals, per ESPN monitoring.
Holmgren blocked 11 pictures within the Finals alone, together with 5 in Sport 7 — essentially the most by any participant in an NBA Finals Sport 7 since blocks turned official in 1974. He is considered one of simply three gamers all time with 150 made 3-pointers and 250 blocks by the primary two NBA seasons, together with Victor Wembanyama and Kristaps Porzingis.