Kenny Smith says Chet Holmgren belongs in the same conversation as Victor Wembanyama, and the Oklahoma City Thunder big man gave him fresh evidence Tuesday night. In a blowout win over the Lakers in the semifinal opener, Holmgren held Los Angeles to two points on 1-of-9 shooting when he was the primary contesting defender.
The performance fit a postseason stretch that has been hard to ignore. Through five playoff games, the 24-year-old Holmgren averaged 18.6 points, 9.2 rebounds, 1.2 steals and 2.2 blocks while shooting 57.4 percent from the floor and 45.0 percent from deep. On defense, he held opponents to 44.3 percent shooting, posted 3.4 stocks per night and ranked third in contested shots at 11.6, just 0.2 behind Wembanyama.
That is the weight behind the argument. Holmgren, a 7-foot-1 big man with an All-Star nod and an NBA championship already on his resume, was not just productive in the series opener. He was the reason the Lakers could not find easy answers when the Thunder needed a statement in front of them Tuesday night.
The context is simpler than the numbers suggest. Wembanyama is widely regarded as the NBA’s alien, the player who has forced the league to rethink what a modern big man can be. Holmgren has started to make a case that he belongs in that same tier, even if the route is different. In 2025-26, he averaged 17.1 points and 1.9 blocks while shooting 36.2 percent from the floor, a season that was uneven but still ended with a playoff surge that changed the conversation.
The tension is that Holmgren has not looked dominant in every setting, and his regular-season shooting would not, on its own, put him in the same breath as the most unique rim protector in the sport. But five playoff games have sharpened the picture, and Tuesday night added a defining defensive possession to it. The question now is less whether Holmgren can be useful in big games and more whether he is already becoming one of the few players who can be discussed alongside Wembanyama without sounding like hype.
If the Thunder keep leaning on him this way, that conversation is only going to get louder.
