Chet Holmgren Ruled Out for Saturday With Knee Injury
Underdog NBA reported: 'Chet Holmgren (knee) listed out for Saturday.'
The are officially putting in bubble wrap for the weekend. According to Underdog NBA, the 7-foot-1 center is listed as out for Saturday’s matchup thanks to a knee issue.
Whenever a guy who looks like he was stretched out in a medieval torture device pops up on the injury report with a lower-body problem, a collective gasp echoes through Oklahoma. Holmgren missing time is the kind of news that immediately sends sportsbooks scrambling to adjust the point spread and paint-scoring props.
For context, this is the same franchise that had to watch their prized No. 2 overall pick sit out his entire 2022-23 rookie campaign. That was a Lisfranc foot injury suffered while trying to stop LeBron James in a Seattle pro-am game, which is objectively the worst way to lose a franchise cornerstone.
Since returning from that lost year, Holmgren has been the defensive anchor that makes the Thunder a legitimate nightmare in the . Taking him off the floor completely changes the geometry of the game. Opposing guards suddenly get a lot braver about driving to the rim when they do not have a human eclipse waiting to block their layup into the third row.
The immediate fallout is a massive hole in the middle of the floor for Saturday. If you are looking at the betting board, expect the rebounding and interior scoring lines for whoever plays to look a lot more appetizing.
Now we just wait to see if this knee flare-up is a one-game maintenance breather or something that requires a longer stay in the trainer's room. Until the drop another update, expect the rotation to get weird and the small-ball lineups to get a heavy workout.