OKC Thunder big man Chet Holmgren is having a career-best campaign and is seemingly bee-lining his way toward his first-ever All-Star nod. From his scoring production to his dominance on the glass, the 23-year-old has undeniably upped his game in virtually every area imaginable.
However, following Monday's win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, Holmgren shed light on the specific aspect of his game he's "always" looking to refine.
After dropping 28 points on 11 for 16 shooting from the field and 4 for 5 shooting from deep, the center started discussing his much-improved play from an on-ball perspective, though quickly pivoted to highlighting how he's more focused on his impact on the game "when somebody else has it."
"As much as I've worked to improve my ability with the ball in my hands, I always try to work on my abilities when somebody else has it. And the defensive side is a whole other thing. You never have the ball on defense. So you've got to figure out how to make plays and get stops and win games on that end too," Holmgren said.
Thunder stud Chet Holmgren is more focused on off-ball activities
Needless to say, Holmgren has proven himself to be more than capable of serving as an elite on-ball producer throughout his career, especially here in 2025-26.
Through 38 games played, he's posting highly impressive averages of 18.0 points on 57.7 percent shooting from the floor and 38.4 percent shooting from deep.
However, he's also clearly made an effort to up his attention and energy on off-ball activities, and from both the eye test and advanced metrics, it's more than apparent that these efforts are having a major impact on both his and the Thunder's overall success.
Offensively, Holmgren finds himself absolutely dominating when roaming without the ball in his hands, as he ranks 19 in the league in putback points generated (69) and ninth in total points generated (104) as a roll man, while ranking fourth on the Thunder (minimum 25 games played) in effective field goal percentage on catch-and-shoot attempts (54.6).
Defensively, his ridiculous level of play should be even less surprising to see, as he's currently 17 in opponent field goal percentage (43.1) and fifth in the league in blocks per game (2.0) while ranking eighth in the association in defensive rating (102.8) among those who has played 25 or more games on the year.
As he acknowledged in his post-game media session, this Thunder team is already chock full of players who are "really good with the ball in their hand," one of whom is obviously Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Because of this, it appears Holmgren is willing to take the unsexy approach to improving his team's chances of winning on a nightly basis, allowing his teammates to get theirs while he excels alongside them.
With all this in mind, it should come as no surprise that he places third in the entire NBA in plus-minus (+9.4) and that SGA believes Chet to be a shoo-in to be selected to February's All-Star Game.