As Oklahoma City Thunder training camp winds down ahead of its first preseason game against the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday, All-Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander sees vast improvements from Chet Holmgren and his teammates. Head coach Mark Daigneault says improvement is necessary for the Thunder ahead of the 2025-26 campaign, and Gilgeous-Alexander admits that’s what he sees in Holmgren.
Gilgeous-Alexander sees the improvement in Holmgren’s strength, he revealed on Friday.
“He’s definitely stronger, and I expected that. We had a run last year, and he was coming off an injury, and it was a lower-body injury,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Of course, there’s going to be some strength that needs to come back. But we see it every day. Nothing surprising. Chet is who he is and is going to be who he is going to become. But, yeah, he’s been great, so far.”
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander also notices a difference in his Thunder teammates, both individually and collectively.
“Guys definitely got better as I expected and as we should,” Gilgeous-Alexander added. “It wouldn’t be the greatest thing if I didn’t see too many changes, but we, for sure, got better, individually, and as a group. And as the year goes on, you get closer and closer, so, cohesively, we’re better as well on both ends of the floor. We had played 100-something games last year.
“So, we had all of those experiences to get better, collectively, on both ends of the floor, and you see it. We’re definitely better this training camp than the last.”
For SGA, the defending champions had a productive training camp.
Mark Daigneault says improvement is a necessity for Thunder
While winning an NBA championship often yields complacency among defending champions the following season, Alex Caruso warns the 2025-26 Thunder to improve, a message head coach Mark Daigneault reiterated.
“It can come across as arrogant if presented the wrong way. We win the championship, and if you come out of that, it’s like, we can still get better,” Daigneault said. “That’s got a tone in it that doesn’t feel great, and that’s certainly not where we are. Improvement is necessary in our situation because everyone else is getting better. Both rosters, their coaching staffs, scheming, and getting better, their players themselves are getting better.”
Now, as NBA champions, the Thunder will get a team’s best effort on a nightly basis.
