Chet Holmgren Slightly Climbing Defensive Player of the Year Odds

Chet Holmgren might be one of the most fascinating players to watch to start the 2023-24 NBA season. As a rookie, the way he's impacted winning for the Oklahoma City Thunder has been incredible. Often, he's providing the team's second biggest impact.

Looking on just one side of the floor, Holmgren elevated the team's offense with his arrival. His versatility as a 7-footer plays right into the Thunder's offensive system and adds additional scoring gravity at all three levels of the floor, something that opens things up for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the rest of the squad.

Even with the immense offensive impact, that's not even Holmgren's biggest value as a player. He's added a huge defensive presence to the Thunder that quite literally impacts the entire floor.

The 21-year-old is averaging 2.8 blocks per game and 0.8 steals per game in 25 games played. He has 15 blocks over his past two games played, tallying eight against the Denver Nuggets and seven against the Memphis Grizzlies.

While the counting stats are there, the eye test adds to Holmgren's case. He constantly deters traffic away from the paint with his shot-blocking gravity and the vertical space that he congests.

Holmgren has +1500 odds to win the Defensive Player of the Year award. While his odds are long, he holds the third-best odds to win the award, according to ESPN BET. Anthony Davis holds +375 odds with Rudy Gobert leading the way as the favorite, holding -115 odds to win the award.

For Holmgren to even be this high in the odds is impressive, considering it's his rookie season and there's a big learning curve when jumping from the college level to the pros -- and add in a gap season for Holmgren where he was unable to play live basketball.

"Things are slowing down for him in all facets of the game," Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault recently said of Holmgren.

It'll be interesting to see how Holmgren's impact changes over the course of the season, whether it be for better or for worse.

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