Chet Holmgren is Making an Early All-Star Case with OKC Thunder
Chet Holmgren has circumvented all typical NBA rookie characteristics.
Oklahoma City’s shiny new 7-foot-1 phenom has been poised. Unshakable. Impactful.
And for all his success, he’s finally begun to take hold of Rookie of the Year reigns over San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama. Who’s still been remarkable through the early-season slate, to a lesser degree than Holmgren due to inefficiency, turnovers and team success.
Even still, we might be conversing about the wrong accolade with Holmgren. He’s been historically good for a rookie. Almost to the point, on a nightly basis, it appears we’re looking at something else entirely.
It’s early, with Holmgren’s season just now reaching the 20% mark. But so far, he’s put together what most would consider a pretty strong All-Star case, on plenty of fronts.
He’s OKC’s second-leading scorer at 18.1 points per game, hitting on 56% of his shots overall and a blistering 44% of his four 3-point attempts per game. He also leads the team in rebounds with 8.0 per game, and not only leads the team in blocks, but ranks No. 4 in the entire league with 2.3 per game.
And if purely stats weren’t enough, Holmgren has poured on 30-plus points in two of his last four games, hitting an icy, buzzer-beating 3-pointer to send an eventual win over the Warriors to overtime, and going blow-for-blow with reigning MVP Joel Embiid in OKC.
And in the meantime, all this and more has helped the Thunder to an 11-5 record overall, good for outright second in the Western Conference.
Efficient and scalable offense, galvanizing defense, team success and a handful of moments on the big stage. One might think we were talking about an NBA All-Star.
And soon, we might just be.
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