Chet Holmgren Should Be An All-Star

As the NBA World reaches the halfway point of the season, the conversation around the NBA All Star Game heats up. Who is a lock, who is on the fringe and who will get snubbed?

The Oklahoma City Thunder have a lock on their team in superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who will cruise to his fourth straight All-Star bid and is a lock for as many straight first-team All-NBA honors.

A year ago, Gilgeous-Alexander had company in the Mid Winter classic joined by teammates Jalen Williams for his first All-Star bid before going on to make the All-Defensive team and All-NBA squad. This season, the Santa Clara product is lagging behind in the All-Star hunt after spending the start of the year in street clothes due to an offseason wrist surgery that has made him ineligible for postseason awards.

OKC Thunder big man Chet Holmgren has picked up that role left behind by the swingman, playing at an All-Star level on the best team in basketball, with a 30-5 record, which should make it an easy decision to play Holmgren in the All-Star game.

Against the Warriors on Friday, his impact was felt in a big way leading to the Thunder's 131-94 route of Golden State.

The Gonzaga product tallied 15 points, 15 rebounds, four assists, a steal and four blocks while shooting 5-for-8 from the floor, 1-for-3 from downtown and 4-for-4 at the charity stripe being a +23 in the contest.

“His impact on winning, just on a possession-by-possession basis. It's the visible things, obviously. Tonight you had the rebounding, the blocking, you get the points, but it's the invisible things too. It's just the amount of plays and the impacts positively for the team. You just can't put a value on it. I thought his rebounding tonight was particularly strong on both ends of the floor and that's something, as impactful as he was as a young player, we didn't rebound the ball great when he was on the court, at times at the five we were better at that. And a lot of that's just his improved strength and continued improvement in that area of the game. So I can't say enough about how he played tonight," Mark Daigneault said of Holmgren's night Friday.

In the second quarter alone, Holmgren was pivotal in Oklahoma City's effort to put the game out of reach for the short handed Warriors. After Golden State rallied to cut the Thunder's lead to two points, the third year big man kept the Bay Area ballers at an arm's length turning in seven points, five rebounds, an assist, a steal and a block in seven minutes of action.

"Yeah, he was really good. I think he had a backdoor pass for a basket, big rebound, two free throws, and then he scored on a putback. Kinda pushed it from two to eight, they had to call timeout, and from there, we kinda settled it down. He just did what he does every night, affects the game at a high level. It's not always scoring, a lot of times, defensively. He had a lot of rebounds tonight. He really affected the game, and that's who Chet Holmgren is. He's a winner, and it might not always show up offensively like I just said, but he's gonna affect the game no matter who's out there," Gilgeous-Alexander said of Holmgren following the Warriors game.

This season, Holmgren is averaging 18.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.8 blocks and nearly a steal per game while shooting 57% from the floor, 39% from beyond the arc and 80% at the charity stripe.

Already ranking top-20 in fan voting for All-Star honors, it should be a no brainer for his peers and coaches to let him into his first ever All-Star game.