Quantifying Chet Holmgren's Early Impact For Thunder

The Oklahoma City Thunder had an impressive comeback game on Monday. After taking a big loss to the Denver Nuggets on Sunday, the Thunder bounced back by routing the Pistons in a 124-112 win.

What the Thunder showed on Monday is that they're a much better team than last season. Good teams respond to a big loss with a big win, and the Thunder controlled a good portion of the game, often responding to punches from the Pistons to maintain that control.

A part of what allows the Thunder to control games is Chet Holmgren. Though the rookie was around the NBA all last season, that experience doesn't compare to playing in actual games. Now he's getting to do that, and showing what impact he has to this team when it comes to winning.

In the Thunder's 3-1 start to the season, Holmgren is averaging 15 points per game, 6.3 rebounds per game and 2.8 blocks per game. Obviously, those numbers are going to change as it's a long season combined with a small sample size. Still, he's off to an incredible start with the team.

Oh, and Holmgren is shooting 63 percent from beyond the arc. His ability, as a 7-footer, to stretch the floor is huge for how the Thunder runs its offense. Combines that with elite defense, and the Thunder is getting a huge impact from the rookie.

With 2.8 blocks per game, Holmgren sits at second in the league. He is tied for first in total blocks, though, according to Basketball Reference, with 11 total blocks this season. This includes a seven-block performance against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Holmgren's impact is obvious both in the box score and with the eye test. If players are shooting shots around the rim or in the midrange, there's a good chance Holmgren is impacting the shot in some way if he's on the court. He's got an 8.9 percent block rate, which leads the league.

Again, this is all a small sample size, but it's an early showing of how much Holmgren is going to impact this Thunder team, which is off to a solid start to the new NBA season.

For those who are interested in hot takes mixed with overreactions from a small sample size, it certainly appears as if an All-Defense appearance is on the table for Holmgren early in his career and a Defensive Player of the Year could be in his future, too.

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