SALT LAKE CITY — At first glance, you may not believe it. Oklahoma City hitched up his wagon him? Chet Holmgren, all 7′ 1″, 195 pounds tall, isn’t skinny for an NBA player. He’s skinny for somebody, an animated stick figure. If there is a prototypical NBA body, Holmgren is the opposite.
At second glance – and third and fourth – you’d think the man, Oklahoma City hitched his wagon to him. Holmgren made his summer league debut on Tuesday. He scored 23 points. He grabbed seven rebounds. He repelled six shots. Game center, Holmgren dragged Tacko Chute on the perimeterknocking down four three.
“I thought he was really good,” Thunder coach Kameron Woods said.
You think? Summer league hot strikes are as meaningless as games. Anthony Randolph once averaged 27 points in the summer league. Marco Belinelli had an average of 22. Nate Robinson was so good in the summer leagues, Vegas retired his jersey. Summer league success translates to the NBA about as often as wiffle ball skills do in baseball.
Again: Holmgren was good. Freed from a university system – did Mark Few know what he had with this guy? – Holmgren showed up. He started the fast breaks. They are finished too. On a possession, he read a perimeter double team and found a cutting Jalen Williams. On another, he picked up an offensive rebound and dived on Fall. He fended off a dunk attempt from James Palmer and hit Kofi Cockburn with an ankle crossover.
” There is not a lot of [flaws] in his game,” said Josh Giddey.
Giddey should know. A day after the draft, Giddey’s phone rang. It was Holmgren. He was in Oklahoma City and wanted to work. Giddey met Holmgren at the Thunder training facility. The two played one-on-one. Giddey says he was impressed with the diversity of Holmgren’s playing. “Fadeaways, dunking on me, all kinds of stuff,” Giddey said. Later, during team training sessions, Giddey saw Holmgren’s defensive potential.
“Big guys can be lags for guards,” Giddey said. “He’s not. He’s one of those guys who can sit with guards and he’s so long he can block perimeter shots… I knew we had a special talent.
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Holmgren has been the NBA’s most intriguing prospect in years. He has the skills of an All-Star guard and the frame of McLovin. At his best, Holmgren has the potential to further revolutionize the central position. A pivot who can initiate a quick break and shoot three at the end? The reigning MVP tops the list of players who can do it. It could end too. The question is whether Holmgren’s 20-year-old body will add the strength it needs to do so. Cockburn bulldozed him for a short hook in the first half and Fall moved him around in the paint at will.
“I’m not convinced he’s a star,” said an NBA aide sitting courtside for Holmgren’s debut. “He’s obviously a great shooter, gifted but he’s so weak physically. He can’t do without his defender and he realized that early on and settled for three for the rest of the game. He’s so thin in the hips and legs that he makes [teammate] poku [Aleksej Pokuševski] looks like he has thick legs. I don’t think it will ever fill. He will have to make difficult shots this season to have a good year because he is content with jumpers and cannot play inside. He was able to use his length to block shots on pilots tonight, but the NBA guys are just going to get into his body. He has a long way to go.
Oklahoma City understood the risk of drafting Holmgren. But they also saw the benefits, all of which were on display on Tuesday. Giddey says he envisions him and Holmgren forming a deadly pick-and-pop combination. “It’s going to be a nightmare for teams to keep,” Giddey said.
Thunder coaches encouraged Holmgren to push the ball himself in transition. “What impresses you the most about him is his size, he’s a playmaker,” Woods said. “And in the modern NBA, you need point guards everywhere. It fits this bill. So I would say his playing ability has remained out of reach. But again, what I would come back to is what’s most impressive for someone who has the skills they have, is how much they want to do it as part of what we do as a team. And how much he can find in our attack alone.
Oklahoma City isn’t worried about Holmgren’s body. Not yet anyway. Neither did Holmgren. Sitting on a makeshift dais — sideways because Holmgren’s legs wouldn’t fit under a table — Holmgren says he doesn’t have a target weight for the start of the season. In fact, he is wary of winning too much too quickly.
“I’ve never been someone who aims to get to that weight or that weight or to be 350 pounds,” Holmgren said. “I’m just trying to add strength and make it so that I can be a better player. I don’t want to be so heavy that I don’t feel good. That I don’t have the feel like I move as well as I would with a lighter weight. I just add strength. The weight comes over time and I just try to find a good weight that I am comfortable playing with.
Oklahoma City has a compelling roster. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a budding star at point guard. Lu sleeps is one of the best defensive players in the NBA on the wing. Giddey showed enough last season to believe he has elite forward potential. In a few years, the Thunder could be good. Holmgren, if he reaches his potential, can make them great.
“I want to learn through every experience,” Holmgren said. “Whether it’s good or bad because the worst thing I can do is have a great summer league and not learn anything from it. So just try to learn from every experience, every moment, every play , of every movie session, shooting, whatever it is, and try to move that forward.
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