Holmgren flashes big potential in return for OKC

SALT LAKE CITY — Chet Holmgren confirmed each indicators of rust throughout his first sport in 11 months and loads of glimpses of his potential to make a direct influence for the Oklahoma City Thunder in his upcoming, delayed rookie season.

Holmgren, the No. 2 total choose within the 2022 NBA draft who then missed the whole season as a consequence of a proper foot harm that required surgical procedure, had 15 factors, 9 rebounds and 4 blocks in the course of the Thunder’s 95-85 win over the Utah Jazz in Monday’s Salt Lake Metropolis Summer time League opener.

The sport didn’t get off to a reasonably begin for Holmgren, the 7-footer who suffered a Lisfranc harm throughout a Seattle pro-am contest throughout his final sport look in August. He went scoreless within the first quarter, airballing a finger roll and badly lacking a few turnaround jumpers, in addition to dribbling the ball off his foot and out of bounds.

“The very last thing I needed to do was come out right here and be timid, so I needed to return out of the gates and be aggressive and look to influence the sport,” Holmgren stated. “Clearly with that, you can also make errors or miss pictures, and that is a part of the sport. Whether or not you’ve got simply performed 100 straight video games with out lacking one or missed the entire season, errors include the sport, and I simply acquired to study from them.”

Holmgren discovered his rhythm within the second quarter, when he scored 10 factors on 5-of-7 taking pictures, and he displayed his distinctive ability set for a participant his dimension the rest of the sport. He missed his lone 3-point try however made a number of performs off the dribble after attacking closeouts, together with a nifty up-and-under that he completed along with his left hand after driving into the paint.

Holmgren introduced the ball up the ground on a number of events, one thing hardly ever seen from a 7-footer. In a single occasion, he grabbed a defensive rebound and pushed the ball to get the Thunder in transition earlier than delivering a ravishing, 40-foot contact move to energy ahead Jaylin Williams for a layup.

“That is simply new-school basketball,” Holmgren stated with a smile. “I sit up for making it occur extra.”

Not surprisingly, Holmgren’s greatest influence got here on the defensive finish. He’s thought-about a uncommon defensive prospect due to his potential to guard the rim and maintain his personal in opposition to guards on switches. Three of Holmgren’s 4 blocked pictures Monday had been two-handed swats after Jazz drives. Probably the most spectacular was a rejection of Utah first-round choose Keyonte Georgeon which Holmgren slammed the ball to the ground with two palms like a volleyball center blocker, producing oohs and ahhs from the Delta Heart crowd.

“He makes paint safety very straightforward,” stated Thunder ahead Jalen Williamsthe Rookie of the 12 months runner-up final season who scored 21 factors in 22 minutes. “He provides all people much more confidence to stand up and guard the person lots greater. I believe he does a great job and figuring his approach out down there, too, to assist, and it makes it simpler for us as properly to zip round and transfer there.”

Holmgren has been totally cleared since close to the top of the Thunder’s season in April and has performed in pickup video games, in addition to one-on-one and 3-on-3 since. Nonetheless, returning to sport motion was a big step.

“The foot feels nice,” Holmgren stated. “It is just like the harm by no means occurred, aside from the whole lot I needed to undergo clearly. However at this level, for those who erased my reminiscence, I would not know that something had occurred to my foot aside from the scars from surgical procedure. However conditioning-wise, there’s thousands and thousands of hurdles that you need to undergo within the technique of returning to play. Not having the ability to play a sport for a 12 months, it is actually, actually onerous to check and see the place you might be.”