The Oklahoma City Thunder invested their 2nd overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft on Chet Holmgren a 7’1 big man out of Gonzaga. Over the weekend, Holmgren participated in the Seattle pro-am event “The Crawsover” put on by NBA veteran Jamal Crawford with NBA stars like LeBron James, Jayson Tatum, and fellow top pick Paolo Banchero. The slippery court conditions ended the game at halftime, but not before Holmgren suffered a right foot injury.
The last few days have been a rollercoaster of emotions for OKC Thunder fans. When the initial play happened, everyone expected this to be just a roll ankle, or something minor to that degree. However, Shams Charania of The Athletic reported Wednesday there was fear Holmgren had ligament damage.
That is when the downward spiral for the fanbase started, everyone was panicking, and quick to have an extreme take. The OKC Thunder announced Thursday morning that Chet Holmgren will miss the entire 2022-23 NBA season.
3 ways Chet Holmgren’s season-ending injury impacts the 2022-23 OKC Thunder season
Sam Presti clarified that this Lisfranc injury in his right foot is a “rupture of the tendon and not a Fracture.” This injury will force Chet Holmgren to miss his entire rookie season. He is not the first, and sadly will not be the last, top pick to miss an entire season. Even the OKC Thunder have an example of this way back in the 2003 NBA Draft.
The Oklahoma City Thunder selected Nick Collison 12th overall out of Kansas University where he missed his first NBA season with shoulder injuries. He did not log an NBA minute until the 2004-05 season. Collison went on to be the first member of the OKC Thunder to have his number retired and is still part of the organization’s front office.
Sam Presti mentioned to those of us in the media on Thursday, when the Holmgren news was announced, that Collison will work with the 2nd overall pick teaching him how to handle this adversity and continue to grow from it despite not being able to play in games.
Around the NBA names like Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, Blake Griffin, and Zion Williamson have all missed entire seasons due to injury within their first three seasons (and for all but Williamson, missing their first season), and have all made All-Star games since.
Even in Bricktown, Kevin Durant played just 27 games in the 2014-15 season due to a broken foot and missed the entire 2019-20 season in Brooklyn rehabbing from an Achilles injury.
These things happen, and while it is easy to hit the panic button, Chet Holmgren’s career is far from doomed over this one misfortune. Let’s take a look at 3 ways the 2022-23 OKC Thunder season is impacted by this news.
With Chet Holmgren out for the season, Mark Daigneault will have to rewrite his rotation and shake up his planned starting lineup
The Oklahoma City Thunder have spent all offseason riding a high. From leaping up in the NBA Draft lottery to grab the 2nd overall pick, to trading multiple future first-round picks in exchange for the 11th pick and keeping the 12th overall pick owed to them by the Clippers. Just last week basketball was buzzing in Bricktown.
Bringing in three lottery picks, four total rookies, re-signing Lu Dort and Kenrich Williams to long-term extensions, and looking forward to another year of progression from Josh Giddey and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was on the horizon. Just a month away!
Now, all of that comes to a stretching halt with the news that Chet Holmgren will miss his entire rookie season, just as NBA stars before him. Like Joel Embiid, who missed his first two seasons, Ben Simmons who missed his entire rookie year, and Blake Griffin who suffered the same fate. Even Zion Williamson missed an entire year of his NBA career a season ago.
The biggest impact of this injury is the immediate future. Let’s be honest, none of us are doctors and we will simply all play the results. Either Holmgren gets hurt again and we all retroactively freak out and point back to this injury as the downfall, or he never suffers another serious injury and this is just a footnote on his basketball reference page.
The largest impact this news has on the season, is not necessarily the win total. Sure, the Thunder will lose more games without Holmgren but how many more wins does he create? Three? Four? five? ten? The impact here is the rotation.
Even for a team projected to be in the bottom half of the lottery this upcoming season, the Thunder are heading for a massive roster crunch, and before this injury, it was hard to find minutes for every player.
Now, 30 minutes a night just freed up and this drops the number of locked-in starters from four to three.
The locked-in starters remain Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Josh Giddey, and Lu Dort. Past that? It is anyone’s guess.
Jalen Williams, Aleksej Pokusevski, Ousmane Dieng, and Jaylin Williams are set to see the biggest minute upticks due to this news.
For Jalen Williams, it would not shock me to see him sneak his way into the starting lineup with two spots up for grabs. He was already in line to grab at least 20 minutes a night, but this news puts him in line to be the highest minutes per game rookie on the roster.
Now that Chet Holmgren is not getting 30 minutes a game allocated to him, I think more if not all of those will go to “projects” like trying to develop Aleksej Pokusevski and Ousmane Dieng at the NBA level. For Jaylin Williams, who else is going to play in the middle? Derrick Favors, Mike Muscala, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, and Darius Bazley are the only other players that could play that position. That list includes two forwards and two veterans that can not handle a heavy workload at this point in their careers.
The Oklahoma City Thunder might be projected as the worst NBA team, but despite Chet Holmgren’s injury, there are still a few teams that could finish with the worst record
I know that the Oklahoma City Thunder only won 24 games a year ago, but that still did not capture them a bottom three record in the association. I understand they play in the toughest conference in the league that only got better and healthier this offseason. Plus, Chet Holmgren going down puts a damper on things, but the Thunder will still be improved this year.
As mentioned earlier, this team is still talented with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey trying to learn how to play together while improving their games on top of young players like Tre Mann, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, rookies Jalen Williams, Ousmane Dieng, and nice key pieces that provide leadership and defense such as Kenrich Williams and Lu Dort. With a really good head coach in Mark Daigneault and an excellent culture, that still does not smell like a recipe for the worst record in the league.
Well, If I am going on that limb of them not being the worst team, who are they better than?
San Antonio Spurs
The team I think Oklahoma City is better than no matter the moves that happen between now and the end of the season, is the San Antonio Spurs. While they have one of the best coaches in the league, if not the best coach, but not a lot more.
Keldon Johnson is a great piece to have, let’s see how Joshua Primo and Devin Vassell improve, they drafted Jeremy Sochan, Malaki Branham, and Blake Wesley, and I think they have the best two-way player in the league in Jordan Hall but I still think OKC is more talented. There is no SGA on this roster, there is no Josh Giddey on this roster, and pound-for-pound give me the Thunder’s young talent over the Spurs.
Indiana Pacers
The Indiana Pacers are one of the strongest teams in the league for me. They hired Rick Carlisle back as their head coach and since then have done nothing but launched a rebuild while holding onto Myles Turner despite a ton of drama surrounding his name on the trade market and Buddy Hield.
I think Tyrese Haliburton is a top-tier young player in the league, I like what Isaiah Jackson might become, and Bennedict Mathurin might be a really good scorer even as a rookie, but I just do not see Indiana winning that many games.
The only reason it is a risk putting the Pacers in this category is that they do play in the Eastern Conference to attempt to stockpile wins, but ultimately If I had to place money on it, I think OKC will come away with more victories than the Pacers this season.
Utah Jazz
This is a prediction that will take a little imagination. Sure right now, the Jazz has Donovan Mitchell and really good veterans like Jordan Clarkson, Bojan Bogdanovic, Malik Beasley, Rudy Gay, and Mike Conley, but they also have Danny Ainge and a first-year head coach, Will Hardy, who want to tear this thing down to the studs.
There is a real world in which this team is only left with a young, and strange, Jarred Vanderbilt, Talen Horton-Tucket, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and Walker Kessler roster. Kessler is one of the top young players on this squad, and I had him in the 40s on my draft board.
A Donovan Mitchell trade, which appears likely, makes this Jazz team much worse than Oklahoma City.
There are a few toss-ups that I can understand either argument like for the Houston Rockets, Orlando Magic, and Detroit Pistons. For the sake of argument, and to not look like a blind homer, let’s just say those toss-ups all go against OKC.
Even so, the Thunder are not even a bottom three team in the league despite this Holmgren injury.
The Oklahoma City Thunder will still get Chet Holmgren a lot of developmental time despite the season-ending injury
I know it is a sad reality that the Oklahoma City Thunder will not see their second overall pick on an NBA court this season, but that does not mean Chet Holmgren can not develop within this season.
Holmgren is a self-proclaimed basketball junkie, and through watching the film, taking mental reps, and asking his teammates and coaches questions about certain scenarios that present themselves within the games or practices, he can still learn and grow a lot as a player.
While he will not play an NBA game this season, it is not as though he will not be able to pick up a basketball for 12 months. This is not a video game. Eventually, Holmgren will be able to play basketball in some capacity first shooting around, then drills, one on zero work, three-on-three work, and eventually full contact five-on-five activity.
The biggest factor in this is the fact that Holmgren is driven to be great, and will do anything he can to improve. Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti has already informed those of us in the media that he is lifting weights with his upper body already. The weight room, mental reps, film, and individual work will be huge for Holmgren.
What are your thoughts on the Chet Holmgren injury? How does this change your excitement for the season? Who will the Oklahoma City Thunder still be better than this season? Let us know in the comment section down below!