The OKC Thunder may only have two stars from a technical standpoint in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams within their midst, but Chet Holmgren believes there's a third player who's deserving of this kind of moniker.
Surprisingly, it's not even him.
During a recent sit-down with ESPN's Malika Andrews, Holmgren was asked to share the first word that comes into his mind when discussing his Oklahoma City teammates.
For guys like Shai and J-Dub, he revealed it to be "style." Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso earned the descriptors of "strong" and "defense," respectively.
When it came to Ajay Mitchell, however, the big man went for a more splashy approach to his word choice, as he opted to go with the always coveted "star" distinction.
Chet Holmgren calls Thunder guard Ajay Mitchell a 'star'
Following up a surprise rookie season where he ranked fifth in three-point percentage (38.3) and first in defensive rating (100.0) among his first-year peers who saw 30 or more games played, Mitchell has truly broken onto the scene here in his sophomore go-around.
Through 27 games played, the former second-round selection finds himself dropping impressive, new career-highs of 14.1 points, 3.7 assists, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.5 steals per game on a highly respectable 46.7 percent shooting from the floor and 35.3 percent shooting from distance, while predominantly coming off the pine.
On top of this, Mitchell also falls in at fifth on this league-best 25-2 Thunder club in PIE (12.3), net rating (18.6), and plus-minus (10.6) and, with him on the floor, they rank in the 98 percentile in point differential (+20.1) and the 99 percentile in opponent points per 100 possessions (100.4), per Cleaning the Glass.
Though the rest of the league may have only believed the Santa Barbara product to be merely a quality role player for the defending champions, clearly, based on the eye test and advanced metrics, he's become a core piece to their in-game rotation.
In fact, in many ways, Ajay Mitchell is living proof of why many believe Oklahoma City is destined to become the league's next great dynasty, for he was plucked up in the second round of the 2024 NBA Draft yet, in just his second year in the league, has been producing like a true lottery talent.
As things currently stand, the guard is serving as a tremendous role player for the Thunder as they look to repeat as champions.
However, Holmgren seems convinced that his future trajectory has a much higher ceiling in store for him, and the rest of the NBA should be kicking themselves for allowing OKC to land him.