The 2022 NBA draft class appears, in hindsight, as a pretty colossal disappointment. Well, except for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Because for them, their decision to turn the Nos. 2 and 12 picks into Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams, respectively, perhaps went a long way toward spawning the league's next dynasty.
"This class has just not shaped up to be what we thought it would be," Andrew Schlecht said on The Athletic NBA Daily. "... The best players from this draft are Chet and J-Dub. ... As far as top-end talent, it has been a strange year for a lot of those [other] guys."
Holmgren is a game-changing defender and walking mismatch on offense, and a healthy Williams works as either a fill-in focal point or a short-list member of the league's best second options. These are the kinds of fortune-changers that hyped draft class was supposed to provide. It just worked out way better for Oklahoma City than it did for everyone else.
Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren look like the two best players from the 2022 draft class.
When Thunder fans think of that draft, it's a champagne bottle-popping source of celebration. That is, uh, probably not how anyone else remembers it.
While the draft has produced two other All-Stars (Paolo Banchero and Jalen Duren), neither necessarily looks like a franchise player. Banchero can put loud numbers in the box score, but they're not always the most efficient. Duren is an impact rim-runner, but there's still a limit on how impactful anyone can be in that archetype.
And, remember, those are the big hits. I could detail the list of big misses here, too, but then we'd be here all day. Let's just quickly note that one top-10 pick is already out of the league (Johnny Davis) and another recently spent time on the waiver wire (Jeremy Sochan).
As for Holmgren and Williams, they're first and second in the draft class, respectively, in career box plus/minus, per Basketball-Reference.com. And they're holding down the same spots (just in reverse order) in value over replacement player. They're the only class members averaging at least 13 points (16.5-plus for the pair) and shooting better than 46 percent from the field (both are clearing 50). And they're top three (trailing only Duren) in total win shares.
This is draft class dominance, and just another sign that executive vice president and general manager Sam Presti is perpetually a step above his peers. No one is doing better at stockpiling young talent or navigating around the largely restrictive collective bargaining agreement, and that's the biggest reason why the Thunder appear the team to beat both now and going forward.