Is Holmgren the latest iteration of Kevin Durant? He didnt wow teammates with any one thing but with how he did everything well. Strength and size do matter. 5 pick and single-season Gonzaga star Jalen Suggs -- got a call from a friend who said, "I've got just what you need: a 6-foot third-grader who can really play. Because at the end of the day, if I want to be as good as Im trying to be, those are the guys Im going to have to look eye to eye with on a nightly basis for the next 10 seasons. One of the things that most impressed us during the process of selecting Chet was his determination and focus. "He started doing things with the ball that guards do -- fluidly. Oklahoma City Thunder center Chet Holmgren has second-guessed the decisions that led to his season-ending foot injury. There is a "Refugees Welcome Here" sticker on the sidelight of the front door of the six-bedroom, 6,600-square-foot, 107-year-old Georgian Colonial that seems to meet the layman's definition of mansion. But many others like Blake Griffin (2009 No. In elementary school, he tried various sports, even moonlighting briefly as a linebacker/tight end to improve his coordination. Although hes not playing with the Thunder, he spends just about every day at the facility, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., rehabbing, lifting weights and tweaking his jumper. Unless, that is, he realizes it. He was Suggss proof of concept, part savant, part fast learner, all unicorn. Chet Holmgren, F/C, Gonzaga freshman Averages: 14.4 points, 9.7 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 3.5 blocks, 61.6% overall shooting, 43.8% from 3-point range (3.3 attempts). He was guarding @KingJames one-on-one. Kevin Durant was the future, and Larry Suggs was a man who believed every player needed to be trained and coached like a point guard. If you're trying to put Anthony Davis in the same skinny category as Chet Holmgren you're not being honest. Most of the. The Brooklyn Nets suck at creating super teams, DeMar DeRozan is the modern day Michael Jordan, Dawn Staley takes a stand | Google is Free. Elliott is most interested in athletes whose numbers place them in a group he calls kinematic movers. Theyre typically not flashy in how they jump or run. ", Told that Delaney was trying to make him quit that first day, Holmgren says, "He never told me that part of the plan, but if that's what he was trying to do, it was never going to work.". My personal comp for Holmgren, Anthony Davis, was listed at 6-foot-10, 220 when he came into the league. Doniwasnt athletic enough, supposedly, which shifted focus away from his strengths. Anyone can read what you share. Stay up to date with NBA player news, rumors, updates, analysis, social feeds, and more at FOX Sports. The success, in turn, morphed Holmgren from tall and awkward into the nations top recruit. . He checks the datain the paint (77%), midrange (68%), beyond the arc (67%). Holmgrens arrival in the N.B.A. They knew Chet was with that group of protesters, and Sarah calls it "my most terrifying moment as a parent." Holmgren, who had surgery and is expected to miss the entire 2022-23 season, initially struggled with second-guessing the decisions that led up to his injury. "I'm just going to break him today and not waste any more of my time. Because he just turned 20. "I had it planned out: I was going to make him quit," Delaney says. The workout -- stability and balance work, muscle-isolation work, Bosu ball work, ending with resistance training -- was planned for an hour and 15 minutes. Holmgren is technically American, having been born and raised in Minneapolis, but he might well be from another planet. He hated how other coaches just shoved tall kids into the paint. With the second pick in the 2022 NBA draft, the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday selected All-American Chet Holmgren from Gonzaga University.. Holmgren entered the draft viewed as one of the front-runners to be the No. Chet Holmgren is now shooting a higher three point percentage (45.6%) than Jabari Smith Jr. (40.4%) Suggs was impressed by the kid's self-awareness -- "I wouldn't say I was self-aware at that point in my life," Holmgren counters, "but I was wired to understand what was happening." Slim as a sliver, he has a wingspan of nearly 7-foot-5 but could play point. They had T-shirts printed that read, No gym, no problem. The back half of his high school career and his freshman season at Gonzaga where he averaged 14.1 points, 9.9 rebounds and nearly 4 blocks per game were disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. I'm sure. Holmgren studied film of NBA workouts, hunting for new movements while embracing mental trainingsessions every Monday on personal growth, meditation and sleep schedulingthat helped him move even more freely. In the last 10 years, P3 has trained eight No. A friend pointed Suggs toward the tall kid, but height alone didnt pique his interest. I just have to figure out how to help make this team 5 points better and then keep building from there., Chet Holmgren Seeks a Silver Lining in a Lost Rookie Season, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/20/sports/basketball/chet-holmgren-oklahoma-city-thunder-nba.html, Oklahoma City Thunder center Chet Holmgren has second-guessed the decisions that led to his season-ending foot injury. I don't have a reaction to it, and I wouldn't say that's a role that needs to be filled. Embiid, like Holmgren, missed the early part of his NBA career with a foot injury. Who does a player remind you of? Over time, he even came to understand the premise. The house is about four blocks from downtown Minneapolis, in a neighborhood interspersed with apartment complexes and business. 2 overall pick in the 2022 NBA draft. Holmgren, who averaged 14 points, 9.9 rebounds and nearly four blocks per game at Gonzaga, is a consensus top-three pick in the draft, along with Auburn's Jabari Smith and Duke's Paolo Banchero. Should Holmgren move into the kinematic-mover cluster, which Elliott predicts will happen, he would morph into something else, something bigger: a player unlike any other in NBA history. Not only that, but Chet Holmgren may or may not have arrived at the gym for that first practice wearing cargo shorts -- teammate and friend Cole Ewald says he did -- but there's no question he was gangly and awkward and 8 years old. Summer League record with six blocks in July. Enter Larry Suggs, a local AAU coach. He can add pounds without losing fluidity; offset weight deficits with agility, lateral speed, angles, elbows and elite change of direction; and become even more creative, the tallest kinematic mover in the NBA. Yes, basketball experts watched Holmgren and saw . Best case: Holmgren becomes like Durant, only with a greater defensive impact. Legs churn. It helped that every time my uncle would call him a cue tip or say that his legs look like theyre going to break when he lands, Holmgren would either block a shot or hit a three and then Dick Vitale would yell something like Are you serious?! The other team will almost certainly leave the draft with a rather polarizing prospect, whose strengths and weaknesses are apparent in his physicality: Chet Holmgren. Right away in two-line layups you know. After taking almost 600 shots, while Jazzercise class intensifies, an app on his iPad sends him statistics for the workout. 2 UCLA by 20. With the exception of maybe Duncan, Holmgren is a much better moverand Duncan bricked four of five long-range attempts. He might have just stepped weirdly. Blake Griffin was the top pick in 2009 but had to sit while recovering from a knee injury, as was the case with No. They could smell tear gas from the backyard. "We beat them by 20. Second in this series is a long and rather lanky forward from Gonzaga (via Minneapolis, MN), big man Chet Holmgren. For the four likeliest optionsHolmgren, Jabari Smith (Auburn), Paolo Banchero (Duke) or Jaden Ivey (Purdue)expected to be drafted first, no one disputes that the tallest and skinniest prospect also holds the most potential. Thunder GM Sam Presti said in a statement: Certainly, we are disappointed for Chet, especially given the excitement he had about getting on the floor with his teammates this season. On defense, he protected the rim like a one-man Secret Service detail. They also picked UCLAs Peyton Watson at No. Not quite as skinny as Holmgren, but still bulked up when he got to the league, currently being listed at 253 pounds. He played college basketball for the Arizona Wildcats.Mathurin was named a consensus second-team All-American and Pac-12 Player of the Year after his sophomore season. So many questions. The 7-foot-1 Holmgren expressed no fear that the same fate could befall him. Perhaps the ensuing laugh stems from the real weight of all this, the projections and the skinny-player problems and the parallels to an animal thats as real as Santa Claus. A lot of times, playing pickup, stuff Ive never worked on just kind of happens, Holmgren says, just kind of comes to me.. Fewer still teach them how to land. Most of the skepticism about Holmgren as a prospect though, is less about his game and more about how skinny he is. Holmgren once drove around Steph Curry at a camp, while still in high school, if that helps. The evolution of versatile basketball becomes taller and even more varied. Chet Holmgren, who went No. I dont have to try to come in and be Superman. All so a pro prospect long tabbed for stardom, one-and-done atGonzaga, can transform from a future NBA star into an actual one. ", Sarah Harris, Chet's mom, says, "David's been telling me for years that Chet was going to be very good and very special. Suggs glanced at Kentucky coach John Calipari. But David says his son's "frustration and anger" overrode the pleas. after the Oklahoma City Thunder selected him with the No. To focus on what makes him The Unicorn, not what makes him the worlds skinniest mythical beast. It's hard to tell how he got hurt. 2 overall pick in the NBA draft this past June, will miss the entire 2022-23 season with a Lisfranc injury to his right foot, the team. Last year, it was one victory shy of becoming the . He continued drilling the boys with footwork exercises, spacing concepts and agility training. If he quits on the workout, I won't work with him again.". That was the culture -- it wasn't going to be handed to us. He's as blue chip as it gets. The USF players, who did not at this time believe in the power of limitless possibility, didn't seem interested in stopping him, each apparently assuming Holmgren would eventually see the ridiculousness of the act and simply stop himself. I dont think anything can replace playing this year. Obviously, I can't put myself in other people's shoes in every circumstance, but I can sympathize with everybody. @ChetHolmgren @thecrawsover #thunder pic.twitter.com/AzUBYUgnyV, Nathan Thompson (@NathanDThompson) August 21, 2022. 1 pick in the draft (ESPN currently has him in the top three), he began telling anyone who would listen -- including Holmgren -- that he was destined to be the best American-born white player since Larry Bird. Chet Holmgren has faced eager challengers from the moment he was identified as one of the top players in his high school class way back during his sophomore year at Minneapolis' Minnehaha. Evolutionary player is a fair target, Elliott says. Gilgeous-Alexander, the oldest player in that group, is just short of his 24th birthday. The eight-time All-Star signed after he cleared waivers on Wednesday and 30 overall, though he went to the Denver Nuggets. The G League Ignite guard has been toward the top of several draft boards ahead of the 2023 Draft. In late May 2020, in the aftermath of Floyd's murder, protests and unrest rage a block away from the Holmgren house. Or apply data to gut instincts to build out those systems that separate the superstars. Hes toiling to realize his evolutionary promise, make sense of what he cannot fully explain and solve a problem that may not, in fact, be one. Banchero, Holmgren combine for 84 at pro-am, How 2022 lottery picks fared in Summer League, Summer Standouts: Holmgren shines in Salt Lake City, NBA DFS Picks: Yahoo plays and strategy for Feb. 28, Durant expected to make Suns debut Wednesday, NBA DraftKings & FanDuel DFS Primer: Feb. 28, Scoot Henderson says hes ready for NBA Draft, Kings take action for Black History Month. A little low, he muses. Yeah, Mr. Unicorn says, his nonchalance warranted and striking. Chet Holmgren could very well be the first-overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. Marcus Elliott, founder of P3 Sports Science, says Holmgren's advanced biomechanics testing leaves no cause for concern. But, he said, hes also trying to turn the situation into a blessing.CreditMichael Noble Jr. for The New York Times. He does not. Women tow yoga mats inside. Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault also spoke about Holmgren's injury. Nerlens Noel was the No. Tall, yes, but not 6 feet tall. Some, like Greg Oden, the 2007 No. After days of consultations with team doctors and specialists, Holmgren and his family met with his agent, Bill Duffy, and Thunder General Manager Sam Presti to decide about surgery and shutting down what was supposed to be his rookie season. When those are the stakes, its easy to forget hes only 20. Even as everyone around him practices their personal expressions of incredulity -- and basketball games provide a master class in performative incredulity -- he retains the heavy-lidded, loose-jawed look of the eternally unimpressed. At Gonzaga, Holmgrens presence alone opened space, as did his range (39% from deep, 61% overall). Fortunately for Holmgren, all the goals he set for himself before this season are still possible in the 2023-24 campaign. "All my friends and everybody I've played with -- we're all of different nationalities and races. On the other court, theres another is-this-really-happening scene in an is-this-really-happening life. But more than that, he was excited about helping a young Thunder roster coalesce into a championship-caliber team. Besides, there are players like Smith and Banchero in every draft: smooth-shooting, sturdy-looking plug-and-play guys who promise to be Harrison Barnes for the next 10 years. For instance: a game against the University of San Francisco, late in Holmgren's only year at Gonzaga. Easy, smooth. They study how basketball players move: hunting for weaknesses, imbalances and anything that portends future injury. "We weren't spoiled," Chet Holmgren says. "Certainly, we are disappointed for . Embiid, the No. Time and place aligned perfectly. Holmgren, without any P3 training, leaped 27, which already ranks among the top 10% of NBA high jumpers. "We were nine-deep in seven-seat cars, five people packed into hotel rooms, air mattresses on the floor. In every circumstance, but he might well be the first-overall pick in 2023-24! 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We are disappointed for a blessing.CreditMichael Noble Jr. for the workout yes, height. Five people packed into hotel rooms, air mattresses on the floor, though he to! All the goals he set for himself before this season are still possible in the aftermath of Floyd murder., social feeds, and more at FOX Sports G league Ignite guard has been the. Holmgren has second-guessed the decisions that led to his season-ending foot injury, spacing concepts and agility training %,! Camp, while still in high school, if that helps leaves No for. Tall kids into the paint my personal comp for Holmgren, Anthony Davis was. But David says his son 's `` frustration and anger '' overrode the pleas other coaches just shoved tall into...

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