National Basketball Association<\/p>\n
Chet Holmgren brings ‘new dynamic’ to Thunder upon return from foot injury
\n Published
\n Oct. 6, 2023 4:35 p.m. ET
\n sharefacebooktwitterredditlink Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti and coach Mark Daigneault are trying to control the hype about Chet Holmgren\u2019s return, saying it\u2019s not fair to expect too much from a player who has been out for more than a year with a foot injury.Holmgren\u2019s Oklahoma City teammates, on the other hand, can\u2019t contain their enthusiasm about the 7-foot-1 forward\/center.”He\u2019s going to bring a new dynamic to our team, not just offensively but defensively,” guard Josh Giddey said. “He\u2019s going to be a massive addition to our team, and (I\u2019m) excited to play with him.”All-NBA guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is among those who can\u2019t wait to see how Holmgren meshes with the talented young core that carried the Thunder to a 40-42 record and a berth in the play-in tournament last season.ADVERTISEMENT “Chet brings so many things to the game,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Block shots, he rebounds \u2014 he\u2019s versatile. Especially in today\u2019s NBA, that helps out a lot \u2014 not only myself, but the rest of the team.”Holmgren averaged 14.1 points and 9.9 rebounds in one season at Gonzaga and was fourth in the nation with 3.7 blocked shots per game. He was the No. 2 pick in the 2022 NBA draft and had a strong summer league performance before getting hurt during a pro-am game.
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\n He feels he handled the year of grueling rehab well.”I feel like I did a really good job of taking a bad situation and a bad moment and really making the most out of it,” Holmgren said. “My whole attention and intention throughout the last season \u2014 the last year \u2014 was to really turn what could be a curse into a blessing, and I feel like I did a really good job of that.”He doesn\u2019t know exactly what to expect when the Thunder open preseason play at home on Monday against the San Antonio Spurs and No. 1 overall pick Victor Wembanyama.”My expectations for myself are to come in on day one ready to put the work in with extreme focus and determination, to figure out what it takes to help raise this team\u2019s floor and strive for the ceiling,” he said. “You know, no championship\u2019s won on Game 1 or training camp. So we just have to take each game one at a time, figure out where we\u2019re at and try to put the pieces together to get to where we need to go.”Although he\u2019s yet to make his regular-season debut, Holmgren\u2019s teammates already see him as an elite defender.”Chet is going to be special for us,” forward Kenrich Williams said. “I\u2019m not even talking about just the offensive side of the game. Just defensively, the impact that he\u2019s going to bring for us, like I said, man, I\u2019ve been here four years, and I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve had a legit shot blocker, rim protector like Chet.”Lu Dort, one of the league\u2019s best perimeter defenders, likes the fact that he\u2019ll have someone to back him up.”It means a lot,” Dort said. “Especially for me being so aggressive for the ball, it happens sometimes that I get beat. It\u2019ll be great to trust a good rim protector behind me that\u2019s going to go and make plays. I know Chet, he\u2019s not shying away around the rim.”On offense, Holmgren is a capable outside shooter who is dangerous on pick-and-rolls”It sounds clich\u00e9, but he does do it all,” Giddey said. “He can handle the ball. When he gets a rebound, he\u2019s a guy that can take it up the floor himself and handle it.”Holmgren was listed at 195 pounds heading into last year\u2019s summer league. He said he\u2019s been working on increasing his strength, and he\u2019s now listed at 208 pounds.”I was able to do that really well through specific dieting and meal prep, meal plans and stuff, as well as being in the weight room and having a specific routine to help me with my weaknesses as well as strengthen my strengths,” he said. “I feel like I did a good job of saying consistent with that and not waning, even on days I wasn\u2019t excited to go and move some (pounds) around.”Presti said the Thunder will monitor Holmgren closely to see how much he should play early on.”Obviously we\u2019ll be careful, but one thing about him is like, he\u2019s going to go hard when he\u2019s playing,” Presti said. “He\u2019s competitive \u2014 his mindset is as unique as his game.”Reporting by The Associated Press. FOLLOW Follow your favorites to personalize your FOX Sports experience Chet Holmgren Oklahoma City Thunder National Basketball Association share
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National Basketball Association Chet Holmgren brings ‘new dynamic’ to Thunder upon return from foot injury Published Oct. 6, 2023 4:35 p.m. ET sharefacebooktwitterredditlink Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti and coach Mark Daigneault are trying to control the hype about Chet Holmgren\u2019s return, saying it\u2019s not fair to expect too much from a player […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=877"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":885,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877\/revisions\/885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}