Chet Holmgren Is The NBA Draft’s Hottest Lead

However, the league may still not be ready for the unusual talent of Chet Holmgren.

Holmgren, 7 feet tall and 195 pounds, is twice as appealing and intimidating to NBA talent reviewers. For several years, he was on the draft list as a given top five pick. On Thursday, there was no question he would be picked out of the top three. He’s one of the most absurdly skilled seven-footers to enter the league, but even in an open-minded and disreputable NBA, there’s concern his slim frame will how stable.

Holmgren was an elite prospect that most teams wouldn’t dare pass, but they were a bit intimidated by the process it took to get the best out of him. Calling Holmgren a project is incorrect because his talent is so obvious. He moves and handles the ball like a defender. He protects the rim like a hub. He made 39% of his three-point attempts in his only season at Gonzaga. He plays with high intensity. He’s not soft at all. However, since he lacks large numbers, it takes imagination to forecast his career.

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Holmgren was an important test for this innovative era. Unleash his potential, and a team will have one of the most atypical two-way head-to-head nightmares the game has ever seen. If he doesn’t play to his full potential, and the whole game loses the opportunity to develop in a weirder and more unpredictable way.

Holmgren is said to prefer Oklahoma City, which has a No. 2 pick. With the first pick, Orlando is said to lean ahead of Auburn Jabari Smith Jr., another tall and skinny player who fits the mold. forward sweet shooting combo that we have seen before. Duke forward Paolo Banchero, who will arrive in Houston with the #3 pick in this scenario, has perhaps the highest tier of the three players with his 250-pound frame and an easily transferable offensive repertoire. The next level.

Holmgren was right to want to play for the Thunder. Oklahoma City is committed to rebuilding the patient, which will give him time to work on his body and adjust. It has a beautiful young goalscorer in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who shares a backline with excellent on-field vision from 6-foot-8 Australian Josh Giddey. Most importantly, General Manager Sam Presti is a builder. build a constantly attentive team who will introduce Holmgren into a culture of player development and professionalism. Fifteen years ago, Presti picked Kevin Durant with pick #2. Durant was an all-time great with a different game, but he came to the NBA as a skinny kid with super skills. Vietnamese into a graduate year, who needs time for his body to catch up with his talents. He’s still slim, but he’s 25 pounds heavier and much stronger than the player who couldn’t lift the 185-pound press while incorporating the draft.

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Some of the things Presti did to build a team around Durant can apply to Holmgren. The difference is that Durant appears in the early stages of Prestige, not mid-rebuild, and Holmgren is considered a player that prioritizes defense over KD.

It’s hard to envision a path to greatness for Holmgren that doesn’t include consistent appearances on the all-defensive team. If he wasn’t a shot-stopper with the flexibility to switch and cause all sorts of havoc, he wouldn’t have reached his full value. The breach would be a work in progress.

Holmgren wisely played at Gonzaga, a balanced program featuring the all-American #1 pick in Drew Timme. Holmgren averaged 14.1 points, 9.9 rebounds and 3.7 blocks. He shoots 60.7%, is active in range and scores mostly from rushing plays and open jumps. To achieve the same effect as Holmgren with the Bulldogs, Coach Mark Little noticed the adjustment he had to make to the physical college game.

“It took me a while in the first week, two weeks, months to really get the hang of it,” said several people during the NCAA tournament. “His game is not about scoring. He impacts the game in so many ways that you could make the argument that he impacts the game more on the defensive end than on the offensive end. …

“You get guys who are 50 pounds heavier or physically fit, and so sometimes it’s hard to show all that skill in there, but at the same time he still gives you the ability to stretch the floor. He was very proficient when we could find him around the perimeter. He can take the ball off the glass and lead a break, and then while he gives us an entity we don’t have on defense yet. We’ve never used reduced coverage like you see a lot of people are doing in the NBA, but we were able to do it with Chet quite exclusively. ”

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Even if he is destined to become a star, Holmgren could take up to three years before he becomes the ideal attacking lad. Testing will be key to that process. If Presti knocks Holmgren out, Oklahoma City Coach Mark Daigneault has shown a knack for player development and forged his philosophy to make better use of his squad. Daigneault, 36, is one of the new thinkers to take over the NBA sideline operations. If Holmgren is at #1 or #3, Orlando has a similar youth coach at Jamahl Mosley, and Houston Coach Stephen Silas is also good at managing foundational talent. However, the organization’s patience is in question with Orlando and Houston.

About Holmgren, few people say: “Sometimes he has an impact on the game that is difficult to measure”.

For such an unusually thin frame, Holmgren moved with amazing ease. He doesn’t appear gangly, doesn’t appear breakable. He looked relaxed as if he were doing unusual. His body needs work, and perhaps the minds of the employees drafting him deserve the most scrutiny.

If this is the possible NBA era, someone should be able to hint at what the star looks like for Holmgren.