You could say that after 11 months away from a basketball court, Chet Holmgren‘s return in last night’s Summer League matchup was a bit rusty at times, but showed plenty of examples of his potential for dominating the NBA, making a huge impact in Oklahoma City‘s 95-85 victory over Utah this Monday night.
The young star had a delayed rookie season last year, as he missed the entirety of his first campaign in the league due to a right foot injury that ended up in surgery. Last night, he confirmed what he’s made of, dropping 15 points, winning 9 rebounds and producing 4 blocks at the opening match in Salt Lake City.
Even though the power foward went scoreless in the first quarter, he gradually grew in confidence and controlled most stages of the contest.
Chet Holmgren balled out in his return to summer league action 👏
➤ 15 PTS
➤ 9 REB
➤ 4 BLK pic.twitter.com/0flcrBF4Qd— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) July 4, 2023
“The last thing I wanted to do was come out here and be timid, so I wanted to come out of the gates and be aggressive and look to impact the game,” the seven-footer said. “Obviously with that, you can make mistakes or miss shots, and that’s part of the game. Whether you’ve just played a hundred straight games without missing one or missed the whole season, mistakes come with the game, and I just got to learn from them.”
In the second quarter, he dropped in 5 out of 7 shots, hitting 10 points in total. Uncommon for an athlete his height, he constantly brought the ball up the floor, leading his squad through defense to attacking transitions.
“That’s just new-school basketball,” Holmgren said with a smirk on his face. “I look forward to making it happen more.”
Teammate Jalen Williams explained why his biggest impact came from the defensive end of the floor
Not to anyone’s surprise, Holmgren’s defensive presence was nothing short of spectacular. His ability to protect the rim seemed almost unparalleled after producing four powerful blocks during the match, three of them being two-handed swats.
“He makes paint protection very easy,” said Thunder teammate Jalen Williams, who led the Thunder’s offenses. “He gives everybody a lot more confidence to get up and guard the man a lot higher. I think he does a good job and figuring his way out down there, too, to help, and it makes it easier for us as well to zip around and move there.”
Check out Holmgren’s blocks in last night’s Summer League clash against the Jazz:
Even though the young athlete has been cleared to play since April, he feels comfortable with taking it foward step by step.
“The foot feels great,” Holmgren revealed. “It’s like the injury never happened, other than everything I had to go through obviously. But at this point, if you erased my memory, I wouldn’t know that anything had happened to my foot other than the scars from surgery. But conditioning-wise, there’s millions of hurdles that you have to go through in the process of returning to play.”
