Whether Chet Holmgren had to go through a white year last season due to injury, he had plenty of time to see the good emulation within the Thunder. After a convincing Summer League, he is now ready to start his NBA career and join this locker room united around an ambitious project, to bring Oklahoma City back to the top of the bill.
To do this, the Thunder has a slew of young talents ready to shine alongside Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who became the team’s franchise-player after the departure of Chris Paul.
“Our management did a great job bringing together the right people in the locker room, and also in the staff”, he told the “All The Smoke” podcasthosted by Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. “We are all very young, everyone has a lot of room for improvement. Everyone saw what Shai Gilgeous-Alexander did last year, but he just turned 25. He will continue to progress. It will be up to us to get to work together, build this cohesion, and understand how to put all these pieces together, because we have a lot of talent”.
Chet Holmgren is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s #1 fan
Inside the Thunder also praised the “soft” method of leadership adopted by ASG, which banished any hierarchy to get everyone on board. All ready to go to war for him.
“You can see what he brings to the field and why he is so unique. And honestly, if we weren’t looking at Instagram highlights and follower counts, that kind of stuff, and you were by his side every day, you’d think he’s just a regular person.”added Chet Holmgren. “He laughs at jokes with us, he behaves like the last guy on the roster. And I think that’s a good thing for our team in terms of hierarchy. No one is afraid to go and talk to someone else, even if they are perhaps less good. Everyone is on the same level. It’s great for us. In this sense, he is also a great leader”.
This feeling of equality is perhaps what makes the strength of this OKC team which is full of developing talents to which Chet Holmgren will be added at the start of the school year. Everyone is able to contribute and occasionally fill the role of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s lieutenant.
“We have so much talent in our team. It may very well be a new player who stands out every game. The ball will rather go towards so and so in this match, and he will shoot. There are guys who didn’t have a lot^of opportunities last year, or who just arrived, and when you watch a few games, you’ll see that these guys can play. From Cason (Wallace) to Ousmane (Dieng) via Tre (Mann) and like that until the end of the roster »he pointed out.
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Shai Gilgeous-alexander | 68 | 35.5 | 51.0 | 34.5 | 90.5 | 0.9 | 4.0 | 4.8 | 5.5 | 2.8 | 1.6 | 1.0 | 2.8 | 31.4 |
| Josh Giddey | 76 | 31.1 | 48.2 | 32.5 | 73.1 | 1.9 | 5.9 | 7.9 | 6.2 | 2.8 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 1.9 | 16.6 |
| Jalen Williams | 75 | 30.3 | 52.1 | 35.6 | 81.2 | 1.1 | 3.4 | 4.5 | 3.3 | 1.6 | 1.4 | 0.5 | 2.5 | 14.1 |
| Luguentz Dort | 74 | 30.7 | 38.8 | 33.0 | 77.2 | 1.7 | 2.9 | 4.6 | 2.1 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 3.3 | 13.7 |
| isaiah joe | 73 | 19.1 | 44.1 | 40.9 | 82.0 | 0.4 | 2.0 | 2.4 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 9.5 |
| Aleksej Pokusevsky | 34 | 20.6 | 43.4 | 36.5 | 62.9 | 1.3 | 3.4 | 4.7 | 1.9 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 8.1 |
| Kenrich Williams | 53 | 22.8 | 51.7 | 37.3 | 43.6 | 1.8 | 3.1 | 4.9 | 2.0 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 2.1 | 8.0 |
| Tre Mann | 67 | 17.7 | 39.3 | 31.5 | 76.4 | 0.4 | 1.9 | 2.3 | 1.8 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 7.7 |
| Dario Saric | 20 | 13.7 | 51.5 | 39.1 | 84.4 | 0.7 | 2.6 | 3.3 | 0.9 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 7.4 |
| Aaron Wiggins | 70 | 18.5 | 51.2 | 39.3 | 83.1 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 6.8 |
| Jeremiah Robinson Earl | 43 | 18.9 | 44.4 | 33.3 | 83.3 | 1.7 | 2.5 | 4.2 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 1.7 | 6.8 |
| Jared Butler | 6 | 12.8 | 46.9 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 6.2 |
| Mike Muscala | 43 | 14.5 | 43.8 | 39.4 | 79.5 | 0.5 | 2.6 | 3.1 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 1.6 | 6.2 |
| Jaylin Williams | 49 | 18.7 | 43.6 | 40.7 | 70.4 | 0.9 | 4.0 | 4.9 | 1.6 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 2.3 | 5.9 |
| Darius Bazley | 36 | 15.4 | 44.9 | 40.0 | 55.4 | 0.8 | 2.6 | 3.4 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 5.4 |
| Lindy Waters III | 41 | 12.9 | 39.3 | 35.8 | 80.0 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 1.8 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 5.2 |
| Ousmane Dieng | 39 | 14.6 | 42.0 | 26.5 | 65.2 | 0.5 | 2.2 | 2.7 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 4.9 |
| Eugene Omoruyi | 23 | 11.8 | 46.8 | 25.8 | 60.7 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 2.3 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 4.9 |
| Olivier Sarr | 9 | 12.6 | 50.0 | 12.5 | 71.4 | 1.3 | 2.1 | 3.4 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 1.9 | 4.0 |
