Chet Holmgren shined in his summer league debut, scoring 13 of his 23 points in the first quarter to help the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 98-77 victory over the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night.
The No. 2 pick in the draft was everywhere on the floor as he also had seven rebounds, four assists and a Salt Lake City Summer League-record six blocks in 24 minutes.
However, not everybody was impressed with his game.
An anonymous NBA assistant coach who watched Holmgren’s debut for the Thunder made it known that their stance on the Gonzaga product hasn’t changed.
“I’m not sold on him being a star,” said an NBA assistant, via Sports Illustrated. “He’s obviously an excellent shooter, skilled but he is so physically weak. He can’t get by his defender and he realized that early and settled for threes the rest of game. He’s so thin in hips and legs that he makes [teammate] Poku [Aleksej Pokuševski] look like he has thick legs.
“I don’t think he’ll ever fill out. He will need to make difficult shots this season to have a good year because he settles for jumpers and can’t play inside. He was able to use his length to block shots on drivers tonight but NBA guys will just get into his body. He has a long way to go.”
Click on ‘Follow Us’ and get notified of the most viral NBA stories via Google! Follow Us
That sounds like a pure hater who knows his team missed out on a potential great talent.
The versatile 7-footer from Gonzaga averaged 14.1 points and 9.9 rebounds and ranked fourth nationally with 3.7 blocks per game, finished 7 of 9 from the floor and 5 of 5 at the free-throw line.