The Thunder announced that No. 2 pick Chet Holmgren will miss the 2022-2023 NBA season due to a Lisfranc injury to his right foot. The injury occurred in a pro-am game in Seattle. The Crossover staff offer their initial reactions to the news, players playing in pro-ams and the Thunder’s long-term outlook.
What is your initial reaction to Holmgren’s injury?
Chris Herring: Is there an appropriate reaction to have other than to say it sucks and that it’s incredibly unfortunate? This is the entire reason teams pull their youngsters one or two games into summer league: to limit the risk in games that don’t matter. So it’s brutal to know that Chet will now miss the entire season due to one in a pro-am pickup game.
Robin Lundberg: My reaction is that it is a bummer. I think we all were looking forward to see what Chet could do in the NBA, especially after his scintillating Summer League debut. There had already been a lot of discourse around him because of his unique profile but unfortunately everyone will have to wait to see him in a real game.
Rohan Nadkarni: It’s a bummer, but not the end of the world for Chet. We’ve now seen multiple players (Joel Embiid, Blake Griffin, Ben Simmons, Zion Williamson) return from rookie-year maladies and eventually reach All-Star form. Obviously there will always be concerns with big men and foot injuries. Yet Holmgren wasn’t expected to come in and be the savior for OKC in his rookie season. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that once Holmgren recovers from the injury, he’ll have more time ahead of next season to get his body in better shape for the rigors of NBA basketball. Some extra months to ramp up probably can’t hurt.
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Michael Shapiro: Holmgren's injury is, well, a bummer. Perhaps Oklahoma City was prepared for another tankathon in 2022–23, but the potential of a Holmgren–Josh Giddey connection made the Thunder a sneaky League Pass option entering the season. Holmgren delivered plenty of highlight-reel moments in Summer League, and even as he faced a difficult adjustment to the professional game, simply watching a player with his blend of size and skill was expected to be a small delight of the upcoming year. We'll now have to wait at least 12 months to see Holmgren on a professional floor, making this a year of effective purgatory in Oklahoma City.
Jeremy Woo: Obviously, big bummer. Holmgren looked ready to roll at Summer League. He's been healthy through his career at this point, but you have to hope this isn't the start of a pattern or a chain of future issues and that things don't compound. I wouldn’t connect this to issues about his body type or lack of strength, but I do think we have to be wary sometimes with foot injuries in guys that size who play on the perimeter quite a bit. There’s not really anything to draw from this other than that we’ll have to wait to find out exactly what he can do in the NBA.
Stephen R. Sylvanie/USA TODAY Sports
Should the NBA ban players from playing in Pro-Ams?
Herring: No. At the same time, I would fully understand the idea of teams stepping in and strongly, strongly encouraging their players not to participate in them. The games are extremely fun to watch, and give the NBA a shot of adrenaline during times we might not otherwise being paying attention to it. But the risk is always there. If it hadn’t been Chet’s foot, it could have been something else later that day in Seattle; particularly if they’d kept playing on a court with that much condensation.
Lundberg: Banning players from pro-am seems extreme. The best talents love playing, and pickup games can be just as intense. Chet’s injury could’ve happened at any time on any floor, so seeking something to blame seems fruitless to me.
Nadkarni: Definitely not. You can’t keep players hermetically sealed in the offseason. And if they can’t play basketball, how are they supposed to get better at it? There’s a risk of injury any time a player trains, works out or plays basketball. At the same time, they’re expected to be in world-class shape for Game 1 of the season. It’s deeply unfortunate Chet is going to miss a whole season. You ultimately still can’t stop basketball players from playing basketball.
Shapiro: There is some credence to teams limiting injury exposure during the offseason, but it's hard to envision any scenario in which players are barred from one of the sports time-honored traditions. Summer runs have become a right of passage for young players in recent years, and while Holmgren's injury is disappointing, couldn't the same thing have happened in a private gym? Attributing this incident to the pro-am circuit isn't quite fair.
Woo: I personally don't think so, just because it's pretty hard to tell basketball players not to play basketball in the offseason. Injuries like this can happen behind closed doors just as easily as on camera. I think it kind of falls on teams to dictate their preferences to their own guys as far as offseason activity, but injuries like this could happen in any number of ways, and frankly, pro-am games aren't always highly intense and vary widely. I don't think the setting is the issue.
Does this affect your long-term outlook for the Thunder?
Herring: It honestly might. Anyone who takes one look at Holmgren naturally would worry about how a body like his would hold up over time. The guy has incredible skill—the perimeter shooting, the length at the basket, the ability off the bounce—but there were always bound to be more durability questions about him than other prospects because of how tall and skinny he is. If he isn’t a consistent piece for OKC, you’d have to feel a lot worse about the team’s long-term outlook. All that said, it makes them even less competitive in a year that could be beneficial for a coveted top pick in the 2023 draft.
Still: This news is utterly brutal for Holmgren and the Thunder, who likely would have been in the running for that top pick without an injury like this one.
Lundberg: That all depends on how Chet bounces back. I’m a believer in his ability, but with his frame my chief concern was injury. So it isn’t exactly reassuring that he is hurt so early. Hopefully it is just a bump in the road, and if that is the case it doesn’t really alter the path for the Thunder who are playing the long game, anyway.
Nadkarni: The Thunder should be fine. I’m not going to claim they are happy, but a Chet injury does give them another year to tank and enter the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes. It’s not dissimilar to the Process Sixers (in fact it’s very much alike) and ultimately OKC’s long-term goals—such as draft and extend a bunch of young star talent—are still on the table. Though I feel for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who deserves to have his talents showcased on a team actually trying to win, the Thunder are still on a pretty good long-term path, provided they can add another high-end lottery talent next summer.
Shapiro: Holmgren’s injury is the latest example of the fragility at play when a team enters an extended rebuild. Going from the depths of the lottery back to the postseason requires both lottery luck and a smooth development timeline for young players, both of which are anything but guarantees. But I'm still bullish on the Thunder’s long-term outlook. Oklahoma City could very well be in an enviable spot in a year, pairing its current young core with prized prospects Wembanyama or Scoot Henderson. Playing the long game here remains the sensible play, even with the roadblock provided by Thursday‘s unfortunate news.
