A couple of weeks into the 2023-24 regular season, it looks like the Rookie of the Year race will be closer than most anticipated.
Heading into the season, San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama was the heavy favorite to win the award. The 2023 No. 1 pick had years of built-up anticipation heading into his rookie campaign.
The second-most talked about rookie heading into the year was Oklahoma City Thunder center Chet Holmgren. After missing all of last season recovering from a Lisfranc injury, the 2022 No. 2 pick has been arguably OKC’s second-best player.
In eight games, the 21-year-old has averaged 16.8 points on 57.5% shooting, 7.9 rebounds and 2.5 blocks. He’s arguably had a better season thus far than Wembanyama, who’s averaged 18.8 points on 44.1% shooting, 8.5 rebounds and 2.4 blocks.
When asked about the Rookie of the Year award, Holmgren said that’s not his focus and is more worried about adding wins for the Thunder.
“We got a game at seven o’clock tonight, so that’s what I’m focused on,” Holmgren said during Friday’s shootaround. “Trying to win that game. That’s gonna be my focus coming into every single game day. Outside of that, I don’t have a whole lot of time for other things to worry about like that. I’m focused on winning these games and helping my teammates out.”
This is a very modest answer by the seven-footer as he clashes with a fellow seven-footer for the rest of the season. If Holmgren continues to have the same significant impact on both ends of the floor while the Thunder continue to win, he’ll have a very appealing case for the end-of-season hardware.
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