Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembanyama are locked in a battle for Rookie Of The Year, this season. Chet’s team, OKC, has begun its campaign rather successfully, as the Thunder have gone on to win back-to-back games. That said, Holmgren himself did have a lousy beginning to the season against the Bulls, where he had just 11 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists.
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But Chet made up for his lackluster play by going off in the second game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The 7-footer registered a very impressive 16 points, 7 blocks, and 13 rebounds, leading OKC to the win in the process. But after the match, Holmgren went on Twitter, posting how the NBA got his stats for the night wrong. He specifically called out the total blocks for the game, as he believes he registered more than just 7 blocks.
The post by Holmgren reads “nba, please go watch the tape and give me the correct # of blocks. I [ I don’t care] about stats but I worked hard* for those. Good W[ Win] thunder up lol.” Chet in his tweet could be referring to the times that there was confusion as to who got the block, due to the commotion in the paint. There were times when it wasn’t clear who got the block, but Holmgren seems quite certain of his claims.
Chet gets love and appreciation from players around the League
Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembanyama, have both taken the league by storm. Though the narrative on Victor isn’t quite clear, players around the league seem to love Chet. Holmgren was supposed to lace up last year for Oklahoma, but couldn’t do so due to an injury. What’s ironic about the injury is that Chet received it from none other than LeBron James himself. The incident happened during a Pro-am game, last summer.
The incident resulted in a Lisfranc Injury, and Holmgren was restricted to the sidelines for the entire year. But this hasn’t deterred the OKC rookie, as Chet seems to have made a full recovery. With Holmgren playing so well, Gilbert Arenas has already made up his mind on his pick for Rookie Of The Year. While on his podcast, Gill’s Arena, Arenas had this to say about the ROTY.
“I think Chet [Holmgren] will win it. Only because he’s on a better team and he knows how to do everything, right? Chet is gonna have numbers that Wemby is just not thinking of right now, like rebounding. Chet is really trying to rebound. Wemby is the ball go up, he’s out. He think he 5’10”, like he cherry picking. He’s literally cherry-picking like he going to challenge a shot, keep going. So they throwing a fast break to him half the time. Chet is gonna damn near average a double-double.”
But Gilbert Arenas isn’t the only player who thinks this way. Clippers Star Paul George had something similar to say, siding with the 2022 second pick to win the ROTY. While speaking on the topic, on his podcast, Podcast with P, he told his viewers the following.
“I mean, it’s gonna come down [to] who’s gonna play more. I’m gonna go with Chet. Just because I think he [Chet Holgrem] is gonna play a ton, they’re going to be a winning team, and the way they play, it’s going to be fun to watch. And so I think he’s going to get a lot of coverage. Because he plays both hands, he blocks more shots, he’s little bit more polished, and further along, I think Wemby’s going to have a little learning curve. I know Chet didn’t play much due to the injury his rookie year. But being in the league, seeing the game up close for a year, it’s going to give him that much more of a head start.”
The rivalry between the two rookie centers is just beginning. Both Chet and Victory have yet to show their full potential. Not only that, none of the players have played an 82-game season, and it would be interesting to see if both players hold up well till the playoffs. With Chet having a better team and more help, I think Chet winning ROTY is a more realistic expectation.
