On Monday, the San Antonio Spurs played the Oklahoma City Thunder in a preseason game. The Thunder went on to beat the Spurs by a final score of 122-121, and Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembanyama were the top performers for each side.
Wembanyama finished with 20 points, five rebounds, two steals and one block for the Spurs, while Holmgren chipped in 21 points, nine rebounds and one block for the Thunder.
Former Boston Celtics star big man Kevin Garnett recently took to X (formerly known as Twitter) and said that Holmgren and Wembanyama looked like “created” players in Monday’s preseason game.
The Thunder chose Holmgren with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. Prior to declaring for the 2022 NBA Draft, the 7-foot-1 big man played one season of college basketball at Gonzaga University. Holmgren was arguably the best player in the nation during his lone season as a member of the Bulldogs, as he averaged 14.1 points, 9.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists and an otherworldly 3.7 blocks per game in 32 appearances with the team during the 2021-22 season.
Unfortunately, Holmgren missed the entirety of the 2022-23 regular season with the Thunder due to a right foot injury he suffered while playing in a pro-am basketball game.
Even without the big man, the Thunder still enjoyed a promising season, seeing as how they won 40 games a season ago.
Meanwhile, Wembanyama was selected by the Spurs with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. He averaged 18.0 points, 10.0 rebounds and 4.0 blocks per game while shooting 40.7 percent from the field and 30.0 percent from behind the 3-point arc across two games with the Spurs during Las Vegas Summer League.
His best game of Summer League came against the Portland Trail Blazers, as he scored 27 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, blocked three shots and converted nine of his 14 field-goal attempts against Portland.
Holmgren and Wembanyama both have incredibly bright futures ahead of them with the Thunder and Spurs organizations, respectively. They could very well be in the conversation as two of the best big men in the league in a few years from now.
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