Thunder star Chet Holmgren’s eye-opening lesson from first NBA playoffs

Holmgren performed well in his rookie season. In fact, he probably would have won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award in almost any other campaign. Of course, Victor Wembanyama cruised to winning the NBA Rookie of the Year Award given his outstanding season. Nevertheless, Holmgren finished second in voting and played a pivotal role in Oklahoma City’s success.

Chet Holmgren’s first NBA playoff appearance draws Mark Daigneault take

The Thunder feature a young core of players. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished second in NBA MVP voting. Jalen Williams looks like a future star.

And Chet Holmgren is going to be one of the better big men in the league for years to come. Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault addressed Holmgren’s first appearance in the NBA playoffs before Game 6.

“Great, these guys are awesome,” Daigneault said. “They’re leaning into it. We don’t sit here and try to pretend that we’ve been here 10 times. We understand this is our first run together. But at the end of the day, the guys are growing throughout the experiences. I think we’ve gained a lot of confidence over the course of this time… He’s (Holmgren) an example of that. The playoffs are tough, you’re playing against the best teams. High stakes over and over and over again.

“So it’s not smooth-sailing for any player or any team. I think our guys understand that. We’ve got hoopers. We’ve got a resilient group of guys that are excited to play, he’s excited to play.”

The future is bright for the Thunder. However, the Mavericks are led by Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic. Both players are not only superstars, but they feature more than enough postseason experience.

In the end, the Mavs spoke positively of the Thunder. It appears that both teams respect one another following such a hard-fought series.

Holmgren’s performance in Thunder-Mavericks series

Holmgren had some big moments in the Western Conference Semifinals. He averaged 15.8 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks per outing in the series. Oklahoma City would have certainly liked to see Holmgren contribute more in the rebounding department. Still, the Thunder rookie had a respectable postseason overall.

Following Game 6, Holmgren addressed the possibility of using the loss to the Mavericks as motivation moving forward in his career, quote via ClutchPoints.

“I’m definitely gonna remember it,” Holmgren said. “It’s hard to tell what you remember more, the wins or the losses. But this definitely stings, it doesn’t feel great. It’s definitely kind of a driving force to not want to feel this feeling again. Nobody wins 12 straight championships, so the chances that I’m gonna feel this at some point again is definitely there, but I’m going to do everything in my power to avoid this feeling again.”