WATCH: Everything You Need to Know About Chet Holmgren’s Injury and Recovery

Thunder fans should still be optimistic about Chet Holmgren’s future in the league.

The news of Chet Holmgren’s season-ending injury may have seemed devastating at first, but there’s still reason to be optimistic about his future with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The No. 2 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft suffered a Lisfranc injury to his right foot in a recent pro-an event. While he will miss the entire 2022-23 campaign, it appears as if the injury shouldn’t affect him beyond that timeframe.

ESPN injury expert Stephania Bell recently broke down this injury, especially as it relates to Holmgren. There’s typically a four to six month recovery time, but the best news is that once healed it shouldn’t bother him moving forward. Additionally, this has become a common injury in football, meaning doctors have a good feel for how to best treat this for athletes.

ESPN injury analyst @Stephania_ESPN details the promising path to a full recovery for Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren. pic.twitter.com/HlUlYTUFWc

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 25, 2022

“Certainly, we are disappointed for Chet, especially given the excitement he had about getting on the floor with his teammates this season,” said Thunder GM Sam Presti on Thursday. “We know Chet has a long career ahead of him within our organization and the Oklahoma City community. One of the things that most impressed us during the process of selecting Chet was his determination and focus. We expect that same tenacity will carry him through this period of time as we work together and support him during his rehabilitation.”

While Holmgren is skinny, this injury had nothing to do with his frame. This was an impact injury that could have happened to any player of any size. It is bad news for the Thunder, but their potential future face of the franchise should be good to go by the start of the 2023-24 season.

In his absence, expect other young players on the Thunder roster to step up. There’s plenty of frontcourt minutes to go around in Oklahoma City this season now that Holmgren will be sidelined. 

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