Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren, No. 2 Draft Pick, Will Miss The 2022-23 Season With Foot Injury

Chet Holmgren, the No. 2 overall pick in the NBA Draft, will miss the 2022-23 season after sustaining a Lisfranc injury in his right foot, the Oklahoma City Thunder announced Wednesday.

The 7-foot, 195-pound Holmgren suffered the injury in a Pro-Am game in Seattle on Saturday.

He joins a number of other highly drafted players in recent years who missed their rookie seasons, including Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and Blake Griffin, as ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski pointed out.

“Certainly, we are disappointed for Chet, especially given the excitement he had about getting on the floor with his teammates this season,” Thunder GM and executive vice president Sam Presti said in a statement. “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.”

Holmgren was the No. 2 pick out of Gonzaga in this summer’s NBA Draft behind Duke’s Paolo Banchero.

Holmgren looks like a string bean but he possesses the ball-handling skills of a guard, can block and alter shots at the rim and made 41 of 105 3-pointers (39%) in his only season at Gonzaga. He averaged 14.1 points, 9.9 rebounds and 3.7 blocks.

“I think he’s a terrific fit, they have a huge need in the frontcourt,” ESPN’s Jonathan Givony said on air when Holmgren was drafted. “They were the worst offense in the NBA last year, and he’s going to bring them great gravity with his ability to stretch the floor. He’s a tremendous finisher, he can create his own shot, he’s terrific handling the ball off the defensive glass. He really does everything on the offensive end, so he’s going to help them quite a bit while also being a Defensive Player of the Year type candidate.”