The Story of Chet Holmgren!!! THE NEXT #1 PICK

Today I want to talk about the potential number one overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. A guy who is 7'1 with a 7'5 wingspan. The best rim protecting prospect since Anthony Davis. He can grab a rebound and go coast to coast. He can handle the ball like a guard and he can shoot threes on the perimeter and the catch and shoot off step backs and everything. Let's talk about Chet Holmgren because Nolan, I don't think anyone that covers basketball has watched more live Chet Holmgren games than you and I over the past year. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another episode of the Strictly B-Ball podcast. I'm Nolan alongside Joe. Joe, how are you doing today? I'm doing phenomenal because this is episode six of our podcast. We're on a roll with this stuff and I don't think we've done a podcast topic yet that excites me more than what we're going to talk about today. Today I want to talk about the potential number one overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. Like I said, Chet is a 7'1 big who moves, shoots, and handles like a guard and is the best rim protecting prospect in years, but Chet actually has not always been a consensus top 5-10 player in his class. I want to talk a little bit about his backstory because I'm not sure a lot of people really know his story. Obviously, like I said, he hasn't been a top 5-10 player since he was a sophomore like guys like Anthony Davis, Ben Simmons, RJ Barrett, Zion, Cade Cunningham, and those guys. Back in elementary and middle school, this is a really interesting story coming from Larry Suggs, who is the father of, of course, Jalen Suggs. Interestingly enough, Jalen and Chet were teammates when they were 10 years old. This is some really interesting stuff coming straight from Chet Holmgren's third-grade basketball coach. Larry said the first time Chet showed up at his practice, he showed up in cargo shorts. He wasn't very tall for his age, which is pretty crazy because he's now 7'1, but he showed up in cargo shorts. He never picked up a basketball before, third-grade kid. He wasn't very tall, playing with Jalen Suggs and some pretty talented third-graders at the time. He walks into practice, but Larry Suggs said he tried very hard and that it was interesting to see him still hanging in there with such a talented group of kids. Chet even said back in his first years playing basketball, he would really only sub into games if his team was up 30 with a few minutes left. We're talking about the potential number one pick in the NBA draft. He wasn't getting much playing time, elementary school. But according to Larry Suggs, again, Chet was an incredible listener. Suggs also taught him the fundamentals of shooting the ball from the perimeter at an early age. This is actually super interesting because back then, like I mentioned, Chet was not super tall. He had to be a guard, he had to be more so a guard back then, shoot the ball, work on the perimeter, and his coach was a very good coach, Larry Suggs. So he really developed ball handling. But keep this in mind, and you probably already know this, but for those who are listening, his father, David Holmgren, was a seven foot tall former division one basketball player for the University of Minnesota, which is my school. I wish Chet would have gone to U of M, but he didn't follow in the footsteps of his dad. But obviously genetics are a thing. And when you've got a kid who's starting to work on ball handling, he can shoot the ball on the perimeter. I remember there was a quote from Prince of League Bay, who was his high school teammate. He said the first thing he noticed about Chet, I think it was like sixth grade, the kid can shoot. That's what he said about Chet. He didn't notice his height because again, he wasn't that tall at that time. But in the year before he entered high school, Chet hit a massive growth spurt of eight inches, of eight inches, I think in one year. I mean, that's approximate, but eight inches in a year. That boy was sleeping good. He was getting a lot of, he was sleeping good. So doing the math, it says he was six nine his freshman year. So he was six one in the eighth grade, which is pretty tall. That's a tall eighth grader. But then he puts on eight more inches and he's six nine freshman year. And this was a quote, another quote from this article that I was reading with like quotes from like Larry Suggs and all that. He was a six foot nine freshman running off flare screens and knocking down triples at the varsity level for Minnehaha Academy. So that is when like you're starting to watch a six nine kid hit triples coming off screens like JJ Redick. All of a sudden you start to realize, all right, this kid's going to be pretty good. But he still wasn't really a top prospect. I think a lot of people still were concerned about his weight and how skinny he was. And I mean, he was still, there was a lot of question marks and I think there still is a lot of question marks. Obviously he's projected number one pick, but there was a lot of question marks early on. He was ranked outside the top 60, even after his, in his freshman year, he played on a state championship team at Minnehaha alongside Jalen. They won their first title in Chet's freshman year. But he really broke out in the summer of 2019 where he went off in the AAU circuits, winning MVP of the Under Armour Association Tournament, a tournament that I was lucky enough to go to this year. I wish I would've gone a year earlier and seen Chet there, but this is the time period that you can probably remember. He goes to this tournament, Under Armour Association, wins MVP, I think they won the title. I think it was Team Sizzle was his AAU team. He continues this summer and goes to a Steph Curry camp. And I think we all remember what happened there. Chet Holmgren crosses up Steph Curry, and this is kind of like when he, we've known the kid for a while, being grown up 15 minutes from where Chet was playing, but this is where he is just pushed into the national spotlight. Yeah. Because it's pretty impressive to be a seven foot kid who crosses up Steph Curry at his own camp. And then throw down a dunk right after it. Yeah. That's the first time I really took notice of him and became aware of Chet Holmgren. Yeah. Of how good he was, yeah. No, before that I had no idea. Really? Yeah, I had no idea who Chet Holmgren was. I guess, I feel like you're more, you know, up to date with the high school guys and like your knowledge in that sense. But for me, I had no idea who Chet was. I think the reason I knew about him was... From Minnesota, right? Well, yeah, of course. But also, I think I tuned into like what, he played on ESPN one time before all this because I think Jalen Suggs was going up against, it was some really good team. One of those ESPN high school games. That's like when I first saw him, but yeah, this is like, yeah, even local people like Gus were starting to realize who he was. It was on every single platform. Yeah, it was. I mean, every single Instagram channel. I mean, he was just, yeah, he was just pushing the national spotlight. But it wasn't just that viral clip. Like I said, he was absolutely dominating the AU circuit. And that summer, which was the summer of 2019, he jumped from the 61st ranked player on 24-7 sports to number four in the country in one summer. I remember after that clip went viral and everything, I followed him on Twitter. I didn't follow him on Twitter before that. And I remember like that week when he was out in Indiana at the Under Armour stuff, he would post every time he got a D1 offer, he'd be like, blessed to receive an offer from Texas Tech. Blessed to receive an offer. And it was like every 30 minutes. It was like blessed to receive an offer. It's a flex at that point. Every single, like literally everywhere in the country offered him in like a two-week span. That's insane. Like before that, and this is why Minnesota Gopher basketball fans always thought we had a chance. Because we were on him early, like sophomore year, maybe even freshman year. Because obviously his dad went to the U of M, so we had that. We knew he was, we knew he was good. We knew he was a local kid. We don't need to get into right now how, we can get into it a little bit after this. I tell this story. But Richard Pitino was a horrible recruiter in state. I don't think he did enough to get Chet, even though we all believed we could. But yeah, it was wild. His Twitter was a complete flex at that point. Yeah. And you could probably go back and look at it. It was literally, I swear, like every hour he was putting up another tweet saying, blessed to receive an offer from Gonzaga. Do you think he's just like sitting behind his phone, just like laughing at that point? He's gotta be. Offer after offer, and he's like, dude, he's just like showing his friends. He's like, dude, look at this, or whatever. Like, dude, it's a flex at that point. Oh, yeah. Not everyone's doing that. He probably, they just kept coming in after the clips were blowing up, and he was just buying into it, you know? Yeah. I mean, rightfully so. I would be, too, if you know what I'm saying. He was probably on the phones all day, just like college coaches. Being a top recruiter would be so weird. Like, you have all these people just obsessed with you and trying to impress you. Yeah. I don't know. And, like, all the mail you get, too. Like, it would just be so much. I've seen, like, TikToks where it's just, like, stacks of, like, for the D1 athletes. Like, you know, if you're an athlete or whatever, you just get some random stuff or whatever. But, like, them just sucking up to you. Oh, yeah. You know? So, yeah. It all happened within a couple-week span of him really just getting onto the national spotlight. But after that, he was really popular, and his play kept going into his junior season. This is kind of when the Bronny James, BJ Boston, Zire Williams came to town. I was actually going to go to this game, but was in Tampa for the Outback Bowl. Yeah. And so, Minnehaha, if you guys don't remember, played against Sierra Canyon at Target Center. And Sierra Canyon was, like, the top five or ten team in the country. Like I said, they had BJ Boston and those guys. And Zire Wade still. He didn't get much. He wasn't that good. But Minnehaha just beat them easily. I think by 20 points. Obviously, they still had Suggs. But, again, another nationally televised game. Chet's getting that attention. So, at that point, he was super popular. But senior season was no different. And this is kind of when we already had our platform on TikTok. This is when we come into the picture. This is when we come into Chet's career. Sort of. But senior season, during COVID, we got to go to a lot of games. And it was no different in senior year. Junior year was amazing. Senior year, it was incredible to watch him live. I think we pretty much went to, like, almost every game that we could. Also, I forgot to mention, junior year, he won a state title. Freshman, sophomore, and senior year. But on his senior year, all the games we went to, what stands out to you the most? About watching that team? Watching Chet? I mean, watching the team? I mean, they're starting a lab. I can't believe we're doing a whole podcast about Chet. I know, dude. But I honestly love this because just going to the mini-ha-ha games, probably one of the most fun experiences I've ever done. Every single game, there's just a bunch of highlights you got to watch. The Miller brothers, you got to watch. Hersey, Mercy. Who's Isaiah? Isaiah what? Isaiah Davis. Isaiah Davis, super underrated on the team. Prince of League Bay. And then, obviously, Chet Holmgren. Those five right there. That was their starting lineup, right? Yeah. Their starting five was all D1 players. And Donovan Smith was injured the whole year, pretty much. He's a shooter on the team. He was that shorter kid. He was injured, though. I don't even think we got to see him play. He came back just for state. But, yeah. Yeah, they had a starting lineup of all Division I basketball players and then the best player in the country. And it's just crazy the opportunity that Joe and I had to go to a mini-ha-ha game that's 15 minutes away, being on the court, filming them. We never really had interactions with any of them. We did with Isaiah Miller. It's Isaiah Miller, right? His cousin? Yeah. Yeah, his cousin recognized us, which was pretty cool. But I remember there was one interaction where I gave him a fist bump. I was like, let's go, boy. He didn't say nothing. He just gave me a fist bump and lucked. And then didn't he say something to you at one point? Oh, yeah. I was filming and then I got a rebound during warm-ups. And he was like, thanks, baby. I was like, what? You talk like that? Oh, you kiss your mother with that mouth? That's so funny. It's so funny. But yeah, what stands out to me is, I don't even know. I feel like just how great of a team they were stood out to me more than Chet himself. Because here's the thing, too. Their team was so good that I feel like we didn't see Chet's full capability. Oh, no. Yeah, you're right. I would say like Hersey was just as standout of a player as Chet Holmgren. I wouldn't say that. Maybe in terms of points, but dude. I loved watching Hersey Miller. Just love. Yeah, Hersey's good. And he's going to be going off at Tennessee State. If you guys don't know who Hersey Miller is, he's one of the better HBCU D1 commits in the country. He might be pairing up with Emmanuel. Yep. He goes to Tennessee State. Emmanuel Hansel got his first D1 offer from there. Also, shoot, I don't know if Chris Livingston is a five-star. Tennessee State was in his top three. So that would be super interesting. I don't know if he committed yet, but yeah, Hersey was good. But you're absolutely right. That team was incredible, and they always played like— They played as a team. Yeah. Like it was never— I mean, there were some times where Chet would just dominate. It was crazy. Like literally, there was a mismatch like every single time. He could literally get past the ball. You know, sometimes he would just, you know, they could get a good defender on him. It's a little more difficult, but he would just like throw layups and do these dunks that barely jump off the ground. He didn't really need to jump off the ground. But they played as a team. Like they all contributed. Chet wasn't like scoring like 40 points every single game. No, it'd be like 20, 10, 10, and 10. Yeah, yeah. He couldn't have glugged a double. I forget. His stat line is one of the games. I think he was two assists from a quadruple-double. And actually, speaking of quadruple-doubles, I made this take on Strictly B-Ball. I do remember this. Before Chet's senior year of high school, I said, the next, and I was dead serious. I bet you were dead serious. I said, the next NBA, the question was that I posed was, who's the next NBA player to record a quadruple-double? The next player in the NBA to record a quadruple-double is Chet Holmgren. What do you think about that? I mean, I don't want to sound biased, but I think that's a pretty, it's not a bad take. It's not a bad take. I mean, he's never played in college. He's never played in the NBA. But, you know, given... He's never played a game in college. He's never played a college game, never played an NBA game, and we're making that take. But I mean... You agree? He's 7'1", with a 7'5' wingspan. He's the best rim-protecting prospect since Anthony Davis. I think he can do it. I'm just trying to think of another NBA player that could do it. I feel like Chet Holmgren definitely has... Chet can get the assist. He has the playmaking ability. I know. This is what's going to happen. He's going to go number one. He's going to get drafted by a bad team within, hopefully not the Pistons. I hate the Pistons anyways. Within three to four years, he's going to record a quadruple-double in the NBA. Is it bad to say it won't shock me? It really won't shock me. That is a hot take. It is a very, very hot take. Because points are easy. Rebounds are easy. Blocks... He's probably going to be one of the better block machines in the NBA. Yeah. He has a 7'5' wingspan. He can easily... His timing... What do you think? He could play power forward, you think? Power forward or center? I mean, positions are... Short four? Yeah. And I think the hardest thing will be assists. I think he can easily have multiple 10-block games. I don't know, man. That's going to do it for episode six of the Strictly B-Ball podcast. Thank you guys for watching. Make sure you're following us on all socials at Strictly B-Ball on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. And subscribe on YouTube, Apple, and Spotify. Leave a comment or a review. I appreciate you guys watching. We'll see you next time.