Q. Just a lighthearted one first. Is this the first time that you've been not the tallest player on the team?
CHET HOLMGREN: Since I've finished growing, yeah, in general, first time I haven't been the tallest, yeah.
Q. And somewhat related to that, with all the bigs you have on the roster, you made your first All-NBA team last year at the four. Are you seeing yourself primarily playing at the four more this year?
CHET HOLMGREN: I see myself doing whatever the team calls upon me to do to try and go out there and execute and help us win. I think we've learned over the last couple years, you never know what the circumstances are going to look like.
But you know, I try to go to the gym every day, work hard to prepare myself to be able to do whatever I'm called to do.
Q. People have talked about your self-motivation and your drive for years. After the way your season ended not the way you wanted it to, have you found that that's changed? Are you more motivated than ever? Are you doing the same things you've always done? How are you approaching that?
CHET HOLMGREN: I've tried to -- I feel like I've always had personal motivations. Over time, I've tried to distance them from outcomes, good or bad, because outcomes change, as we know. Outcomes change a lot, night to night, year to year. If you base your motivation based on outcomes, your motivation is going to go up and down. I feel like I have very consistent motivations, and I try to stick to those.
Q. When you work on your summer stuff, is it related to just things you want to expand your game in terms of maybe you saw some weakness in the regular season, what people were throwing at you? When you decide what to work on in the summer, how do you do that?
CHET HOLMGREN: I'd say it's a combination of things. One, I'd say there is no perfect balance, but you have to try and find the best balance for yourself of, you know, kind of what is currently showing up within your situation based on how your team plays, how other teams play you and your team.
And then there's also a mix of things that you inspire to do, that you aspire to be able to do, that can't show up until you work at them to be able to do them at the level you need to do them at for them to show up. You can't spend all your time working on one or the other.
I think I found a good balance of that this summer, as I have in the past. I'm always excited to chase improvement.
Q. What was it like just losing a new long-time teammates in Lu and Wiggs and Isaiah?
CHET HOLMGREN: Yeah, I don't think it's something that you necessarily get used to. You get so caught up in the moment that you kind of just think that it's forever, I guess, and I guess that's a reminder that it's not.
But I'm extremely excited for those guys and opportunities that they are going to have at their new spots, and I look forward to them making the most out of them. I'd say I'm equally excited for the opportunities that it's opening up for other guys here. And again, I'm excited to see them make the most of those opportunities, and you know, I love those guys as players and as people on and off the court.
It sucks that I can't spend as much time with them as in the past, whether it's in time-outs or team plane or team bus or whatever we're doing. But you know, I'm excited for what the future holds.
Q. I'm curious about how you processed the West Finals, obviously the year before, it's a feel-good summer, winning the Championship. Do you, like, pull yourself into the film study of that? Do you try to flush it and move on? How did you go about that this summer? What did you get from the way you approached it?
CHET HOLMGREN: Yeah, I think I learned a lot from the year that we won it, and I honestly think that my approach was very similar. Obviously the emotions of it were different, but I don't think my process changed at all.
After we won it, obviously it's good emotions. You're at the highest of highs, but at some point -- which was still relatively pretty quick. You have to flush those emotions and look at the reality of what the tape is and then figure out how you can kind of improve on those things.
I'd say that was no different after last season. Obviously different emotions, but you still have to get to a baseline where you can look at things objectively and then figure out how to try to improve from there.
Q. You hear about player development and guys getting better in terms of their game on the floor, but how much have you really, I guess, improved in terms of knowing how to withstand those ups and downs over a career compared to when you first came into the league?
CHET HOLMGREN: Yeah, I'd say a lot of it is a perspective thing, and in order to have perspective, you have to have experience. And I feel like, you know, I'm still relatively young, but I've had a couple injuries and missed out on a lot of experience as well, but I still think I have a lot of experience under my belt. I've seen a lot of different situations, you know, in my time as a player just in the NBA.
And I lost my train of thought. Give me the question one more time.
Q. That's pretty much what I was asking, when you first came into the league.
CHET HOLMGREN: Yeah, I think when I first came into the league, my first game, right, we'll take that as an example. That's all I have to base everything off of.
So if I have a bad game, my entire career up to this point is terrible, you know what I mean? But now it's more so the more games, the more experiences you have under your belt, you have more of an understanding of, you know, if you play a thousand games, you're not going to have a thousand great games, no matter how hard you try. There's going to be nights that don't go your way.
Having that understanding allows you to, like I said, kind of get back to baseline and look at things objectively rather than, you know, being stuck to the emotions of whatever happens on any single given night.
Q. Obviously new contract kicking in, you're invested into this team, this franchise, but also the community. You've been doing some events recently, the Champions of the classroom, the Carolyn Williams Center project. Can you speak to that side of things, being invested in the city?
CHET HOLMGREN: Yeah, I'd say there's a few things. One, I feel like I've been afforded a lot of opportunities in life that kind of have nothing to do with anything I could have done. You know, I have an amazing family. I've had amazing people in my life who have helped me out a lot along the way.
The things that I try to do charitably, I try to -- I try to help people who weren't necessarily afforded those opportunities.
I think in life, if you don't succeed because of yourself, that's on you. But if you don't succeed because you weren't afforded any opportunities to succeed, I think that's unfair. So I just try to kind of put more opportunity out there into the world.
And on top of that, the city of Oklahoma has invested so much in me and has treated me and my family so well that I just feel compelled to kind of try and, you know, invest back into the city, to leave my fingerprints on the city in a good way and help people out, and that's what I've been trying to do.
Q. Take me through what it was like from the beginning to where he's at now, where he's able to participate in workouts, which obviously wasn't the case a year ago.
CHET HOLMGREN: He's a great kid, man. I remember giving him just some advice because I basically went through the same situation he went through last year, obviously a little bit -- I couldn't give him advice on his injuries. It was different than mine, but I could give him advice on the process.
I don't think I even handled it as well as he did, and I'm sure there were days that were frustrating. And he had, obviously, things that set him back, as well, along the way. You know, you would never know it, being around him, talking to him.
He shows up, he handles his work. I call him a great kid, but he's handled the last year like a man. He's a young guy on our team, but anybody can set the example, and I think he's done that.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports