Before jumping from 1.78m to 1.98m, Jalen Williams in high school was not the muscular brother he is now, and his high school coach described the feeling of meeting for the first time this way: "From the side, he looks like a capital letter L, except for the arms and legs." ”
When you're only 1.8 meters tall, there are millions of players in the United States competing with you, and when you reach 2 meters, there are probably only a few hundred competitors. Williams was lucky, he skyrocketed 20 centimeters in two years of high school, his arm span grew to nearly 2.2 meters, and he weighed 95 kilograms before entering the NBA. His muscular lines and flanking build, combined with his nearly 180 club projection fundamentals from his three years of college, made the crammed scouts rush a few glances at his college footage and frantically raise his rankings — much like when he was ranked No. 242 on the high school player list three years ago.
Some scouts openly admit that they thought Jalen was the street kid in the far-flung West Coast League, but it wasn't until they watched his college footage that they realized how impressed they were. John Hollinger said.
Aside from his unruly hair and his favorite pair of white-rimmed sunglasses, Williams doesn't have much to do with street kids, he's more like Paul George, who is more agile in his movements, Jimmy Butler who is more consistent in projection, and Leonard, who is 5x faster in his evolutionary process. "He's versatile, he can defend multiple positions, he can play with and without the ball, and as a young player he's got a very good game," Williams' college coach praised, "and he's always looking for ways to push himself to be better." ”
From high school to college to the professional arena, Williams' level has been steadily rising, like a reversal of A-shares. His three-point accuracy was only 35 percent in his freshman year, and he reached 39 in his junior year6 percent, and the free-throw crosshairs have risen to an elite level of 81 percent (Williams also shook off his future teammate Chet Holmgren against Gonzaga).
Williams, who entered the NBA, is still improving, averaging 14 points per game in the first season of his career, and became the second ball-holding point of the Thunder after Alexander in the second year, averaging 19 points, 4 rebounds and 4 rebounds per game with a true shooting rate of 62%.5 assists. Even this season, Williams' productivity has been getting better every month. By 2024, Williams' three-point crosshairs have reached 50 percent, and his true shooting percentage has steadily risen to 65 percent from 59 percent three months ago. Although this upward momentum will always reach an inflection point, in the style of Jalen Williams, it is still unknown whether the inflection point will be followed by an upward or downward turn.
As one of the draft's gods, Presti himself marveled at Jalen's brilliance: "He's a really natural basketball player who can play almost anywhere on the court. ”
Williams himself didn't feel much of it: "I didn't feel surprised, it was something I was thinking about and trying to achieve, I was just used to letting the results speak, and there was nothing shocking about it." ”
It's hard to imagine that the 22-year-old Jalen Williams already has a lot of mature skills and mentality that the 32-year-old wing can't have. As early as his college days, Williams was known for his all-range shooting ability, and with the Thunder, he quickly adapted to the intensity of the NBA, continuing to shoot 55 percent from mid-range and even shooting 48 percent from the long two-point range. While the young wings were opting for the magic ball, Williams played more and more classically, drifting from the left and mid-range down the left side became his favorite killer - his shot was clearly right-handed.
In the face of the Trail Blazers' "stub triple pull" is Williams' just baked classic, in the face of the Trail Blazers' different defenders, Williams just needs to go all the way, just a fake block - the last attack doesn't even have to do a fake block, just rush to the left waist position, and stop and pull out. This kind of heroic ball that ignores the defensive environment is quite a classical romanticism of the number 24.
A shooter is to shoot, and I practice this kind of shooting a lot, and the coach devised a tactic for me to shoot, and the worst result was that I couldn't shoot, so I just shot. ”
Limited to the influence of a body of tendons, Williams' breakthrough speed is not fast, and his first choice after instigating the block is the dry pull-out jumper, but the jump shot posture is so stable, and the left and right sides can be finished efficiently, which is quite rare in the whole league.
The muscles and core strength make Williams completely unafraid of confrontation, and even if Achiuwa can make up for it in time, Williams can shoot straight up. Breaking down the left also made it harder for opponents to defend, and in a way, Williams unlocked the winger's dragon-slaying skills at a young age, and his ceiling suddenly became immeasurable.
Williams' speed is not outstanding, but his ability to control his body and basketball is far better than that of many wings, and his skillful dribbling skills combined with sharp changes of direction and rhythm, coupled with his own shooting threat, make Williams' impact on the basket gradually increase.
Of course, not all 22-year-old forwards have Alexander, who averages 31 points, six assists and two steals per game, as teammates, and not every team ranks third in the league in two-point and three-point shooting percentages. Unlike Dort, Wallace and Isaiah Joe, Williams himself is one of the pillars of the Thunder's efficient system, and he and Alexander support each other to support the Thunder's fifth-highest offensive efficiency in the league.
In a way, Williams and the Thunder are a lucky two-way race, he was selected by the league's most discerning general manager, and he doesn't have to be watched by opponents like Cunningham and Wembanyama, the inside and outside framework has been built, and the team's record and individual performance can take off as long as his qualified secondary attacker is in place. The Thunder is also fortunate to have this overly precocious all-round wing, and at a young age, he pointed out the high-level skills that countless predecessors had studied for half a lifetime, so that the team instantly had two masters who ignored the environment, and the most enviable thing is that the new version of this ship has three young Thunder boys, with an average age of only 23 years old.
Exceptional talent, precocious skills, and a complete lineup. The young team has saved up the capital that makes everyone's drool, and it seems that the present and the future are in full view, like a dream that spans 12 years. But 12 years ago, the parties were still struggling in the west, they had experienced rusty teamwork, extreme individual performances, and now they only wanted to sacrifice everything in exchange for a trophy.
Familiar stories are always played out over and over again, will tomorrow's Jaylen repeat yesterday's story, and where will the precocious star be taken by ambition and **. Of course, there are also less probable but more fantastical options: fully aware of each other's indispensability, and then become the next GDP.
Win or lose, we're united, we're leaning on each other and supporting each other, which is great. ”