“We Know What We’re Getting Into”: Jalen Williams on Why Thunder Are Ready for a Deep Playoff Run

Jalen Williams #8 of th(Photo by William Purnell/Getty Images)e Oklahoma City Thunder

The Oklahoma City Thunder are surging to one of the best seasons in NBA history in large part due to the All-Star play of third-year forward Jalen Williams.

The 23-year-old is having his best season to date, posting an All-Star year with career highs of 21.3 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.7 steals per game. It’s no coincidence the Thunder have the league’s best record at 58-12 (.829 winning percentage) and are on pace to finish with 68 wins. That total would be the highest in franchise history and tied for the fifth-most in a single season in NBA history.

Learning From Last Year’s Playoff Exit

Williams attributes the Thunder’s experience in the playoffs as a key reason for his growth and development this season.

“Just another year figuring out what spots I like to get to,” says Williams in a one-on-one interview with RG on behalf of his partnership with AT&T. “How I was getting guarded in the playoffs, using that as a tool to work out in the summer and figure out what I need to get better at. Just understanding spots of the game, time and score. Understanding my teammates more and more this year.”

The former 12th overall pick ranks second on the Thunder in scoring behind MVP favorite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who leads the league with 33.0 points per game.

“Just trying to figure out how to continue to be aggressive through whatever is going on throughout the game,” says Williams. “I think I’ve done a really good job at it this year.”

The Thunder came up a little short of expectations in the playoffs last season. While they weren’t as dominant as the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed last season — they were 57-25 and tied with the Denver Nuggets for the best record in the conference — they still featured the runner-up in MVP voting (Gilgeous-Alexander) and were many people’s picks to advance to the NBA Finals.

However, Oklahoma City’s youth and lack of experience in the postseason showed as they fell to the No. 5-seeded Dallas Mavericks in six games in the semifinals.

Williams details why last year’s experience in the playoffs was so important entering this season.

“We were younger than we are this year, so anytime we can get those experiences, it’s always good,” says Williams. “Obviously we don’t want to lose games, but the playoffs is probably the best teacher. It’s just a feel that you don’t really get too often in the regular season. I think what we’ve done a good job of this year is trying to play every game like it’s a playoff game no matter who we’re playing. That’s kind of been our mentality the whole entire year.”

Where the Thunder Still Need to Improve

The Thunder were the second-youngest team in the NBA last season and are the youngest team in the league this year. Despite entering the season with a target on their backs, Oklahoma City is coming out to play in each one of their games.

“I think we would’ve never known to do that or even had that kind of thought without being in the playoffs and being thrown in the fire like that last year,” says Williams. “This year it’s just kind of another thing with that too, like being the team that’s hunted at the No. 1 spot. Everybody’s going to play their best game against us and just having two years under our belt doing that, I think makes us a better team.”

While the Thunder are considered the betting favorites to win the NBA Finals this season, they’re still not a perfect team. They rank 21st in free throws and 27th in free throw attempts. When games are close in the playoffs and defenses tighten up, it pays off to find a way to go to the free throw line and get easy points. That could be the difference in a tight game between two closely matched teams.

One other area of improvement — as Williams notes — is committing fewer fouls. Oklahoma City ranks 21st in fouls committed.

“Obviously everybody knows our free throw disparity, so a lot of it is going to come down to us being able to not foul,” says Williams. “While still playing the physical caliber defense that we will. The playoffs kind of allow for that. Obviously there’s less and less calls and things like that. That’s going to be our biggest step forward.”