{"id":125815,"date":"2025-02-26T13:03:19","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T18:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=125815"},"modified":"2025-02-26T13:03:19","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T18:03:19","slug":"are-the-thunder-asking-too-much-from-jalen-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/26\/are-the-thunder-asking-too-much-from-jalen-williams\/","title":{"rendered":"Are The Thunder Asking For Too Much From Jalen Williams?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Thunder are in prime position to lock down the number-one seed in the West for the second consecutive year. In addition, they are hopeful that this playoff run will be longer than last year’s run. However, in their previous game, the Thunder suffered their worst loss of the season, blowing a 25-point lead and getting outscored 16-0 in the final four minutes. Furthermore, even though this was an embarrassing loss for the Thunder, there have been a lot of overreactions to it. Everybody in the NBA blows leads; the Thunder went on a 24-0 run not so long ago against the Heat. In addition, last year, the Celtics, who went on to win the title, blew a 30-point lead. However, there is one thing the Thunder can take away from this game, and that is how Jalen Williams<\/a> played down the stretch.<\/p>\n

Williams is just in his third year and is still only 23 years old. However, he has taken massive leaps from year to year. In his rookie year, he averaged 14.1 points per game, and last year, he increased that to 19.1. This season, he is averaging career-highs across the board, but his efficiency is a bit down. Williams, in the fourth quarter<\/a> against the Timberwolves, shot just 2-9 from the field and had eight points. In addition, he did not take a shot in overtime. This brings up some PTSD from Thunder fans of what they saw happen last year in the playoffs to Jalen. Now the question becomes, are the Thunder asking too much from Jalen Williams?<\/p>\n

Are The Thunder Asking Too Much From Jalen Williams?<\/h2>\n

How the Thunder Got Here<\/h3>\n

After the 2021-2022 season, the Thunder finished the year with a record of 24-58. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> was about to turn 24 and wasn’t the player he is today, as the Thunder were still considered a rebuilding team. In that draft, the Thunder took Chet Holmgren<\/a> out of Gonzaga with the number two pick. In addition, they drafted Jalen Williams with the 12th overall pick. After Chet got hurt and was set to miss his rookie year, the expectations were the same around OKC. However, Shai took a massive jump that year, and Jalen surprised everyone as a rookie.<\/p>\n

They increased their wins by 16 and finished as a play-in team, going 40-42. They unfortunately fell in the play-in tournament and missed the playoffs. The following year, Chet had an incredible rookie season, and Shai and Jalen improved too. The Thunder once again increased their wins by 17, going 57-25, and was the youngest team ever in NBA history as the one seed. They lost to the Mavericks in the second round of the playoffs. Finally, this year, they are even better at 46-11. They kept taking these massive leaps from year to year and have put some unfair expectations on these players.<\/p>\n

Why The Thunder Are Asking Too Much From Jalen<\/h3>\n

Last year, in the playoffs, Jalen Williams struggled immensely as the second option, especially against the Mavericks. He scored 17.0 points<\/a> per game while shooting 42.4% from the field and 38.1% from three. After the season, people wondered if Jalen could be that second guy next to Shai. However, he was just 22 years old, turning 23, and had just played in his first-ever playoffs. Most people in the NBA struggle in their first playoff run. Kevin Durant<\/a> struggled in his first playoff run on the Thunder.<\/p>\n

Those questions this year are still there and came up again after the Timberwolves game when Jalen was a no-show in the fourth to help take the pressure off of Shai. However, since the Thunder got so good so quickly, it has sped up the expectations on a player like Jalen Williams. When Shai was 23 years old, he was averaging around 24.5 points a game as the number one option. This year, Jalen is averaging 21.0 points as the number two option. Shai and Jalen are on a similar trajectory, and when Shai was 23 years old, he wasn’t ready to perform yet in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Why Thunder Fans Should Feel Better about This Playoff Run<\/h3>\n

However, even though the expectations are still a little high for Jalen, he has shown flashes of being what the Thunder want him to be. The flashes that he has shown of that have been more present this year and why he was an all-star<\/a>. However, the playoffs are a different animal, and until Jalen proves people otherwise, those doubts will still be there. Ultimately, the Thunder don’t know what a year two playoff run looks like from Jalen Williams and are at a wait-and-see approach with him on that.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Williams knows what to expect this time around in the playoffs and is better prepared for it than last year when he went in blind. In addition, Isaiah Hartenstein<\/a> will be able to make life on the offensive side<\/a> easier for Williams with his screening ability to free up space, as well as his passing ability. Also, this year, they have a veteran in Alex Caruso<\/a>, who won the championship before and can help out as well. The Thunder are optimistic that because of all of this that Jalen didn’t have last year at his disposal, the second run in the playoffs as the second scoring option will go better this year.<\/p>\n

Last Word on The Thunder Asking Too Much From Jalen Williams<\/h3>\n

Since the Thunder got good so quickly, those expectations have fast-tracked on players at an unfair rate. Jalen Williams will be only entering his second playoff run of his career and is just 23 years old. However, since this team is better and constructed a little differently, the Thunder are hopeful that Jalen’s second playoff run is better and he can take the pressure off of Shai. Finally, Shai can only take them so far, and for the Thunder to reach their goal at the end of the year, Jalen needs to be that second go-to scoring option. However, if he still isn’t ready yet, it should be understood that he is still just 23 years old with his best basketball ahead of him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Thunder are in prime position to lock down the number-one seed in the West for the second consecutive year. In addition, they are hopeful that this playoff run will be longer than last year’s run. However, in their previous game, the Thunder suffered their worst loss of the season, blowing a 25-point lead and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5171,"featured_media":125830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,1608,62],"tags":[2037,4292,993,4609,1489],"class_list":["post-125815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thunder","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-alex-caruso","tag-chet-holmgren","tag-isaiah-hartenstein","tag-jalen-williams","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander"],"modified_by":"Jacob Stephens, Associate Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125815"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125835,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125815\/revisions\/125835"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}