At 21-9, the Thunder are currently the second seed in a deep Western Conference. The team’s excellence is in part a credit to the ongoing greatness of its Big Three, as Joel Lorenzi The Oklahoman details.
Oklahoma City’s triumvirate of top-tier talent is made up of All-Star point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, rookie center Chet Holmgren, and power forward Jalen Williams. Williams put on an offensive masterpiece in a 129-120 win against the Knicks Wednesday, scoring a career-most 36 points.
“He just gets more comfortable — every game, every week — with his reps,” Gilgeous-Alexander raved of the second-year forward. “Biggest thing with him was just him being aggressive early in his career. He’s starting to get around to that and trust his work.”
Williams also noted that his two-man game with Holmgren is improving by leaps and bounds.
“We’re trusting each other a lot more than we had been earlier in the year,” Williams said.
There’s more out of the Northwest Division:
- Although the Timberwolves are current a Western Conference-leading 24-7, head coach Chris Finch is convinced the team still needs to improve its scoring attack, according to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. “There’s a lot of ways to be immature,” Finch said. “And generally, this team has been very mature. But we’ve got to grow up offensively. It’s time.”
- After suffering a dog attack on Christmas night that left him with hand and face lacerations, Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon is set to return to the team, informing Bennett Durando of The Denver Post (Twitter link) that he will be able to play on Monday against the Hornets. His own Rottweiler is the dog responsible for biting him on Christmas, Gordon reveals. “He’s a good boy,” Gordon claimed. Prior to the news, reserve point guard Reggie Jackson indicated that Gordon was more focused on the reigning champs’ progress this season than his own recovery, per Harrison Wind of DNVR Sports. “Aaron’s still concerned about the team,” Jackson said. “He wants to be back with the group, but we just want what’s best for him.”
- With three wins in their past four road games, the Jazz are in an improved headspace, in the view of head coach Will Hardy, writes Aaron Falk of The Salt Lake Tribune. “Overall, it’s been a good road trip,” Hardy said. “We’ve been playing much better basketball the last three weeks than the beginning of the season… I do think our team is trending in the right direction.”
Jalen Williams is a bit like young Harden, except he is a better defender. Hopefully OKC does not get too cute when time to pay him. I don’t consider him a PF though, but now not many teams take advantage of size. If shots are falling OKC can run teams out and make them go small. If the shots are not it makes it hard, OKC ranks at the bottom in rebounding.
Happy for him to succeed but I think it’s bogus Chet qualifies for ROTY. It’s his second year in the league.
The league already gave MVP to Embiid last year when Jokic and Gino were clearly better (this year, sure, make a case). Don’t know why they need to devalue the awards even more.
Disagree. He didn’t even play one game during the season last year. No idea why you wouldn’t even consider him as a rookie.
Blake Griffin and Simmons missed 1st season and were considered rookies when they actually played.
Embiid missed his first 2 seasons and was considered a rookie.
It has been like this for a long time and yes you don’t play a regular season game you are a rookie. Even if the contract actually still counts.
I understand the rules I just don’t like them. Just my opinion. This is HoopsRumors not basketball reference. Sheesh…
Nah it’s going to Wemby…
Chet will make it a tough vote… But he’s got other stars to make him look better… Wemby is the sole focus of other teams when they play the Spurs…
Who is Gino
Williams at 6’ 5” is not a PF. He’s a wing and really plays the SG . He did kill the Knicks. No one could guard him. OKC has talent. They got a bench too. We’ll see if it lasts all yr. Chet is playing well. SGA is an all star.
It isn’t the height but more the style.
Barkley is 6’4″ he played PF because he rebounded like a giant and was physical.
Zion is 6’6″
Jalen is more of a point forward/guard and built like a Harden but more in shape.
I think OKC can do it most of the year but SGA and Chet need to be healthy. SGA draws all the attention and gets easy points. Chet is their only tall player and he continues to get better rim protecting.
Jalen Williams is a wing, but OKC plays with 4 perimeter guys and 1 big, so they can play around with the listings. Williams was listed as a SG last year and a PF this year. It’s essentially meaningless (as it’s got nothing to do with who covers who). Williams can cover anyone and has covered 1-4. But Dort and Giddey (the other 2 starters with SGA and CH) get more minutes covering the big PFs than he does. Dort covered Randle most of the game with the Knicks. Yeah, Barkley and Zion are short, but they aren’t 195 lbs. Both came into the league about 100 lbs north of that and will never REALLY get below 250 lbs.
Williams was the guy the NYK would have drafted if they stayed in the 2022 draft (at #11). OKC paid a good price to get the pick, and (indirectly) used it to get him. The NYK were building cap space for Brunson, but they missed a good one here in the process. I guess is truly for free.