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Thunder Notes: Jaylin Williams, SGA, Hartenstein, Defense

June 16th 2025 at 10:00am CST by Arthur Hill

Even though they have the reigning MVP, everyone is considered to be equal in the Thunder’s locker room, writes John Hollinger of The Athletic. Along with the team’s obvious talent level, that philosophy of valuing input from the entire roster has helped Oklahoma City weather a long season and climb to within two wins of a championship.

“Being able to watch it from the side, I get a different view,” said backup center Jaylin Williams, who has only made one brief appearance in the NBA Finals. “Trying to kind of echo what we need to do, echo the plan. Sometimes it’s different hearing it from a player that’s going through battle with you than hearing it from a coach, so I’m trying to talk to the guys. We’ve always had this saying where if you feel like there’s something that you want to say to a teammate, like, nobody’s bigger than the program. So, you just say it to each other.”

The concept of “chemistry” is frequently talked about in NBA circles, but Hollinger notes that it’s hard to obtain. However, it appears to come easy for Thunder players, whom he observes seem to genuinely like each other and are always having fun, even on the NBA’s biggest stage. Good-natured trash talk is constant in the locker room, and teammates regularly surround whoever is doing a post-game interview on the court and finish it up by barking.

“They have a winning mindset outside of basketball, I’ll put it like that,” Kenrich Williams said. “When we have a tough loss, or performance-wise, somebody doesn’t play well, when you walk in the building, practice or arena, everybody is very positive. Other places … there are times where you can just feel the weight. And that starts with the front office bringing in great workers, great staff, whether that’s the medical and training staff, the weight room guys, the chefs. There’s all positive energy when you walk in the building.”

There’s more on the Thunder:

  • Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has become the league’s best scorer by mastering mid-range shots that many players ignore, notes Tim MacMahon of ESPN. Assistant coach Sam Cassell worked with Gilgeous-Alexander early in his career and encouraged him to develop that part of his game. “I know that’s the shot that in today’s game that they’re giving up. They’re giving you the 15-foot pull-up shot,” Cassell said. “So I just told him from day one, if this is the shot they’re giving, let’s be exceptional at this shot. Let’s be the only player in the league that can be exceptional at this shot since they’re giving it to you. The analytic guys say it’s a bad shot, but it ain’t a bad shot for him. We worked on the same stuff for days. If anything go wrong, this is your bread and butter.”
  • After starting Cason Wallace in the first three games of the Finals, coach Mark Daigneault went with a bigger approach in Game 4 and replaced him with Isaiah Hartenstein. “It was a point to get Hart more minutes tonight. I thought he’s been helpful in his minutes,” Daigneault said, per Clemente Almanza of The Thunder Wire. “But in terms of the lineup, I mean, we go into every game trying to figure out the formula to win that game. That’s what we thought was best to win Game 4 tonight.” 
  • Eric Nehm and Fred Katz of the Athletic analyze Oklahoma City’s defense and explain why they’re willing to accept a few fouls to maintain their aggressive approach.
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