Jalen Williams Right Pick for Breakout Player

The Oklahoma City Thunder have seen Jalen Williams pegged as a breakout player for the 2024-25 NBA season, which is the right call by NBA General Managers.

Oct 9, 2024; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams (8) gestures after scoring a basket against the Houston Rockets during the first quarter at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images / Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

This week, NBA General Managers filled out ballots for the league's website on a variety of NBA topics about the landscape of the association. The Oklahoma City Thunder were littered throughout the survey ranging from being in the second spot for the most likely to win the NBA Championship to who is the breakout player of the 2024-26 campaign.

The latter was the most controversial of the quiz, which saw rising OKC Thunder star Jalen Williams take the top spot for this season's breakout candidate with 13 percent of the vote - leading Evan Mobley, Ja Morant and Victor Wembanyama with 10 percent and ahead of Paolo Banchero, Cade Cunningham and Brandon Miller with seven percent of the vote each.

While Morant's inclusion has take center stage in the discourse around this portion of the survey, Williams was the right pick.

The Oklahoma City Thunder rising star is prime for another leap in year three, especially on offense. Already through a couple preseason games, the Santa Clara product is taking more triples at an encouraging rate to blend with his mid-range threat and rim finishing prowess.

Not only will Williams continue to be a lethal option for the Thunder's offense, but defensively life gets much easier with Alex Caruso in town. While people reflect on the Mavericks season with distain for the Sophomore, his lock down defense of Kyrie Irving likely attributed to zapping his offensive production.

Now with Caruso and Hartenstein adding to the likes of Cason Wallace and Lu Dort to quickly put the pressure off of the rising star to step up on that end of the floor to the oppositions tallest tasks offensively.

This is without factoring in a potential leap as a playmaker or any other untapped portion of his game, it is quick to realize how many ways the swingman can breakout.

---

Want to join the discussion? Like Thunder on SI on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest Thunder news. You can also meet the team behind the coverage.