Oklahoma City To Feature Modern, Flexible Center Rotation in 2023-24

Both Chet Holmgren and Jaylin Williams will bring a touch of modern style to the Thunder’s center position going forward.

Gone are the days of Kendrick Perkins and Steven Adams leveraging their burly frames, muscling around the post and clogging up driving lanes. Enter the golden age of modernity, where thin and undersized centers can impact the game via spacing, ball movement, and defensive positioning.

Look ahead to the future, where power forwards need not be 6-foot-8 or taller, where 3-and-D archetypes just won’t suffice if coaches want to gain an edge over their opponents. The modern power forward is one that can defend above his weight and hit 3-pointers, all while being able to at least handle the ball and make a live-dribble pass to the opposite corner.

This is the future and Oklahoma City is building it.

In the 2023-24 season, the Thunder will roll out a center rotation that features a rookie Chet Holmgren as a starter. His back-up is likely to be 6-foot-9 sophomore Jaylin Williams. Together, both players offer Thunder HC Mark Daigneault a multitude of possibilities for opening up the offense and strategizing against defenses.

While Holmgren and Williams both bring a defense-first mindset to the game, they go about achieving results in very different ways.

For Holmgren, his 7-foot-6 wingspan is his greatest weapon, and he uses it to slide around the court and position himself to block anything that gets near the rim. Williams, on the other hand, is quite adept at reading opposing offensive actions and will position himself accordingly to take charges or stay vertical to force tough shots.

Offensively, both Holmgren and Williams offer 3-point shooting, giving Daigneault the option of having a full 48-minutes of a five-out offense on the court and a consistency from his starting lineup to his second unit, and beyond.

Holmgren’s ability to finish at the rim via rolls, cuts, and post-ups combined with his capability as a mid-range shooter just makes him that much more dangerous as an offensive weapon. When Holmgren goes to the bench, Williams’ off-beat passing from the top of the key keeps the defense guessing as he swings the ball side to side; and his knack for throwing accurate skip passes to cutters, and physical screening helps to keep the Thunder’s offense churning.

What’s more is that the pair could even see stretches of playing time as a four-five punch, where Holmgren is the power forward and Williams is the center in certain situations, giving Daigneault even more flexibility in the frontcourt going forward.

And with both players having just turned 21 years old, there is more than enough room for the dynamic duo to grow.

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