Jalen Williams on OKC Exceeding Expectations and SGA’s MVP Caliber Season | Full Interview

Jalen Williams on OKC Exceeding Expectations and SGA’s MVP Caliber Season | Full Interview

Jaylen what’s good my man how are you I’m good I’m good um thank you for coming on thank you for agreeing to be an old man in the three correspondent it’s uh exciting for us he was really he was really he was jumping around the office well it’s it’s just for me you

Know someone who uh was a huge fan last year and got the opportunity to sit down with you in Oklahoma City you know it’s I’m I’m not afraid to admit my fandom for certain players I think anybody who follows this podcast or that knows me to

Any degree knows that I’m a fan of yours so for you to agree to do this hey we’re really excited um we when we had you on in in October one of the things we talked about was expectations uh and sort of how you guys were managing those

Expectations has this season so far in terms of the team success has it to some degree exceeded any of your expectations or is it just on par with what you thought you guys would play like um I don’t know it’s like it’s like a little bit of both of those it’s like

We I think our goal going into the season like I don’t know if other teams because this year two so I have no idea but like I feel like other teams I don’t know if they like are like okay we need to win this amount of games and need to

Get to the playoffs like we really didn’t do none of that it was just more like we wanted to play how we ended the year last year uh you know start the year and I think we’ve done like kind of a good job of just kind of holding up to that and

That’s kind of produced where we are now so I wouldn’t say that like you know we’re hitting like expectations on like wins and stuff like that but I think it’s just more like the way we’re playing and you know kind of like the bond that we have I think is what the

Goal of the season was and then wherever that takes us you know we can kind of build off that and that’s kind of led us to to this point before we started recording we were Tommy asked a great question about team dinners which we’ll

Get to in a second but you know I I I think what’s interesting in uh listening to you talk back in October and sort of watching the team right now you guys are top five offense top top five defense you have been those things for most of the Season generally speaking if you

Have a top five offense and a top five uh defense you’re going to win a lot of games but there’s a level of camaraderie with your team that as a viewer of your games is like striking and Tommy was talking about the just the element of camaraderie within a

Group whether or not it leads to success I wanted to get your thoughts on that in terms of that impact on your team and I’ll sort of follow up with my own personal thoughts on it but I thought it was a really interesting question question Tommy yeah I think it

Correlates for sure I think just the more you’re around you know your teammates and I feel like the more you can kind of create that bond with them you know no matter what it is you’re doing I think it’s just like one of those things that without us even having

To put a lot of effort in or notice that you just become closer to the guys you know that ends up kind of being reciprocated on the court so yeah I I personally think it holds a lot of weight you know I think there’s some things too where you can’t really like

Force relationship on people too so I think that goes hand in hand but usually when you have like a good genuine bond with the team I feel like that that automatically corate to the court with the success you guys are having do you feel like you’re becoming sort of like

You were the sort of hunters and now you’re becoming the hunt in real time like we’re just talking about where you are in the standings and having to deal with the fact that you know teams are now they they Circle you on the schedule as like oh we want to take the Thunder

Out versus you know that wasn’t necessarily the case last year yeah we feel that for sure sure um you know especially the beginning of the year last year I think teams were kind of like around like that January point teams were kind of like resting their players against us and now it’s a

Completely different completely different Dynamic it just uh this whole season feels way way different I feel like you know we’re getting everybody’s best shot every night I think that’s honestly kind of helped us throughout the year just because you know we’re a little more battle tested throughout the throughout

The regular season so but yeah our season feels completely different like the way teams are playing us um I feel like just how we’re scouted how we’re played every night is way different than last year what what does that look like uh in real time just in terms of the

Difference like are people trying to take away some element of your game in terms of the coverages on Shays uh isos and pick and rolls how teams are switching or not switching with Chad like what is what are some of those adjustments that you’ve seen over the course of this

Season uh yeah I think teams are throwing a lot more looks at us you know you mentioned Chad like obviously we didn’t have him last year so teams had an adjustment period with him too on what they want to do with you know having Shay and him in a pick and rle um

You know Shay seeing a ton of doubles you know you look at the Toronto game for example just kind of like a box in one trap them all over the floor um I mean I’ve even seen like blitzes and and traps off ball screen some this year so

Everybody’s kind of getting like a different look I think that’s kind of the the biggest change to the year you know I get guarded differently almost every game I think I’m seeing like a different change in Defenders too uh like when Shay goes out I’m usually getting the the A1 yeah you’re getting

The A1 yeah yeah which is help too I love it so yeah is there is there anything in terms of your own game where the coverage uh or adjustment happened and maybe it caught you off guard was there was there a moment where you’re like oh I haven’t been guarded

That like this this this was a go-to play or this was a go-to move for me and like now it’s in The Scouting Report uh yeah uh I mean coaches like on the sideline will like yell at our plays now and they’ll like usually if it’s for

Me like coming out of a timeout and like it’s something that we’ve ran like I can hear like the coaches on the other side especially if it’s on their bench like oh it’s coming to eight or you know kind of whatever that is so I’ve been denied

A couple plays uh our first time playing Utah at Utah we ran a play that I usually like will be able to get the ball and I got double teamed off of it so that that threw me for a loop I I’m actually pretty sure I turned it over

Too yeah we had a meeting about that right after because I had like a turn over I didn’t even expect the double to come so um that’s been a fun learning curve when you came on in October I think we all knew how good Chad was but

He hadn’t played yet um now that we’re in you know we’re in February and we’ve seen enough of this what sort of surprised you the most about just his his level of success as a rookie because it’s not I mean you knew from last year it’s not easy and what he’s doing is

Pretty incredible yeah I think just to sit out a whole year and then you know not really know what you know like what’s going to happen to start this year I think he’s done a really good job of just kind of understanding the role and then blossoming in like kind of into

That role and then expanding from there um and he’s doing a good job of like understand what we kind of need as a team and not like playing outside of that realm because he’s super talented so you know I feel like it’s really easy for him to maybe get caught up and you

Know trying to force stuff but he’s done a really good job of just kind of playing within us and I think that’s why he’s having success now and then I think that’s why we’re winning as well you’ve you’ve been with Shay uh two years now

And to some degree I said this most of last season I was like like Shay to me was already a star and he had it had an improvement obviously last year um crazy numbers in some ways he’s better and actually in a lot of ways he’s better again this year

Where he’s taken another jump another leap someone who’s been around him for two years and sort of seen I call it processing speed right in terms of reading coverages getting to his spots doing all of those things what’s been sort of the most imp impressive thing about his game that you’ve seen grow

Over the last two years I would say his decision making uh has been kind of like a a big jump for him and not even in the sense of like it was bad to start off I think he’s just kind of trusting us a lot more to make the

You know kind of like the right play with somebody else like even if it doesn’t involve him which I think is a big step for people that have the ball a lot um kind of being able to play two and three passes ahead of what you know people were maybe thinking

So I think he’s starting to really kind of understand that like for example like if people watching that don’t know like if I make this class this will kind of lead to something else but I won’t get the assist for it I think he’s kind of

Made that that big jump you know in regards to that probably his most recent game was Toronto I think just being able to get off of it and kind of letting other guys play I think that was one of the biggest reasons we won that game so

Um I’ll would just say his kind of willingness to playmake and kind of get off The Rock has he had a a takeover moment that’s been your favorite so far I know he’s had a lot of them it’s like a nightly [Laughter] nightly last two week was like yeah last

Night yeah last night was a good one I don’t know um he he’s had some he’s had some good games I don’t I don’t even know if there’s a favorite usually like I think we get numb to it I’m not trying to like boost him crazy but like I think

Around like that six minute Mark when he comes in in the fourth quarter of the game’s usually pretty close so usually if you end up pulling pulling out with the w he has a big part in that so um he’s had some some tough like he’s had some tough Clips man I I

I’m gonna kind of cosign what jaylen’s talking about uh because I’m not comparing players here but the best players that I played with like Joel CP Blake Dwight you do become a little numb to it where there are even certain games where I’m sure you’ve had this with Shay where

You’re like oh man [ __ ] Dwight’s not playing very well tonight and then it’s like six minutes to go in the fourth and you’re like oh he’s got 245 and six blocks like I I don’t even feel it because they’re just so [ __ ] good they’re just so [ __ ] good and like I

Was at the Knicks game on uh Tuesday against the Grizzlies and in retrospect Jaylen Brunson whatever he ended up with 27 and you know nine assists or whatever it ended up being like it was it was quiet whereas if because he does it every night and it’s

It’s a weird thing that I think happens to the best players where we’re not going to really talk about you unless you go for 73 unless you go for 60 and as a teammate it’s the same thing like you just become numb to their greatness

Which is one of the reasons I always say like when I’m on a broadcast I’m like don’t don’t take it for granted like don’t take it for granted what we’re witnessing with Shay what we’re witnessing with joic or Kawai right now don’t take it for granted because it’s [ __ ] Elite level

Basketball yeah no I’m right there because there’s been some games where I’m like uh like I don’t know he’s quiet today and then we look up we win the game and I’m like dang he had our last 12 points yeah so there there’s been there’s been a lot of games like that

Where it’s kind of just like or he’ll be like sneaky quiet and you know have like 35 and it’s just kind of like something that our team needs and expects him to have so it’s like when you have that over consistent basis it’s like you don’t really notice

It uh I love it I love it we’ll have more of these check-ins uh throughout the season uh Jaylen we appreciate it all right guys it is the return of the old man in the three draft and we are happy to announce that new era is the

Official sponsor of the old man in the three draft got a lot of fun collaboration coming up with new era can’t wait to show you guys that stuff let’s get to the old man of the three draft presented by New Era all right old man of the three draft presented by New

Era can’t wait for this this is Jaylen Williams first draft uh Jaylen I explained to you on text how this works but just to review uh you get the first pick Tommy gets the second pick I get the third and fourth pick it goes back

To Tommy then you get two picks and we just subsequently snake that thing all the way through until we’ve all chosen five in this topic yep Tommy the top topic is topic is favorite postgame meals favorite postgame meals so again this obviously is exclusive to NBA cities uh Tommy travels enough I don’t

Know if you as the listener you as the viewer knew this and Jaylen I don’t know if you knew this either Tommy did not play in the NBA but some people may think I did but I did not I didn’t make it he didn’t make it but he’s been in

Enough of these NBA cities where he can particip participate in this draft very easily actually Tommy’s going to crush this all right uh Jaylen you get the first pick best postgame meals NBA cities let’s go I’m going to say uh mahogany answer you had to take an OKC spot I did

For sure I get grilled if I didn’t bring that up so what makes it what makes it so good um well first off they stay open late enough for us to eat after so that’s usually nice that’s Point number one yeah that that’s a big Point um I

Don’t know they just take care of us good food um it’s it’s really right by the arena so um a lot of convenience good food uh good service so you have a go-to order oh um I usually get a wag strip steak um medium rare I’ll get a lobster mac and cheese a

Lobster tail and choa string fries sounds amazing sounds incredible Tommy all right I’m taking New York off the board just cuz I know JJ has a bunch of options you take wait hold on you can’t take a whole city off yor I know I can’t take it off but he’s

Going to get in his own head if I take if I don’t Pi New York so I’m taking teresi okay in Manhattan which is the guys who did Carbone it’s their new restaurant uh Carbone’s great not a Carbone hater but this is better than Carbone um there’s a Cavatelli there

Which is a Jamaican themed Cavatelli with like shredded beef that’s unbelievable so I’m taking it’s also open till about 1:30 in the morning so I’m going to take teresi Manhattan Soho New York City as my first pick I like it so here’s the advantage that I have in this

Draft especially over Jaylen I played in six different cities so I know all the late night spots in six different cities I also live in New York and have for seven years so I know New York and now as a broadcaster I get to go call games and then if I’m not taking

A red ey from the West Coast I go get so I just I know a lot of this [ __ ] has more options I don’t know where to go with this so I’m going to start I’m going to start in my favorite city that I played in and that was Philadelphia

I’m going to go with uh mohar and Suns which is an Italian place in Fishtown every single time I’m in Philly uh I go there uh incredible incredible pizza pasta great main dishes and the bartenders are awesome they’re awesome last time I was there they made a a riff on a corpse

Survivor put some tequil McAllan there for me H so good so I’m going with my herin and Sons and then you can’t take New York City off the board Tommy I’m gonna go with one of my favorite spots when I would drive back after games in

Philly New York we had a ton of open spots late uh but one of the best restaurants in all of New York City for Charles uh was lucky enough to get a reservation and eat there a couple times after games best burger in the city the prime rib sandwich is even better all

The app are great great wine list um those are my two Jaylen did you did you know JJ commuted I feel like everyone didn’t know so J when he played in Philly he lived in New York and he would drive every day and how long of a drive is

That like an hour and a half hour it’s a it was like an hour 50 down to practice and then a lot of times I’d leave practice at 3: so that would become two and a half to three hours because I’d hit like verzano Bridge during rush hour

And then the BQE is a parking lot so that was frustrating but after games it was like an hour 28 in fact Jaylen this is 28 this is how sick I am this is how sick I am yesterday we recorded with Luca for this episode okay uh Luca was

Scheduled a long time ago and he was at 1:30 and I had a game last night in Philly at 7:30 so I’m like you know what I’m going to do Luca I’ll go straight to the arena be there in plenty of time which I was I was a little

Wrinkle I had to go down for breakfast yesterday morning uh to meet uh with like production stuff and drove down at 6:30 in the morning had my breakfast drove back up to Brooklyn did the Luca thing put my suit on and then went back to Philly called the game came back to

New York spent about eight and a half hours on the Turnpike yesterday not a great day and you did the the commute thing for how long to practice two years two years bro he used to take the train to go to practice he would plan out Amtrak I actually don’t I actually like

Don’t think he got enough credit for it like it’s really pycho that’s impressive you’re psyo though yeah it’s like psycho I it was for my family I that’s what people don’t understand it’s a great not like I was like I like New York better than Philly no it literally was because

We had just moved here I signed a one-year deal my kids got into a school and I wasn’t sure like how long I would play in Philly I wasn’t going to we just moved from La like I yeah like it did it for my family it worked out family man

That’s good that’s all right I’m going second pick I’m going with an LA spot open I think 24 hours if not 24 hours close to 24 hours I’m going with Leo’s Taco Truck on LaBrea uh I think it’s LaBrea and Venice Boulevard it’s I would say it’s

The best taco truck in La um you can get an amazing meal there for under $6 any kind of Taco you want great place uh post game post party post whatever it’s a uh it’s an incredible late night meal I would put it for any up there with any

Late night meal in the country all right well Jaylen and I have not had that yet well I haven’t had a lot of these yet you’re going to this is an education all right Jaylen you have two picks right here all right um I’m gon

Go my friend’s dad uh owns this one uh it’s called back beastro in Sacramento had it for the first time very good had a lamburger very fire it’s called back beastro so I like that I like that we get sack on the map on this draft that’s

It’s great it’s great um and it’s in like one of those like new I don’t know where exactly in sack but it was in one of those like newer districts so it’s like yeah it’s really built up it was nice all right and then I’m Waffle House hell yeah yeah in

Atlanta anywhere anywhere there’s a Waffle House the trashier the better that’s actually a really good call and I’m also envious of you uh because you’re young and you can have like I just every once in a while think though that’s not like no I know but like when

You’re an NBA athlete like you can pretty much do you want it doesn’t matter wa Atlanta does Charlotte have it Charlotte for sure Charlotte not Oklahoma has it Oklahoma Oklahoma Texas Arizona has them does Texas have them I don’t know oh I’ve never been to one in

Texas all right pick a city because we’re going to put pick a city like where would you go to like should we just say Atlanta uh yeah sure that yeah okay that’s the home that’s the home of Waffle House all right my third one I’m going one of the great food cities in

The world New Orleans going to a place I have been with JJ before Bywater beastro okay great Jaylen next time you’re there great restaurant I think it’s open till about midnight you can definitely go postgame we went uh last year when we were down there there’s a lot of options

In New Orleans but I think it’s up there yeah New Orleans has good food um shout out to Nina Compton um I like that New Orleans is also on my list but I got to get a couple out of the way here I got to get a couple out of the way

So this one will not get drafted but sto SoDo in Toronto so this is not a pick this no this is a pick I’m just saying no one else is gonna pick this I’m gonna take this in the third round just because I like the story Soto Soo

Uh in Toronto did a number of Team meals there lovely place um kind of like old school Italian type Vibes right uh game one uh against Toronto in 2019 we get our asses kicked and TJ McConnell and I uh decide to go to stto sto afterwards and who is there but the

Number one Toronto Raptors fan Drake so after we finished our meal we went back to Drake’s private room and we just talked about the Raptors and the Sixers for 30 minutes and it was just a great memory and it was also great food I love

It was he talking [ __ ] no he he was very reasonable uh second spot this is in Houston taking you there ny’s hustle phenomenal Place Jaylen the next time you play the Rockets you need to go to ny’s hustle yeah this place is Elite phenomenal phenomenal F it’s it’s literally everything it’s

Like um like random [ __ ] like they’ll have like a steak right but then there’ll be an appetizer with like uh caviar uh on a piece of sourdough that’s been you know fermenting for 22 days I don’t know how the [ __ ] works it’s it’s fancy food but it’s like delicious fancy

Food that’s not expensive that makes sense like it all right my fourth maybe my favorite burger in the country Al shaval in Chicago okay same family as Fort Charles uh open till about 1:00 a.m. just a great there’s a Chicago’s another one that’s kind of like New

Orleans there’s a lot of options but I needed a burger on here so I think that’ll be my fourth pick all right all right Jaylen you got two oh I got two okay um have we taken any of yours are so boring I don’t know if anybody’s ever been to Harolds in

Chicago oh on the south side yeah yeah place is amazing was uh oh pre-draft that’s a good call that I guess like the draft I guess that whole thing the draft combine and stuff EA that like right before I was playing so that’s like that’s like that’s waffle

House I mean it’s not VI same Vibe but like the food there is incredible yeah Harolds is good um wait do you guys still have picks left We Got Each got one so you’re closing it out this is your last pick this your my last pick yeah that’s fine yeah that’s fine we’ll

Go out of order it’s fine don’t worry about it we’ll UNS snake it all right my last one I don’t know I was going back and forth on this but I think I have to pick it I’m going to go with the uh lemon pepp lemon pepper wings at Magic City in Atlanta

Okay nothing wrong with that Tommy have you had those Jaylen nothing wrong with that for the record I haven’t I would that’s a recommendation a lot of stories about there and a lot of like you know good and bad I’ve stayed away from those are the wings those are the wings that got

Uh Lou Will in trouble yeah yeah that’s right they’re legit though food there is very good never been to Magic City when we’re all in Atlanta I’m going to get takeout wings and you guys can try this for yourself all right uh I’m going to

Close my five out I got a number of options here I want to just give a shout out to a few bini Tavern in New Orleans fantastic uh the Jones assembly which I have eaten at uh many times but after games in Oklahoma City um Pizzeria matah

In La which nothing’s open late in LA and that place is uh canar in Portland uh is another great spot had an insane wind there um but I’m going to close this out with one of my favorite restaurants period to visit on the road I just ate there Saturday night when I

Was in Miami and that’s IL gabiano in brickl love that spot Miami is great because everything’s open everything’s open late I was gonna put a little uh Jamaican spot that we went to in Miami but I don’t remember the name I said but um I’m just going to say uh STK

And La I think it’s in Beverly Hills it’s a very good STK because they’re usually you can’t go you can’t by the way I you can’t go wrong with STK yeah they’re usually fine like it’s just late after a game I’ve done the Denver one like four times after calling a game

It’s great what’s your F jayen do you have a favorite road City to play in yet from Like A vibe standpoint uh I mean there’s like like cool like cultural like hoop aspects of a lot of stuff like you know you go to New York and Boston like those are like

Like the hoop Mecca La obviously is fun to play in so I mean like like the like the really like kind of common ones yeah New York will be New York as you guys keep getting better is going to be fun because the crowd is g to be crazy I

Know yeah I feel like this year like playing in New York would be really cool just because like we’re way better than what we were last year all right this has been the old man of the three draft presented by New Era Jaylen can’t thank you enough for the time my man yeah

Appreciate you guys having me

We are psyched that Jalen Williams (The Oklahoma City Thunder) agreed to be an OM3 correspondent. In this interview, Jalen talks about Chet Holmgren, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and becoming “the hunted” this season.

Subscribe to The Old Man and The Three podcast w/ JJ Redick (ESPN / First Take) and Tommy Alter YouTube channel today for more NBA analysis, player interviews and highlights.