Jaylin Williams

Williams and teammate Isaiah Joe both attended Northside High School in Fort Smith, Arkansas — a city of 88,000 people — making the odds of two NBA players from the same Thunder class from the same small city extraordinarily slim.

He nearly doubled his effective strength from his freshman to sophomore year at Arkansas, developing from a perimeter-oriented forward into a genuine NBA-caliber defensive big.

Williams' father Jay is a former college basketball player who served as his primary basketball mentor and the source of his defensive intensity and love for protecting the basket.

He was projected as a potential lottery pick by some early draft models, but OKC's medical staff cleared a concern that lowered his stock — making the 34th pick one of the best value selections in the 2022 class.