Prospect Spotlight 2022: Jalen Williams

[Jamaaliver]

Jalen Williams may realistically be an option at 16 by mid June. Top 5 in in both standing and max vert. 6-4 w/o shoes with a 7-2 wingspan. Even w/o those combine numbers was considered a fairly skilled SG add on now makes him a super high intrigue prospect. Not a small guy either weighed in at 210.

Indeed.

Jalen Williams -- Santa Clara

6'6" | 235 lb | Wing | 21 years old | Junior

Late bloomer who is just beginning to realize his two-way talents

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18 ppg 4.2 apg 39.6 3PT%

Shades of: TJ Warren, OG Anunoby

PLUSES

• Mature playmaker who stays under control at all times. Selfless passer who can seamlessly pass off the dribble using either hand. On the break, he makes tremendous outlets.
• Good ball handler who has improved each year in college. Granted he played at a mid-major, but his height, feel, and vision are translatable at any level. He can facilitate pick-and-rolls and handoffs, or just keep the ball moving when he isn’t involved in an action.
• He made 44.3 percent of his catch-and-shoot 3s as a junior and looked comfortable shooting in every way imaginable—off screens, handoffs, relocations, you name it. Though he didn’t shoot a high percentage in prior seasons, he always had good numbers from the line and displayed soft touch on floaters.
• Talented off-the-dribble scorer who is comfortable dribbling into midrange jumpers, runners, or even 3s. At a minimum, he looks like a player who can run secondary actions and attack closeouts and mismatches.
• Does all the things a role player should do, including being a headsy cutter who runs the floor hard in transition.
• High-effort defender who, despite a lack of quickness, always stays active and engaged. He has a never-give-up attitude.

MINUSES

• Unless he has space to launch, he’s a below-the-rim finisher without much burst off the dribble, so his shot creation could be neutralized. He didn’t pop until his junior season even in the WCC, so there is some risk attached.
• Sluggish moving laterally on defense, which doesn’t bode well early in his career unless he gets significantly quicker during pre-draft training or in his team’s strength and conditioning program.
• Gets a bit loose with his left hand, leading to sloppy drives to the rim.

The Ringer

[Jamaaliver]

NBA prospects moving up draft boards

Jalen Williams | Guard | Santa Clara



Williams was one of the consensus biggest risers of the week. The 6-foot-6 guard's name was buzzing immediately on Wednesday with a lengthy 7-foot-2.25 wingspan registering the biggest wingspan differential (+9.75 inches) at the combine.

Before scrimmages on Thursday, NBA Big Board's Rafael Barlow tweeted a "rumbling" from the combine that said, "Don't be surprised if Jalen Williams ends up a lottery pick."

Williams only played 14 minutes on the first day of scrimmages but had a few strong finishes en route to an easy 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting.

He may have earned some extra brownie points with scouts and executives on Friday, as Williams was one of the few players whose stock is on the rise, yet elected to participate in the second day of scrimmages. It worked to his benefit, as the Santa Clara guard went off for 19 points on a near-perfect 8-for-9 shooting from the field and 2-for-2 from 3.

I would say buy Williams stock now.

Sporting News

[CP War Hawks]

21 years old, shooting avg. 51- 40 - 81 in 3rd season at Santa Clara.

Combine numbers
6-4.50 w/o shoes, 8-9.50 standing reach, 209 pounds, 7-2 wingspan. Collins had a 8-10.50 standing reach and 6-11 wingspan in comparison.

Standing Vert - 33.5 Max Vert - 39. Collins had 33 and 37.5 respectively.

[Jamaaliver]

NBA draft sleepers who have dominated the combine

Jalen Williams (Santa Clara)



The breakout star of the NBA draft combine was Santa Clara’s, and for good reason. Williams has an absolutely insane physical profile, and one ideal for success in the modern NBA.

Although he isn’t particularly tall, Williams has a 7-foot-2.25 wingspan. Not only is his wingspan differential one of the longest on record, however, but he also finished in the 90th percentile or better in his three-quarter sprint and his standing vertical.

He has a rare blend of speed, vertical pop, and length that we haven’t seen much of outside hyper-athletic wings like Donovan Mitchell — who was another player who drastically improved his draft stock when he participated in the NBA draft combine.

I noticed something crazy about Williams during my research, and it should help him tremendously. When you combine his standing reach and his max vertical, the numbers are mind-boggling.

Williams is just 6’4.5″ without shoes, but his max vertical reach of 12’0.5″ is ahead of vertical athletes like Aaron Gordon and John Collins as well as rim protectors like Rudy Gobert. (Yes, you read that right. This man can actually get higher than Gordon, Collins, and Gobert.) So it makes sense he was one of the nation’s leaders in dunks and field goals made at the rim among players his size or shorter. Williams is a prototypical slasher who was also one of the leaders in unassisted rim makes.

The Santa Clara standout has a good feel for the game, showcased by his high assist and low turnover rate. He plays well with the ball in his hands, yet, he has an efficient catch-and-shoot [game if he moves off-ball].

There are reasons to temper expectations about his overall impact, but I’m fairly confident front office executives will trip over themselves to get this type of player on their team.

USA Today

[Jamaaliver]

Some measure of concern:

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NOT AN IMPRESSIVE LIST.

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Jalen Williams climbing

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Williams' potential rise was a hot topic in Chicago at the NBA combine. Some scouts have mentioned him as a top-20 or even potential lottery pick. And some of that talk started even before scrimmages, where he helped further validate the buzz. It's difficult to pinpoint what's caused the sudden spike in interest, although it happens with certain prospects every predraft process. Last year it was Trey Murphy III and Chris Duarte. Williams measuring a 7'2¼" wingspan certainly stood out. But with the value of versatility at an all-time high, the amount of boxes he checks is obviously appealing, as Williams projects as an interchangeable guard and wing who can run pick-and-rolls, pass and catch-and-shoot.

Bleacher Report

[Jamaaliver]

Spoiler:

Put simply, this guy is a freak of an athlete with the game to match.

His 7-foot-2 ¼ wingspan is the same as OG Anunoby’s at the 2017 NBA Draft Combine. The 39-inch vertical and 3.11 second three-quarter-court sprint were each top-five marks at this year’s combine.

One element of his game that consistently stands out is his ability to create advantageous situations for himself and teammates by getting downhill on drives. Among consensus first-round prospects with at least 175 AutoStats-tracked drive chances, Williams ranks second by deriving 0.928 points per drive chance for his team.

It’s also worth noting that Williams had the most even left/right directional drive split of this group, making it a bit more difficult on opposing on-ball defenders to shade him a given direction or jump his likely path to the paint.

The Analyst

[Jamaaliver]

The big winner of the combine



Among actual NBA Draft Combine participants — limited as they were — the name that stood out most often was Santa Clara wing Jalen Williams. It’s tough to find a part of the proceedings that he didn’t ace. He’s been rising up the board throughout the pre-draft process as teams go back through tape at the end of the season to catch up on guys they missed and put the overall class in context. Both of us had Williams with a first-round grade coming in, but his stock has exploded into the stratosphere following his week in Chicago.

First and foremost, he measured at 6-foot-6 with a 7-foot-2 wingspan. His standing reach came in higher than guys expected to play a lot of minutes at the four, like E.J. Liddell, David Roddy, Jake LaRavia and Jabari Walker. Beyond that, Williams is a wing player who can handle the ball to collapse a defense and make plays for his teammates off passes. He also knocked down 3s at a 40 percent clip in college. While his defensive ability has raised some questions, he’s big and long enough to become more versatile as he keeps developing his frame in NBA strength and conditioning programs.

It all came together in the five-on-five games, where Williams was outstanding. He was one of the best players on the court in his first day, helping to lead his team to a late victory. A few guys decided to pull out after playing well the first day, but Williams doubled down. On the second day, he put together the best performance from anyone at the event, scoring 19 points on 7-of-8 shooting while completely rolling over the competition.

We obviously shouldn’t go nuts and overrate the importance of these types of games or events. They don’t overshadow the entirety of the tape and the body of work Williams put in over the season. But Williams was already getting second and third looks from teams after they realized how good the tape really was. NBA scouts and decision-makers at the event sent us more texts about Williams than any other player at the event who actually participated in the proceedings. At this point, we expect he ends up being picked near the top-20 on draft night.

The Athletic

[Jamaaliver]

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2022 NBA Draft scouting report: Jalen Williams



Jalen Williams enters the 2022 NBA draft class as one of the players most ready to play at the next level. His ability to function as a creator, in either a primary or secondary role, in combination with his exceptional length (7’2 wing span) puts him into a template usually desired across the board by NBA teams seeking to add young, capable wings.

Departing Santa Clara after three seasons in which he demonstrated wildly impressive improvement, Williams is convincing as a young player that can consistently process information in real time on both ends of the court.

On offense, his ability to read the entire floor when operating in the pick-and-roll, including each distinct action on the weak side as the opposing defense executes a given coverage, is unique. He can make every read and capitalizes by being able to make any pass demanded of him. Pocket passes, skip passes, you name it. His ability to string out the play and wait for the defense to commit to what they are going to do is rare.

Likewise, his ability to get to the rim or to his floater as needed to capitalize as a scorer is a important part of his ability to generate consistent offense.

Potentially one of the most important aspects of his play in the pick and roll is that he has the length needed to naturally deal with aggressive pick and roll coverage. Having length as a passer to work the ball wherever needed to as to generate leverage versus strong hedges, traps, and doubles is valuable especially in a scenario where he may be playing next to a smaller point guard.

Williams functions well in catch-and-shoot opportunities with an impressively repeatable and efficient shooting form. Last season he showed progress shooting from the perimeter on pull ups, an important part of his play considering he will need to be able to punish defenders that go under ball screens as to round out the tool set he uses in the pick and roll.

...on defense, he uses his length to perform exceptionally well as the defender one man away from the ball. Jumping passing lanes and tagging rollers and cutters, Williams demonstrates an important understanding of how to maximize the use of his length. There is every reason to believe he will be an above average help defender at the next level.

He navigates screens well when defending on ball even if the footwork in this area needs to be cleaned up a bit and applied more consistently. Similarly to his growth on offense, he is learning, as a defender, that he has enough length to give his man more space as to make his lateral athleticism manageable.

Peachtree Hoops

[Jamaaliver]

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Jalen Williams | 6-6 junior | SG | Santa Clara

Scouts I talked to have pretty openly admitted Williams was underscouted during the season, a classic Bad Geography Guy in the far-flung West Coast Conference. Even if scouts happened to be in the Bay Area, chances are they weren’t driving the extra hour to Santa Clara when so much other scoutable action was at hand. Now that teams are doing their film work, he’s a guy everyone is doubling back to watch.

Williams was one of the best players in a vastly improved WCC this season, a huge, solidly built point guard at 6-6 who is likely to play the wing at the next level. Williams offers a plus secondary ballhandler who can run the offense in a pinch, and if you buy his shooting development (39.6 percent from 3 this year and 80.9 percent from the line), that’s a very helpful weakside offensive player.

Defensively, Williams would likely benefit from a move to the wing. He has size and mostly opted to stay solid against opposing point guards, but he wasn’t capable of pressuring smaller players into mistakes and mostly opted for low-risk containment strategies. He can be a little stiff, and even WCC guards weren’t afraid of taking him on; he might do better sizing up rather than down, as he seemed more comfortable getting into the body of bigger players closer to the rim.

Williams also isn’t a great athlete, so teams would be buying more on size, skill and feel. But as noted above, he had the moves to fake top prospects like Holmgren out of their shoes and is rapidly losing his “sleeper” status as the league does its homework on him.

Bleacher Report

[Jamaaliver]

JW has been great. Another kid who benefitted from staying multiple years in college and learning the nuances of team basketball...

I was hoping he'd fall to us at #16.

Jalen Williams

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Williams has been Oklahoma City’s Swiss Army knife. He can set screens, sit in the dunker spot waiting for a dump-off, 45-cut from the wing, attack closeouts to shoot or pass or just simply spot up and take catch-and-shoot jumpers. Already, he’s an effective NBA player just by keeping it simple and being a versatile offensive weapon. Eventually, the shot is going to fall off the catch (he has clean mechanics and hit 39.6 percent last year from 3 at Santa Clara). But further growth will come when he gets even more comfortable using his frame inside the 3-point line.

Williams entered the starting lineup full-time about a month ago and has generated offense by keeping things simple around Giddey and Gilgeous-Alexander. Through Monday, he’s averaged 13.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.3 assists on 52.7 percent from the field and 34 percent from 3.

The Athletic

[Jamaaliver]

Man, I love to see upperclassmen succeed in the league from the get go.

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[Jamaaliver]

Dude has been a monster. He's getting stronger deep into the season. That could ave been very useful for us right now:

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[Jamaaliver]

He's been the best rookie in the NBA since January.

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Spoiler:

[Jamaaliver]

Controversial thought:

Is Jalen Williams already better than DeJounte Murray?

Would Hawks have been better off just moving up in the draft for JW, keeping Huerter and all those future picks and proceeding from there?

(Trae, Huerter, Bogdan, Jalen Williams feels like a better backcourt rotation than the one we have now. Plus, no need to trade for Saddiq.)

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[King Ken]

Controversial thought:

Is Jalen Williams already better than DeJounte Murray?

Would Hawks have been better off just moving up in the draft for JW, keeping Huerter and all those future picks and proceeding from there?

(Trae, Huerter, Bogdan, Jalen Williams feels like a better backcourt rotation than the one we have now. Plus, no need to trade for Saddiq.)

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No but he would be a better fit for the Hawks as he's actually a SG.