Oklahoma City Thunder Keep Solidifying Long-Term Core With Kenrich Williams Extension

“He could also be amongst his friends, simply from my observations, essentially the most revered man within the locker room,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault stated of Kenrich Williams throughout his first season with the staff.

After two years of carving out a job as a top quality contributor on the courtroom and impactful chief off of it, Williams has earned a four-year, $27.2M extension with Oklahoma City. He turns into simply the second undrafted participant to signal a deal this summer season, following within the footsteps of his teammate Lu Dort.

This units Williams as much as be even nearer to retiring as a member of the Thunder, which is one thing he’s stated he needs to do a number of instances.

“I need to be right here with the Thunder. This may sound far fetched, however I want to retire right here with the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder,” stated Williams earlier this 12 months.

With that in thoughts, this path to his first main payday was something however linear. The 6-foot-6 wing was by no means an enormous recruit, beginning his collegiate profession at a junior faculty earlier than ending TCU. After going undrafted in 2018, he earned a contract with the New Orleans Pelicans following a formidable NBA Summer time League stint with the Denver Nuggets.

In his first two seasons with the Pelicans, Williams was extraordinarily inefficient. He shot simply 37.1% from the ground and 30.4% from past the arc. Williams produced simply 4.9 factors and 4.8 rebounds in 21.7 minutes per recreation throughout these two seasons in New Orleans.

From there, he would get a recent begin. Williams was primarily used for wage matching functions in a commerce that despatched Steven Adams from Oklahoma Metropolis to New Orleans. To facilitate this deal, Williams was signed to a three-year, $6 million deal on his option to the Thunder.

In a brand new metropolis with a special function, Williams instantly thrived in OKC. In his very first season with the staff, he doubled his scoring output from the season prior as he produced 8.0 factors per contest. He additionally grew to become a way more environment friendly shooter, flattening 44.4% of his triples and 53.3% of his pictures from the ground general.

Williams grew to become a vocal chief on the younger Thunder roster, but in addition was having an incredible influence on profitable.

This received the eye of many groups across the league. Throughout each of Williams’ seasons in Oklahoma Metropolis thus far, rival groups have tried to commerce for him. Thus far, Thunder GM Sam Presti hasn’t budged.

Actually, Presti as an alternative determined to increase Williams for 4 years. This formally makes the two-way wing part of the longterm core in Oklahoma Metropolis.

There’s solely a handful of gamers on the Thunder roster which might be beneath contract for no less than 4 extra years, with Williams being the most recent on that listing. He joins Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, Jaylin Williams and Ousmane Dieng. It’s additionally doubtless that Josh Giddey and Tre Mann earn rookie extensions three years from now and proceed to be a part of the group.

As such, an actual core is starting to type OKC. It’s one which has great upside and might be a contending squad in a couple of years.

One of many hardest gamers within the league, Williams is a professional two-way menace that has the flexibility and positional measurement that each staff needs. He’s earned each greenback of this extension and can solely proceed to be impactful with the Thunder for the rest of the rebuild and past.

Even then, he’s going to be on a manageable deal that shall be straightforward to commerce for property if wanted down the highway. For either side, this four-year, $27.2M extension made a ton of sense.