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2024 Free Agents - Jaylin Williams

Summary
Coming out of Arkansas into the 2022 NBA Draft, Williams was not considered a high-level prospect, and even went higher than the consensus when the Thunder drafted him 34th overall. However, Williams had a very successful rookie season, breaking into the regular rotation and even starting 36 games. His role has diminished a bit thus far in '23-'24.

Defensively, Williams does not provide much rim protection in the traditional sense. At 6'10" he is undersized for a center, is a below-average NBA athlete, and his block rate is low. However, he is an elite charge-taker, leading the league in total charges as a rookie and lapping the field when calculating on a per-minute basis. Drawing those charges provides some level of rim protection. Williams led the nation in charges taken during his final year at Arkansas as well, so his rookie season was likely not a fluke. 

Along with drawing charges, Williams also uses his good defensive instincts in drop coverage. He has good awareness to "play two" by disrupting the ball-handler but also not letting the roll man get behind him for a lob or open for an easy pocket pass. He has good hands and gets steals at a high rate for a big. Williams also has a good defensive rebounding rate.

Offensively, Williams has some ball-skills as he has enough of a handle for straight-line drives and has decent passing vision. That makes him a threat in short-roll situations, particularly when the defense blitzes the ball-handler and Williams has a 4-on-3. However, he's a below average scorer in every sense. His lack of explosion makes it hard for him to finish at the rim, as he has only hit 61% from there. He has hit 39% from 3, but the sample size is small so he needs to show more in order to prove he's an actual threat as a shooter, and would need to increase his volume for defenses to really fear him.

Barring some sort of catastrophe, Williams will almost certainly not be waived and will instead hit either restricted free agency in 2025 or unrestricted free agency in 2026, depending on how the Thunder utilize his team option for the '25-'26 season. 
 
Cap Considerations
Williams' $2 million salary for 2024-2025 is non-guaranteed, and if he is waived he will become an unrestricted free agent and the Thunder will have no form of Bird rights on him. If he is waived, teams could claim him off waivers, but would need to fit his salary within cap space or an exception to do so, as his contract was for more than two years.

If Williams becomes a free agent, other teams will have multiple ways to sign him as even teams without cap space could use any of the Non-Taxpayer MLE, Room MLE, Taxpayer MLE, or Bi-Annual Exception to sign him. If Williams is waived and clears waivers, his value will likely have dropped low enough that he would only have offers for the minimum.

Potential Teams: Thunder

Predicted Contract: Not waived: $2 million

Actual Contract: Not waived: $2 million

Williams was retained through his guarantee date, and will likely hit restricted free agency in 2025 unless he agrees to an extension before then.

Last updated: 7/14/2024

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