Jalen Williams 'must accelerate' particular aspect of his game for Thunder to win

As currently constructed, this OKC Thunder team heads into the 2024-25 season as legitimate threats to contend for the Larry O'Brien Trophy, with odds-makers already giving them a +700 chance to win it all. Such a mark trails only the reigning champion, Boston Celtics at +300.

With 26-year-old superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leading the charge, this squad is expected to be a force to be reckoned with for many years to come.

However, in order to get over the proverbial hump from being seen as an up-and-coming club to an established juggernaut, the guard's running mates will need to step up and improve upon their games with every passing year, and, heading into this new season, arguably the biggest question concerning the Thunder relates to Jalen Williams and whether he's ready to take that next step toward stardom.

B/R questions if OKC Thunder forward Jalen Williams can be a star

In a recent piece penned by Bleacher Report, seasoned writer Grant Hughes discussed his concerns over Jalen Williams' offensive repertoire, particularly when it comes to his creation skills, or, rather, the lack thereof in the scoring department.

Per his findings, Williams has been highly dependent on his teammates feeding him the rock over the years in order to buy a bucket. He scored "via assists" on 41.6 percent of his twos and 90.4 percent of his long-range attempts during his rookie campaign and, in his sophomore go-around, though he did improve upon these rates a bit, he still saw respective splits of 40.4 percent and 74.8 percent.

His struggles in the shot creation and isolation scoring department were never more clear than during Oklahoma City's second-round playoff demise against the Dallas Mavericks last year, where just 38.5 percent of his makes were unassisted.

This proved to be devastating for the Thunder, especially when Dallas' defense locked down on SGA and, in turn, dared others to step up and serve as an offensive spark plug.

Though J-Dub was the guy the team looked to in such situations what with the fact that he finished with the second-highest shot attempt rate of 15.3 per game, unfortunately, it proved evident that he did not have the skills needed to fill such a need, as he shot an inefficient 42.4 percent from the field in their six-game bout.

To Hughes, growth in this aspect of his game "must accelerate" if he wishes to enter into the legitimate star conversation and, more importantly, to help the Thunder "hit their offensive apex" as they look to contend for ultimate glory.