The Oklahoma City Thunder introduced their four draftees during a joint press conference over the weekend, and the basketball community learned quite a bit from the availability.
Thunder executive vice president Sam Presti explained why the organization selected Chet Holmgren (No. 2 pick), Ousmane Dieng (11th pick), Jalen Williams (12th pick) and Jaylin Williams (34th pick). He also touched on the potential roster fits with each player, among other topics.
Some name confusion was also cleared up with Jalen and Jaylin.
Of course, the team made headlines in the NBA draft on Thursday after selecting two players who share the same name. Their decision to draft them sparked plenty of conversation with fans taking to social media to fire off their best jokes.
Fear not, the two have a plan to distinguish themselves from each other.
“I think it is pretty rare to have somebody with the same exact name as you,” Jalen said. “It was kinda surreal. I go by ‘J-Dub’ and then (he) is ‘Jay Will’ so we’ve kinda been figuring that out since we got here.”
The two appear to be having some fun with the situation, too.
Said Jaylin on June 15: “It was funny because we had to do a lot of interviews (at the draft combine). Somehow, even though we could go to every interview whenever we wanted, he and I would always end up in the same room at the same time. We were always like, ‘Bro, go somewhere else!’”
On Saturday, Jalen and Jaylin took several team photos after their introductory press conference. They were even pictured recreating the infamous Spider-Man meme with the two characters pointing at each other.
As far as the on-the-court fit, the two each project to fill some needs.
Jalen, who was named to the All-WCC first team, averaged 18 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.2 steals last season as a junior at Santa Clara. He ranked second in the conference in scoring and finished eighth in program history with 594 total points on the year.
Jaylin earned All-SEC second-team honors after averaging 10.9 points, 9.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.1 blocks as a sophomore with Arkansas. He finished fifth in the country in total rebounds (364) and fourth in defensive win shares (3.0).
The Thunder figure to have plenty of positional battles on the roster following their four new additions. Time will only tell how those play out but the team is certainly banking on them having a key role as the team continues its rebuild.
Hopefully, with as little confusion as possible involving Jalen and Jaylin.
This post originally appeared on Rookie Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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