In addition to the championship, Thunder’s triple-double “teacher”!

Jerin Williams, a young forward from the University of Arkansas, has an Asian face because of Vietnamese descent, but is 100% American player in nationality. His mother, Linda Williams, is a mixed-race child and was born in Ho Chi Minh City, while Linda Williams' mother is a Vietnamese father and a white pilot. After the end of the Vietnam War, she moved to the United States from Vietnam.

This is where Jerryn Williams comes from.

Jerin Williams made history after the Thunder defeated the Timberwolves in the playoffs, becoming the first Vietnamese player to reach the NBA Finals.

Coincidentally, the city of Oklahoma also has a lot of connection with Vietnam. According to the Oklahoman, there are about 30,000 Oklahomans in the area with Vietnamese descent. Borrowing the interview with Jarin's mother, he watches the Thunder game with Vietnamese fans wearing Jarin's jersey every night.

Returning to the trajectory of Jarin's career, he was born and raised in Arkansas, and the University of Arkansas is his cultivation base on his basketball career. Before the draft, Jerin's draft selling point was a defensive position with excellent timing, which then created an offensive foul by the ball holder. However, unexpectedly, he could directly transfer this skill to the NBA arena, and even do better than before.

From the technical perspective of the game, creating an offensive foul is a technique that requires courage and ability. If the timing is wrong, it may become a blocking foul, and even give the opponent a 2+1 chance; otherwise, it can destroy the opponent's offensive opportunity, which is particularly critical in games where the score difference is close, which shows Jelin's advantages.

As a center with neither height, bounce and speed, Jerin must need special skills to gain a foothold in the NBA. His high-level offensive ability is quite outstanding, his ball maker is excellent, his passive intuition is keen, he can score points at the first time for his running teammates, and he also has the ability to open up space on the outside. This is the key to operating the team system in the substitute stage.

Looking back at this season's Thunder, when they met the team in the second half of the game with poor record, they even gave the starting linebacker many times, giving Jelin the position of tactical core. In the three starting matches in March, they handed in 10 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists, 19 points, 17 rebounds, 11 assists, 15 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, respectively, performing three consecutive triple-doubles.

triple-double + center player characteristics, such players are still quite rare in today's league, and based on his mixed-race identity from Vietnam, he is also nicknamed the Vietnamese version of Jokic by fans. What's worse, maybe even he himself did not expect that he could achieve excellent results in the head-on confrontation with Jokic.

In the second round of the playoffs, the Thunder's best center against Jokic is not Harten, who has an annual salary of nearly 30 million yuan, nor is Homegren, who ranks high in the league's top defensive list, but the Thunder's third center Jaylin Williams. Although his height and wingspan are not outstanding, he successfully limited the MVP-level big man to a sluggish hit rate of 30.8% in the match against Jokic.

, and when the playoffs were played, he gave a 58% shooting percentage when facing Harten in the series, and when the match against Harten, he gave a super high efficiency of 74.2%. But in the 86 rounds facing Jerlin, Jokic made 26 shots, only 8 hits, 3 assists, and 5 turnovers.

In the post-match interview, Jerin did not blame himself for all his credit. He trusted his teammates more:

"When I play, I will do my best to make the opponent's game difficult. Besides, I have four players who love defense around me. The game has never been one-on-one, two-on-two, but a match between five and five. Our team has a good defense and everyone is trying their best."

Although there is no height and wingspan advantage, Jerin has a thick body shape. The stable lower-set strength can allow him to withstand Jokic's low post impact and prevent him from entering the inside penalty area smoothly. He was forced to choose the ratio of medium and long distance and three-point shooting. This is also the key reason why Jokic made 15 of 47 shots in the third and fourth games, although part of this is that he has a poor shooting feel.

From the second game of the series to the sixth game, Jelin got more than 10 minutes of playing time. On the stalemate playoff stage, as the third center, it was a far exceeding expectations. Being able to occupy a place in the 68-win team is enough to show his value.

Looking back at the 2022 draft, when the Thunder chose Jaylen Williams from Santa Clara University in the 12th pick in the first round, Jaylen, who watched the draft with his friends and relatives, suddenly heard the cheers from the people around him, but he quickly realized that it was not him, but another Williams. As a teammate in the same team, he had heard of Jaylen Williams as early as college.

After the draft, Thunder general manager Presti was asked by reporters:

"How should you distinguish Jaylen Williams and Jaylen Williams with similar surnames and abbreviations?"

"We have not talked about this question yet, this is something to be solved tomorrow."

After Presti's vague answer, the two Williams thought of a solution. Jaylen Williams chose his always nickname "J-Dub", and Jaylen was directly abbreviated "J-Will."

Compared with his background and technology, most of our first impression of Jaylen is that he laughs happily all the time. Compared to the contributions of the stadium, fans prefer the passion he brought with him, the laughter in front of the camera, and the exaggerated expressions when cheering for his teammates on the sidelines.

For such a substitute, coach Dagnot gave enough trust:

"He ignited the entire team and brought huge energy.. ”

And he himself also has his own thoughts on such evaluation:

"I have always been a person who loves to laugh. The nickname given to me by others is Smiler, and I just like to laugh. ”

From a second round pick to a key rotation of 68 wins, Jerin Williams is not just a substitute for the team, his basketball journey has just begun.