Jalen Williams reflects on Thunder's rapid ascension from rebuild to NBA champion

If you followed the Oklahoma City Thunder over the last three seasons, you saw one of the fastest rebuild-to-champion transitions in league history. Before you could even blink, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams rapidly ascended to some of the best players and walked the streets in a parade.

Williams' accelerated player development played a big role in that. The 24-year-old had a career season, as he was a first-time All-Star, All-NBA and All-Defense player. Questioned on being good enough to be the second-best player on a title contender, he shushed any doubters with a stellar playoff run despite playing through a wrist injury.

Reflecting on Williams' three-season journey from late lottery pick to a top-15 player, he credited the Thunder's rebuild for giving him the environment to grow. He recently appeared on the "Out The Mud" podcast with Zach Randolph and Tony Allen to talk about it.

"We have a good organization that's willing to stick with it. That's the first part. If the organization is pretty open with what's going and feels like it just lets you kinda play," Williams said. "I wouldn't even say our down for me at least wasn't bad. They had some bad years before I was there. Our year wasn't that bad. We played in the play-in, so we had a chance to play in the playoffs, which they didn't expect."

The Thunder only needed two tanking seasons to get the draft ammo they needed to build another contender. Sam Presti had plenty of home-run selections in the lottery, despite only having one top-five pick in their recent rebuild. Gilgeous-Alexander's and Williams' unlikely star duo ascension has sped OKC past the rest of the pack on the NBA highway.

Williams said everything became serious for the Thunder when Chet Holmgren debuted. He missed his first season recovering from a Lisfranc injury, but had one of the best rookie campaigns in recent history as the third-best player on the first seed.

"Chet came in and now we're the first seed. That was more the jump than kinda staying down. Everybody in the building was more shocked. We're beating teams that were beating us by 20 last year. Now we're beating them by 20," Williams said. "So it's more like how we do hone this in and get the experience. It's not like we're fourth or fifth in the West or fighting for a play-in spot. We're kinda like the hunted and nobody is taking us seriously. It was more about how we mature faster."

Williams later went on to talk two growing points in the Thunder's journey to a championship. He said their playoff loss to the Dallas Mavericks in Round 2 of the 2024 NBA playoffs and their grueling seven-game series win over the Denver Nuggets in Round 2 of the 2025 NBA playoffs were rich with lessons.

That's not surprising to hear. Every other Thunder player has said the same thing — especially the latter against Nikola Jokic and a championship-pedigree squad. They were the youngest and second-youngest first seeds ever in back-to-back years.

"The hardest part was barely going into the playoffs and now we're the first seed. There are expectations," Williams said. "How do we manage that with everybody in the room being 19 or 20 years old?"

After the Thunder had a historic year, which included a 68-14 regular-season record and a Larry O'Brien trophy, they're the popular favorite to repeat with the same roster. And considering how young the roster is and how asset-rich the front office is, expect them to remain in the title conversation for the foreseeable future.

Jalen Williams on the Thunder's rebuild:

"Chet came in and now we're the first seed. That was more the jump than kinda staying down. Everybody in the building was more shocked. We're beating teams that were beating us by 20 last year. Now we're beating them by 20... We're kinda… pic.twitter.com/V1JkznAWur

— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) August 28, 2025

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Jalen Williams reflects on Thunder's rise from rebuild to champion