The 2022-23 Oklahoma City Thunder’s season ended with the play-in tournament loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, which means it’s time for reflection.
Being one of the biggest overachievers in the league, the Thunder finished with a 40-42 record after being predicted by many to have high lottery odds.
Now that the season is in the books, let’s go back and evaluate all 19 players who suited up for the Thunder this season. Grades will be handed out to every player in terms of what their expectations were heading into the season and how they lived up to them.
The sixth player in this installment is Kenrich Williams, who was a steady hand in OKC’s rotation before suffering a season-ending wrist injury in March.
(Editor’s note: We are starting individual grades for all players from the 2022-23 Oklahoma City Thunder. To access other reviews as part of this ongoing series, click here.)
2022-23 statisics:
- 8 points
- 4.9 rebounds
- 2 assists
- 51.7% shooting
- 37.3% 3-point shooting
- 43.% free-throw shooting
Advanced stats:
- True-shooting percentage: 58.5%
- 3-point attempt rate: 38.7%
- Usage rate: 13.7%
- Steal percentage: 1.8%
- Turnover percentage: 8.1%
- Win shares: 3.3
- Drawn charges: 26
Significant Percentile Finishes:
- Transition: 64.9 percentile
- P&R ball-handler: 69.5 percentile
- P&R roll man: 75.2 percentile
- Spot up: 54.8 percentile
- Handoff: 60.9 percentile
Contract:
- 2023-24: $6.2 million
- 2024-25: $6.7 million
- 2025-26: $7.2 million
- 2026-27: $7.2 million (team option)
Thoughts:
It was another solid campaign for the veteran wing, who was limited to just 53 games following a season-ending wrist injury he suffered in March.
Williams continues to cement his role on the team as their more reliable bench wing who can provide spot starts. After a relatively down season last year from outside, where he shot 33.9% from 3 on 2.5 attempts, those numbers improved to 37.3% on 2.5 attempts this season.
At this point, it’s hard to see the 28-year-old make another massive stride in his development — if that’s the case, then the Thunder have a really handy wing who steps up in the leadership role.
Williams continues to be a plus-minus darling for OKC as he was a plus-4.7 on the court and a plus-5.6 in his on-off splits — both were second-best on the team among players who played at least 1,000 minutes.
One of OKC’s break-glass-in-case-of-emergency tools was their ability to throw Williams at center to create a small-ball lineup. Williams’ offensive versatility and shooting helped provide the Thunder with their own version of a death lineup.
Down the stretch, the Thunder desperately missed having that in their back pocket as they played with no traditional bigs for the final two months of the season. The Thunder clearly missed him down the stretch as their depth suffered during the final portions of the season. Thankfully since it’s not a serious injury, we should expect him to return to form by next season.
Moving Forward:
To hold myself accountable, I was a bit skeptical about Williams’ ability to be a productive role player for the foreseeable future when he first arrived in OKC.
Following his breakout season with the Thunder in 2020-21, I thought his 3-point shooting was going to eventually regress hard, which will remove all of his value as a defending shooting wing who can play small-ball five.
I was clearly wrong. While the 3-point shooting hasn’t reached the heights of his first season in OKC (44.4% on 1.8 attempts), it hasn’t abandoned him as I feared in two seasons since then (35.7% on 2.5 attempts). While the awful free-throw shooting (career 52% shooter) is still concerning to me as an underlying reason to not fully believe in his outside shot, Williams has shut the doubters up with three consecutive stellar seasons.
I expect similar campaigns for the foreseeable future from Williams, as there is nothing in his game that isn’t replicable for him. If he continues to play hard, defend well, be a voice in the locker room and — most importantly — hit his outside shots at a decent clip, then the Thunder found a real gem in him.
Every contender needs guys like Williams — low-usage players who are willing to do the dirty work and have impressive peripherals that show they can contribute to winning basketball regardless of role.
Williams continues to love to take long mid-range jumpers — which has been a trend during his time with the Thunder. On the season, 9.7% of his shot attempts were from long 2-pointers, which ranks in the 85th percentile for most attempts by a big.
In his previous two seasons, those numbers were 10.7%, which was in the 71st percentile among forwards in 2021-22 and 12.3%, which was in the 77th percentile among forwards in 2020-21.
While a long 2-point attempt is a bad shot in a vacuum, Williams hits the shot at a good enough clip to justify the attempts — he shot 57.6% on long 2s this past season, which was in the 86th percentile among bigs. If he continues to hit at an efficient rate with his long midrange shots, then there’s no harm in letting him take a shot he clearly loves to take — only if Williams stops hitting at an elite rate will it become detrimental to the team.
Anyways, I thought it was interesting enough to dissect Williams’ shot diet a bit as he has untraditional shooting splits that clearly work for him. Let’s get back to forecasting his future.
While the wrist injury sucks, it shouldn’t have any lingering effects on him and he mentioned in his exit interview that he’s close to being fully cleared to return. As long as he continues to turn in solid seasons like his last three, Williams will have a spot in the Thunder’s rotation for the entire lifespan of his new contract,
