The 2025 NBA Finals begin tonight in Oklahoma City between two smaller-market teams who are undoubtedly the two most complete teams in basketball.
While Indiana will do everything it can to stop the MVP SGA, Jalen Williams can come alive on both ends of the floor and lead this Thunder team to the promised land, starting with a Game 1 victory.
Jalen Williams is my dark-horse Finals MVP candidate. With Carlisle and the Pacers most likely throwing the kitchen sink at Shai Gilgeous-Alexander throughout the series, the Thunder’s second option can put up the stats to win this award should OKC win the series.
Williams had a so-so semifinals performance against the Nuggets, but redeemed himself with some huge two-way outings against Minnesota in the WCF. JDub averaged 22.2 PPG in that series while scoring 26+ points twice.
With the Pacers running in transition and forcing this game to get sped up, Jalen Williams is the one offensive weapon for OKC that can play at this pace and make it work for the teammates around him.
With SGA more of a slow-paced guard, Williams will need to be on the floor for around 35-40 minutes to hang with this potent Indiana offense. He’s hit this prop in 7 of 16 playoff games this year.
Jalen Williams, Alex Caruso, Lu Dort, and yes - Cason Wallace. You could make the case that these are the four best perimeter defenders in the NBA, and yes, they are on the same team.
Cason Wallace is a star role player who makes game-winning plays on both sides of the floor. Wallace hit five 3s in the WCF and throughout this postseason has hit 0.9 threes per game in 22.4 MPG.
With Indiana running the floor after made or missed baskets, Wallace will be a key guard in this series, especially as they look to stop Haliburton and Nembhard from getting hot beyond the arc. CW has gone 5 for 11 from beyond the arc in his career against the Pacers.
After hearing a lot of negativity during the middle of that Knicks series, Andrew Nembhard had one of the best Game 6 performances of any secondary guard ever.
While this might be an overstatement to some, he dropped a 14/8/3/6 steal stat line to make Brunson and the city of New York crumble over 48 minutes.
He will get tasked with the Shai assignment at times throughout this game, but on the other end, with Haliburton demanding attention once he gets the ball across halfcourt, Nembhard should get some open looks from deep and capitalize. He shoots 48% from deep on 1.8 makes per game in the playoffs.