Gary Payton vs. Jalen Williams Season by Season Comparison

Side by side comparison of each NBA season of Jalen Williams and Gary Payton, from their rookie seasons to their last year played, in chronological order with awards, stats, championships and playoff performance of their teams every year.

Who had the better rookie season? Who had best stats in their 10th season? Who won a championship first? These questions and many others, are answered here.

Gary Payton played 17 years in the NBA, 14 more than Jalen Williams, who played 3. Gary Payton had the first of his seasons in 1990-91, while Jalen Williams had his rookie season in 2022-23. With that starting point, here you can take a look at each of their seasons side by side and compare how their careers evolved in achievements, awards and championships won, the stats they recorded both in the Regular Season and the Playoffs and how their teams performed in the postseason.

Rookie Season
	Gary Payton	Jalen Williams
Season	1990-91	2022-23
Team	Seattle Supersonics	Oklahoma City Thunder
Honors & Awards	-	All-Rookie First Team
	All-Rookie Second Team	-
Playoffs	Supersonics Lost West Conf 1st Rd	Did Not Play

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Rookie Season Stats Comparison
Regular Season Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Gary Payton	82	27.4	7.2	1.3	1.6	3.0	6.4	2.0	0.2	2.2	3.0	3.2	7.0	.450	0.0	0.2	.077	0.8	1.2	.711
difference:	+7	+2.9	+6.9	+0.2	+1.8	+1.5	+3.1	+0.6	+0.3	-0.6	-0.5	+2.3	+3.6	+.071	+1.0	+2.5	+.279	+1.3	+1.3	+.101
Jalen Williams	75	30.3	14.1	1.1	3.4	4.5	3.3	1.4	0.5	1.6	2.5	5.5	10.6	.521	1.0	2.7	.356	2.1	2.5	.812
Playoffs Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Gary Payton	5	27.0	4.8	1.0	1.6	2.6	6.4	1.6	0.2	1.8	3.2	2.2	5.4	.407	0.0	0.2	.000	0.4	0.4	1.000
Jalen Williams	DNP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Season 3
	Gary Payton	Jalen Williams
Season	1992-93	2024-25
Team	Seattle Supersonics	Oklahoma City Thunder
Honors & Awards	-	All-NBA Third Team
	-	All-Defensive Second Team
	-	All-Star Game
Playoffs	Supersonics Lost West Conf Finals	NBA Champion

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3rd Season Stats Comparison
Regular Season Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Gary Payton	82	31.1	13.5	1.2	2.3	3.4	4.9	2.2	0.3	1.8	3.0	5.8	11.7	.494	0.1	0.4	.206	1.8	2.4	.770
difference:	+13	+1.3	+8.1	+0.3	+2.2	+1.9	+0.2	+0.6	+0.4	-0.4	-0.7	+2.4	+5.2	+.010	+1.7	+4.5	+.159	+1.6	+1.9	+.019
Jalen Williams	69	32.4	21.6	0.9	4.5	5.3	5.1	1.6	0.7	2.2	2.3	8.2	16.9	.484	1.8	4.9	.365	3.4	4.3	.789
Playoffs Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Gary Payton	19	31.8	12.3	1.2	2.2	3.3	3.7	1.8	0.2	1.8	3.4	5.5	12.4	.443	0.1	0.3	.167	1.3	1.9	.676
difference:	+4	+2.8	+9.1	+0.2	+2.3	+2.2	+1.1	+0.4	+0.2		-1.2	+2.2	+4.8	+.006	+1.4	+4.7	+.137	+3.1	+3.7	+.113
Jalen Williams	23	34.6	21.4	1.0	4.5	5.5	4.8	1.4	0.4	1.8	2.2	7.7	17.2	.449	1.5	5.0	.304	4.4	5.6	.789

Additional Years
* Gary Payton played 14 seasons more than Jalen Williams in the NBA. In that period—his seasons 4 to 17, from 1994 to 2007—Gary Payton played in 12 Playoffs and won one NBA Championship. In those 14 extra years over Jalen Williams, Gary Payton got these achievements:
Honors & Awards	2 All-NBA First Team 5 All-NBA Second Team 2 All-NBA Third Team 9 All-Defensive First Team 1 Defensive Player of the Year 1 Steals Leader 9 All-Star Game