Q. Mark was in here earlier talking about your second year through. Things are a little more comfortable for you but also teams have seen you; you have to come up with some adjustments to take a look at what they're going to throw at you. How are you approaching year two?
JALEN WILLIAMS: Just working hard, watching a lot of film from last year. He made a good point. Teams have seen me now, kind of knowing that during the summer, just kind of watching film, things that I can improve on. Obviously I didn't play a perfect season, and nobody will, so there's always something to look forward to and improve on, so I've been trying to take a lot of stuff that I thought I didn't do as well as I did and incorporate that in my summer workout.
Q. Speaking of your summer work, you seem to have put on a lot of weight, strength. How much of an emphasis was that for you in the off-season, and where do you think that helps your game?
JALEN WILLIAMS: Just versatile. You kind of saw like this past year, I even played the 5 at some points during the year. Just trying to put on a little extra muscle. Just kind of helps the versatility. You never know where I'm going to be at, and I kind of think of myself as positionless and just kind of play, so I think that helped my overall thing.
Yeah, I put on good weight, started eating a little bit better over the course of the summer and saw my body improve, so just kind of some improved longevity, as well, in the league.
Q. During the course of the season last year your game kind of exploded at a certain point. Was there a moment, a game, a play, anything where the light went off and you realized, I can play here, I can do this?
JALEN WILLIAMS: Honestly like our first game, even though I got hit in the face to start the season, I think once you kind of get over that hump of scoring your first point, I think that gives you a lot of confidence.
But I think once I got the mask off and I started getting comfortable actually able to see what I was doing on the court, I think that kind of helped out a lot.
Q. Heading into the season, now you have Chet in that dynamic for you defensively, I know you just talked about spending some time at the 5 this year, hopefully that's not the same thing, but what is it like having Chet come in and providing some versatility in the backcourt, and offensively what do you see your fit with him in the front court?
JALEN WILLIAMS: Yeah, Chet brings a lot to the table. He's super talented, so it'll be really cool to see how the coaches kind of have us all plug in.
Yeah, even just kind of to your point, playing the 5, the way we kind of look at it is it's not so much playing the 5, it's just five guys that are out there. I never really took it to heart about actually playing the 5 or anything, and then obviously Chet is Chet, so it'll be cool to go through training camp with him for the first time and kind of see where we all kind of lay, but kind of just leave that up to the coaches and let them figure it out. We just go out and play.
Q. Cody is set to play Colorado soon. Do you have any advice for him as he starts this process?
JALEN WILLIAMS: Well, he just got COVID like last week, so I think don't get sick anymore would probably be my start. But I don't know, there's a lot of outside noise, and I tell him that all the time. Just got to be within yourself and trust your work, and he pretty much knows that.
I'm always trying to set a pretty good example of going through this life.
Just telling him to keep focused. There's going to be a lot of outside distractions. The biggest thing is you play good and you're everybody's hero, you play bad and the world is against you, so kind of taking that with a grain of salt as he goes through that.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports