JalenWilliams

Preseason question: Has J-Dub’s impact on the Thunder been undersold? Last season was basically a write-off for Williams, who missed the first 19 games recovering from offseason surgery on torn ligaments in his right wrist—an injury he’d played through for Oklahoma City’s entire championship run in 2025. Then came the recurring hamstring injuries that Williams repeatedly tried to play through and that limited him to just 38 games across the regular season and playoffs. J-Dub wasn’t himself, but Sam Presti’s Thunder machine was so well oiled and well stocked with contingency plans that it scarcely mattered in the regular season. Still, as OG Anunoby’s championship glow-up proved, two-way players that marry athleticism, feel, and absurd length are worth their weight in gold in the postseason. Williams is the team’s second-best self-creator and has legitimate reps guarding the entire range of the positional spectrum. He is a load-bearing structure for the Thunder; the team, as well as the context of its dominance, doesn’t fully make sense without him. A fully healed Williams could once again give OKC an air of inevitability.