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Injury-plagued year of Jalen Williams finally over, giving Thunder’s All-NBA forward a health reset

OKLAHOMA CITY — If there is one player that can benefit the most from a disappointing early end to their season, it's Oklahoma City star forward Jalen Williams.

Williams, the Thunder’s All-NBA forward, enters an offseason that has been much-needed since OKC’s playoff run last season. The Thunder, which ended its season Saturday in a Game 7 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Finals, played much of this season without Williams and a loss in the playoffs proved OKC needs Williams in order to repeat the success it had last season.

Williams missed Game 7’s 111-103 loss due to a recurring left hamstring issue. He tried to give it a go in Game 6, playing just 10 minutes off the bench, but ultimately couldn’t do much with his nagging injury that kept him sidelined for a majority of the second half of the season.

Williams missed four entire games in the historic series against the Spurs while also missing the second half of Game 2 and essentially not playing in Game 6.

Williams basically missed all but one game in the seven-game saga, and Game 1 — the only game he played fully — was his return from a hamstring injury he suffered in the first round of the playoffs against the Phoenix Suns.

OKC conducted its exit interviews with the media Sunday and Williams said he felt if he were at full-strength, he could’ve helped change the outcome of the Western Conference Finals.

“I think I could have made an impact. I think we could have won if I played,” Williams said. “Went to seven with them without me playing. I don’t think I make us worse… What do you want them to do about me being hurt? They still have to go out there and try and beat us. That’s what it is and they did that.

“But they’re a good team. It would have been a challenge if I played or not, but I definitely think I could have changed the series. But we’ll just have to wait until we meet again at some point.”

It’s been a long, long season for Williams.

Williams ended last season’s championship season with surgery on his shooting wrist, needing to fix a ligament damaged in his shooting hand.

That hindered his ability to shoot the basketball the entire offseason and that hindrance also leaked into the start of the regular season, missing the first 19 games of the 2025-26 season.

He made his season debut Nov. 28 against the Phoenix Suns and played through December and January, returning to his All-Star form from a season ago.

Then, in a Jan. 17 loss at the Miami Heat, Williams exited the game with a sore right thigh that turned into him missing a month of games.

He returned for two games in February before aggravating his right hamstring injury that forced him to miss another month of action.

Williams returned in the late stages of March to help OKC secure the top seed in the Western Conference. He played nine consecutive games, including the first two games of the NBA Playoffs against the Phoenix Suns before straining his left hamstring April 22.

He missed the final two games of the first round and missed the entirety of the second round series against the Los Angeles Lakers.

He returned for Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals against the Spurs, but that was his lone full game he played. He flared his left hamstring strain in Game 2 and gave it a go in Game 6, but ultimately was a nonfactor in the series after Game 1.

Williams ultimately played just 38 games this season and never got more than a month of consecutive playing time without an injury.

Despite his absence for a lot of the season, OKC still found success. Though, him missing the WCF is a key reason why the Spurs will be playing in The Finals over the Thunder this week.

“Not having Dub for the whole year sucked,” said OKC star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. “He’s just such a unicorn out there. He’s a 20-point per game scorer, guards 1 through 5. Last season he got all NBA for offense, all NBA for defense, and was an All-Star at maybe 24 years old. So losing a guy like that just hurts. He’s just uber talented. Having that on the court 24/7 is just a luxury, and we just didn’t have that luxury this year. Sometimes it just goes like that.”

Williams obviously had a difficult season, both mentally and physically.

From the recovery of wrist surgery to constant hamstring injuries in both legs, Williams said outside distractions — especially movies — helped him get through a mentally-draining season.

“This year was big. I got into movies a lot just because it helps me not think about basketball,” Williams said. “Doing regular things makes me feel normal and doesn’t make me feel like the weight of not playing was on my back. Because when you’re not doing those things, it’s like usually playing basketball and stuff, so trying to fill the void with that time. I thought I did a pretty good job of it.

“I realized I was a lot mentally tougher than I was, and I already thought I was pretty tough.”

His summer routine is yet to be determined as this is his first somewhat healthy offseason in two years with a little bit more time on his hands, compared to last season when the Thunder won the championship June 22.

He’s hopeful to figure out why his hamstrings continued to flare up and finally get some time to rest.

“I don’t know how my summer is going to play out,” Williams said. “I won’t have had this long of a summer in a good minute. It’s just going to be a rest thing. Like I’ve been saying, I just haven’t had time to really play, and to dive deeper into my hamstring, some of it was my body felt so good because I hadn’t been running around. I hadn’t been playing. I was lighter. I just don’t think my body could keep up with how I was moving.

“So it’s just going to be more of like strengthening some of the stuff that I found out.”

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