OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma City Thunder’s Jalen Williams’ favorite part of training camp was an easy question to answer: participation. Wrist surgeries delayed his 2025-26 season. Then Williams suffered a right hamstring injury mid-season, followed by a left hamstring injury that eventually ended his season in the playoffs during the Thunder’s first title defense in franchise history.
Oklahoma City’s season-ending loss in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals to the San Antonio Spurs lingered all summer for Thunder fans, who wondered what if. What if a healthy Williams had been available for the Thunder with the season on the line? Perhaps the Spurs wouldn’t have faced the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals.
After missing the latter half of the Thunder’s first-round series against the Phoenix Suns, and all of Oklahoma City’s second-round series against the Los Angeles Lakers, Williams returned for a double-overtime thriller lost in Game 1 against the Spurs. He logged 37 minutes, which was the second-most he played all season, before limping off the floor in Games 2 and 6 of the Western Conference Finals, Jalen’s last appearance. He played 38 games in all of 2025-26.
Now, Williams is driven ahead of his comeback season. And it’s not because he’s focused on showing everyone that he’s still the All-NBA forward who helped lead the Thunder to a championship in 2025. Instead, Williams is all in on reminding himself how elite a player he is amid the Thunder’s quest to get back to the Finals and compete for a second title, he said, per 107.7 The Franchise.
“To be completely transparent, I got paid 240 million dollars. So, my solidification of if I’m good enough to play in the NBA, it’s there,” Williams said. “The conversations I’ve had with our front office, and Mark [Daigneault], and just our team, I know that I don’t have to go out there and prove anything to anybody watching. All I have to do is prove stuff to myself.
“To me, that’s the hardest person to impress cause I’m always trying to get better at something. I always feel like I can do more. That’s more of the chip on my shoulder than it is to prove to ESPN or Twitter, or everybody watching, how good I am. What makes me special is I get so caught up in trying to prove that to myself on a pursuit of how good I can be, that it ends up being me playing very well.”
Jalen Williams sat down with our crew to talk about the upcoming season, getting over his injury and canceling out the noise‼️ pic.twitter.com/x7hGb7D3PZ
— The Franchise Sports (@FranchiseOK) October 2, 2026
As for Jalen Williams’ Thunder teammates, Williams’ value can’t be overstated as one of Oklahoma City’s key contributors alongside reigning two-time MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and All-Star Chet Holmgren. When healthy, he’s the glue to the Thunder’s defense on one end of the floor, and the constant thorn in the side of opposing defenses on the other.
For two-time champion Alex Caruso, Williams’ availability undoubtedly increases the Thunder’s chances of winning a second championship in three years.
“Dub’s a pretty complete basketball player. He was an All-Defensive Team member, as well as All-NBA that year that he played the full year for us. Just getting a versatile player back — that’s something in the current age of basketball, the state of the game — you need. A guy who can do a little bit of everything,” Caruso said. “And he does a little bit of everything at a very high level.”
Caruso, one of the Thunder’s better on-ball defenders in the backcourt, believes dominating both ends of the floor matters most this season. That’s what led Oklahoma City to nearly reach the Finals in back-to-back seasons, even without Williams and Ajay Mitchell, who also missed most of the Thunder’s Western Conference Finals series against the Spurs.
“The best teams in the league have five guys on the court that can be a threat and take advantage of defensive mistakes, and I think that’s how the shape of our team was molded,” Caruso added. “As well as player improvement, give a lot of credit to our coaching staff and the player development staff for being able to see potential in guys, and get in the gym, and get work in that’s going to benefit them. And benefit the team on the court.”
Article Continues BelowThe Thunder, along with the Spurs and the defending champion Knicks, enter the 2026-27 season with the best odds of winning the Finals. Despite watching the Thunder lose three rotation players, including starting guard Lu Dort, Isaiah Joe, and Aaron Wiggins, Williams’ comeback plays a significant role in OKC’s chances of returning to the top.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Jalen Williams warning for 2026-27 Thunder
Thunder All-Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander knows the advantage of having a two-way star like Jalen Williams on his side. After All-Star Chet Holmgren’s breakout season in 2025-26 led to his first All-Star selection and All-Defensive First Team honors, including finishing runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year, Gilgeous-Alexander is excited to see the Thunder star trio together again.
And for good reason. After back-to-back MVP awards, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is eager to see how far the Thunder can go with All-Star Chet Holmgren coming off his most productive season. He’s still growing as an NBA player, and so is Jalen Williams, entering only his fourth season with the Thunder, with an impressive resume that proves not only how talented he is, but how much he can improve. He’s only 25.
“We’ll have an All-NBA talent who puts the ball in the basket and guards 1 through 5. So, that’ll make life easier for not only myself, but the rest of the group,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Above all, I’m just excited for Dub to be able to play. Injuries suck, obviously. It’s hard to have the game taken from you like that, especially when you work so hard. I’m excited for him to be able to play. He loves playing basketball. So, just that part of his life coming back will be exciting for him.”
Thunder fans will never forget Williams’ playoff career-high 40-point performance in Game 5 of the 2025 NBA Finals. The pivotal win helped the Thunder secure its best-of-7 series against the Pacers. On the biggest stage, Williams proved himself to be one of the most important pieces of the team’s future.
In many ways, it was a testament to Williams’ ability not only to score at a high rate, but to do so while defending some of the Thunder’s most offensively gifted opposing players. That wing defense was sorely missed in last season’s Western Conference Finals. He averaged 21.6 points on 48.4% shooting, including 36.5% from deep, 5.3 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 1.6 steals per game in 2024-25.
Those are numbers that could improve this upcoming season. Especially now, building off that historic run in 2025, the Thunder will look to inch closer to becoming the NBA’s next dynasty in 2026-27. And against the rising Spurs and the rest of the top-tier teams in the Western Conference, they can’t do it without Williams.