After dealing with some of the worst injury luck you can imagine over the last two years, the Oklahoma City Thunder are due. Despite their accomplishments, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams have seldom played together. Relatively speaking, at least. That needs to change.
Specifically, with Williams. He's the latest of OKC's three pillars to deal with injury problems. He was limited to 33 regular-season games and five playoff games last year. First, two wrist surgeries sidelined him for a month. And then, he dealt with a brutal stretch of four hamstring strains in five months.
In his 2026-27 preseason press conference, though, Sam Presti sounds optimistic that Williams' worst days are behind him. One of the biggest goals
of OKC's summer is to figure out what exactly happened with his lower extremity that made his hamstrings so injury-prone.
"We're in the deep of trying to sort out all of these different techniques and data and analytics. At the same time, you can't get completely swept under to the point where you have so much information," Presti said. "But I don't want to get into the details specifically, but we feel like we've found every possible advantage in this area."
The Thunder need Williams to win a second NBA championship in three years. Point blank. You saw that conventional wisdom turn into reality in the 2026 Western Conference Finals. Sure, OKC routed its first two playoff opponents. But against the fellow juggernaut San Antonio Spurs? You need all hands on deck.
Expect that to remain the case this upcoming year. The Thunder and Spurs remain in a tier of their own. They enter the 2026-27 season as co-title favorites. Williams' health is not a sure-fire way to guarantee you'll finally slay the Spurs, but it jumps OKC's odds significantly.
When the Thunder brought home their first Larry O'Brien trophy, Williams played the second-most important part in that. He was the perfect Robin to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's Batman. They need the All-NBA talent to pick up where he left off in June 2025. Or risk OKC having some very uncomfortable conversations about the long-term validity of its contention window.
"What we're hopeful of is that we really just needed a full offseason to play, to get back," Presti said. "He looks fantastic. He looks great. He's playing great. We're looking forward to him being himself again."
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Sam Presti quietly confident in Jalen Williams' health: 'Looks fantastic'
