Jalen Williams report card: Hard to grade injury-plagued season for OKC Thunder star
Article excerpt
Jalen Williams' season for the Oklahoma City Thunder defies easy evaluation. The promising young star spent stretches nursing injuries at both the beginning and end of the campaign, leaving him healthy for only a handful of games in the middle. Grading his performance requires separating what he accomplished during his brief windows of availability from the larger narrative of missed time that undermined the Thunder's season. The injury pattern raises questions about durability even as his talent remains undeniable.
Jalen Williams was injured at the start of the season, injured at the end and healthy for only a few dozen games in between.
Fresh off a year in which he made All-NBA and had a 40-point game in the NBA Finals, the 2025-26 season was a lost one for the 25-year-old Thunder wing.
After the end of each season, The Oklahoman publishes a series of report cards on each of the Thunder’s main roster players. Grades will be curved relative to role and expectations.
Next up: Jalen Williams.
More: Chet Holmgren report card: Thunder center's All-NBA season tarnished vs Spurs
Jalen Williams by the numbers
33 games, 28.4 minutes, 17.1 points, 4.6 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 1.2 steals, 48.4% FG, 29.9% 3FG, 83.7% FT
⅓: Williams played in five of the Thunder’s 15 playoff games, none against the Lakers, two against the Suns and three against the Spurs (kind of). After playing 37 minutes and scoring 26 points in the Thunder’s Game 1 double-overtime loss to the Spurs, Williams played 17 minutes the rest of the series. He got hurt after seven minutes in Game 2. He returned in Game 6, but looked nothing like himself in 10 minutes off the bench.
29.9%: A career-worst 3-point shooting season for J-Dub. A reason to not overreact: Williams missed the first 19 games of the season recovering from his surgery on his shooting hand. And the wrist was still bothering him upon his return. He wasn’t afforded enough time to find his form. He didn’t even want to take them. He’s still a career 37% 3-point shooter.
5.5: A career-high in assists per game despite playing a career-low in minutes per game (28.4). Williams has incrementally upped his assists in each of his four seasons.
4,464: Jalen Williams ranks seventh on the Thunder’s all-time scoring list behind Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Serge Ibaka, Steven Adams and Lu Dort. Paul George, Jeff Green and Chet Holmgren round out the top-10.
83.7%: A career-high in free throw percentage. Williams also had the highest free-throw rate of his career.
More: Thunder GM Sam Presti fights back against 'bully pulpit' attacking Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
The good
Williams looked like himself, or close to it, when he was on the court.
“I’m looking at some of the stuff I was doing in the Suns series, Game 1 of the Spurs, the way I was moving looks completely different than how I’ve ever moved at the weight I’m at,” Williams said in his exit interview. “I’m moving how I moved my rookie year with probably like 25 extra pounds on. That part was a silver lining.”
He’s a gamer. After playing through a bum wrist throughout the playoffs last year, Williams tried to give it a go in Game 6 at San Antonio. It was clear he shouldn’t be out there, and he wasn’t for Game 7, but Williams pushed to get back.
“I realized I was a lot mentally tougher than I was, and I already thought I was pretty tough,” Williams said.
More: Five biggest questions for OKC Thunder entering 2026 NBA offseason
The bad
The Thunder might still be playing if not for J-Dub’s meddling hamstrings.
He suffered two right hamstring injuries in the regular season and two left hamstring injuries in the playoffs.
“It’s frustrating,” Williams said, “but it’s one of those things, like what else can I do? I look back at all the rehab I did, and I’m coming in here at 9 at night to do extra stuff and waking up earlier than the team to get here. I’m here all day. It’s tough.”
Jalen Williams offseason homework
Rest. Rehab. Research the best hamstring specialists in the world (as if the Thunder hasn’t already done that).
Forget the basketball part of it. Williams has to get his body right
“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 little minute.”
Jalen Williams grade: I (incomplete)
A traditional letter grade doesn’t apply. Williams missed a bunch of class and didn’t show up to the final, but there were extenuating circumstances.
Last season’s grade: A+
Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Jalen Williams report card after injury-plagued season for OKC Thunder