Star wing Jalen Williams underwent a second procedure on his right wrist to remove a screw that was causing irritation during the final stages of his return-to-play process, the Thunder announced today (Twitter link via Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman).
According to the team, Williams will be reevaluted in 10-to-14 days.
Williams earned his first All-Star, All-NBA (third team) and All-Defensive (second team) nods during the 2024/25 season, which culminated in Oklahoma City winning its first championship following a nail-biting seven-game NBA Finals against Indiana. He suffered a torn scapholunate ligament in his right wrist in early April, but played through the injury during the playoffs.
Williams, 24, underwent the initial surgery to address the injury on July 1.
While it’s obviously unfortunate that Williams’ season debut will be delayed further following the screw removal procedure, the Thunder are still playing extremely well as a team, having gone 6-0 to open the ’25/26 campaign.
Multiple guards and wings — including Luguentz Dort, Cason Wallace, Aaron Wiggins and Ajay Mitchell — have been receiving more minutes with Williams out.
Williams is in the final season of his rookie scale contract, which will pay the former 12th overall pick $6,580,997 in ’25/26. He signed five-year, rookie scale max extension with the Thunder this offseason, so the earliest he could hit free agency would be 2030.
Pretty sure the return time frame was always Thanksgiving to week before Christmas. Team is stacked enough to where they need to play some role players, JDub already got paid so if he misses out on 65 game requirement this year, no big deal.