As many had anticipated at the start of the year, the OKC Thunder find themselves beelining their way toward a third consecutive playoff berth and are viewed as the odds-on favorites to repeat as NBA Champions.
What was not originally expected, however, is that cornerstone forward Jalen Williams appears to be their biggest wildcard.
As recently highlighted by long-time sportswriter Zach Lowe, the 2025 All-Star has "barely played this season" due to nagging injuries, and even in the 26 games he has suited up for, he's not produced "at peak-level form."
Behind his career-best campaign just last season, coupled with his masterful performances during the 2025 playoffs, where he ultimately placed as a close second in the Finals MVP race behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, it goes without saying that Williams is Oklahoma City's X-factor in their pursuit of back-to-back titles if he can get back to full strength.
However, there's no guarantee that J-Dub will play at 100 percent at any point this season, which, in turn, has Lowe admitting that he's prepared to watch him "very carefully" once he finally makes his way back to the floor after overcoming his latest hamstring strain.
Thunder have yet to see a full-strength Jalen Williams in 2025-26
As noted, Williams has played in 26 games this year while dealing with a combination of offseason wrist surgery recovery and a lingering hamstring strain.
His on-court results have been incredibly polarizing, for even though he's posted averages of 17.5 points, 5.4 assists, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.3 steals, he's coughing up a career-worst 3.2 turnovers per 100 possessions and is shooting a career-low 47.9 percent from the field and an even worse 31.3 percent from deep.
Most concerning -- he ranks in with the seventh-worst on-court net rating among those who have played a minimum of 20 games for the Thunder this season.
Being he's supposed to be the second-best player on this dynasty-pushing Thunder squad, this level of production is far from ideal.
Fortunately, Oklahoma City still has 19 games remaining on the regular-season docket, meaning that once J-Dub returns (which, at this point, there's still no set date), he'll presumably have ample time to reacclimate to in-game action before embarking on a hopeful repeat run.
Though the belief is that the Thunder can still compete for a title as currently constructed, getting a de-rusted J-Dub back in the fold could prove to be the exact kind of rotational luxury any contender would love to have.
Of course, with the way his season's been going, who knows what kind of impact he'll have on the team.