Tuesday night, the OKC Thunder will take part in a highly anticipated primetime regular season tip-off matchup against the Houston Rockets. Sadly, they'll be doing so without All-Star forward, Jalen Williams, in tow.
The 24-year-old was officially ruled out for the contest earlier this week as he continues to recover from offseason surgery on his right wrist. Since going under the knife back in early July, rumblings of his slow progressions back to full strength have regularly surfaced.
Williams even admitted in a recent sit-down with Complex News that, as far as rehab is concerned, he's "still pretty deep into it."
Because of this, there's truly no telling when the wing will finally make his return to the hardwood for Oklahoma City's title-defense campaign. On top of this, even if he does get back to action soon after Tuesday's opener, like ESPN's Tim MacMahon believes he will, there's even less understanding of when he'll be able to perform at his 100 percent, All-NBA self.
As a result of this unfortunate situation, it is universally understood that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will have to shoulder even more of the offensive load in 2025-26, which has Bleacher Report's Andy Bailey predicting that it will lead the superstar to a brand new career-high in the scoring department.
Thunder star predicted to break his own scoring record in 2025-26
Considering the year he just put forth, the idea of Gilgeous-Alexander taking yet another step in his on-court excellence is somewhat hard to fathom.
After all, we're not only talking about the reigning league MVP and NBA Finals MVP, but the game's top-scorer with averages of 32.7 a night (career-best) who also posted 6.4 assists, 5.0 rebounds, 1.7 steals, and 1.0 blocks on 51.9 percent shooting from the floor and 37.5 percent shooting from deep along the way.
Still, Bailey believes there are more feats for the Thunder cornerstone to accomplish, and, with the idea that J-Dub could be out and/ or hobbled for a significant chunk of the upcoming season, a new career-high in points-per-game averages may be well within reach, with his bold prediction being that it will register "somewhere north of 33."
"Beyond the fact that SGA is still just 27 and presumably still on an upward trajectory, his team's second option, Jalen Williams, is still recovering from a wrist surgery. At least early in the season, Gilgeous-Alexander may have to push the envelope even more as a scorer. That'll get him into a high-volume rhythm, set the tone for the season and help him top the career high he just set," Bailey wrote.
Banking on such a happening to take place may seem like wishful thinking to some, but it's important to remember that SGA is coming off of three straight seasons where he's dropped at least 30.0 points per game on 50.0 percent shooting.
With Williams' averages of 21.6 points from last year now being taken away, someone's going to have to make up the difference.
To Bailey, it seems extremely likely that the Thunder will lean on Gilgeous-Alexander to pick up the slack in this area of play.