On Saturday night, the OKC Thunder were bested by the Spurs 111-103, ultimately seeing their pursuit of a repeat championship officially come to a bitter end.
Though it's undeniable that San Antonio played a tremendous, albeit sometimes rather immorale series, it's hard not to think of how different the outcome could have been had Oklahoma City been at full strength.
Remember, they were forced to play their winner-take-all series finale without two of their key players in Jalen Williams (hamstring) and Ajay Mitchell (calf) as a result of untimely chomps from the injury bug.
Williams, specifically, seems to feel pretty confident about the fact that, had he at least avoided injury, OKC would be gearing up for a title-round date with the Knicks right about now.
During his end-of-season interview on Sunday, the forward was asked by reporters what kind of difference he thinks his presence could have made had he been able to suit up without limitations.
Despite his well-known aversion to "the hypothetical thing," Williams couldn't help but say that, in his eyes, "I think we could have won if I played."
"Obviously, I think I could have made an impact... We went to [Game 7] with them without me playing. I don't think I make us worse," Williams said.
It clearly wouldn't have hurt Thunder to have had a healthy Jalen Williams
Though the Thunder proved capable of dominating without J-Dub this season, going 45-12 in such instances across both the regular season and playoffs, it still goes without saying that they are objectively a much more frightening team with the star wing healthy and in the fold.
An established All-NBA and All-Defensive talent, Williams served as one of the driving forces in OKC taking home their first Larry O'Brien Trophy just a season ago, averaging 23.6 points per game in the championship round, and even dropped a whopping 40 points in a crucial Game 5 win during the series.
Perhaps the most impressive part of his accomplishment of these feats is that he did so while playing with a torn scapholunate ligament in his shooting wrist, which required offseason surgery.
Sadly, this ailment kicked off the start of what would become an injury-riddled season for Williams here in 2025-26, as he wound up missing a total of 49 games in the regular season and 10 of 15 playoff games that included Game 7 against the Spurs, due to myriad health-related issues ranging from his wrist to his leg.
Of course, when found on the court, the 25-year-old still produced incredibly well, posting averages of 17.1 points, 5.5 assists, 4.6 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per game.
He even saw multiple standout performances in the limited action he had throughout this year's playoffs, including a 19-point showing in just the first half of their Game 2 blowout over Phoenix in round one and a 26-point performance in Game 1 against San Antonio in the conference finals.
As he noted, without Williams' services fully at the ready, the Thunder fell just eighth-points shy of advancing to their second-straight NBA Finals.
It feels painfully easy to believe that he could have served as the ultimate difference-maker had he been made available.
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