Jalen Williams made his long-awaited return to the OKC Thunder lineup Monday night following a 16-game, injury-induced absence.
For the vast majority of the 2025-26 campaign, the forward has been marred by a number of ailments, most notably a surgically repaired right wrist that, at one point, he described as feeling like a piece of Laffy Taffy that was put in the freezer, "and then trying to bend it."
Fortunately, now roughly nine months since his operation, Williams is saying his wrist "has felt better than it ever has," which, not only suggests that the Thunder will have a full-health version of their All-Star for the first time this season, but will be heading into the 2026 postseason with him at full strength, something they didn't have at all during last year's title run.
With this in mind, the rest of the NBA should be absolutely terrified to see what this version of J-Dub will look like under the bright lights of the postseason.
Jalen Williams was a game-changer for Thunder with torn ligaments
Let's not forget that all throughout last year's playoff excursion, Williams was suffering from agonizing pain due to a torn scapholunate ligament in his shooting wrist.
Though the ailment may not have appeared to be all that debilitating from a viewer's perspective, especially during the championship round, where he posted 23.6 points per game and even dropped 40 in a crucial Game 5 win, to Williams, the pain was so severe that he had to learn a new way to shoot in order to cope with the injury.
Even with this, J-Dub managed to silence all the doubters with his postseason performance and established himself as the perfect Robin next to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's Batman on this dynasty-pursuing Thunder squad.
Now, with his wrist concerns presumably in the rearview, one can only imagine what he can do for Oklahoma City this time around.
Already, Williams is playing as if no rust had built up during his recent six-week shelving, as he came out of the gates swinging in his return to action against the Philadelphia 76ers by dropping 18 points, six assists, and four rebounds while shooting a highly efficient 57.1 percent from the field and clocking in with plus-9.0 plus-minus in just 20 minutes.
The Thunder haven't had a fully healthy version of Jalen Williams since early April of last season.
Since then, the team has gone 75-22 (including playoffs) and took home their first NBA Championship.
Just imagine how much better he and the Thunder can be now that his wrist is finally back to 100 percent.