It was only a year ago when Jalen Williams, fresh off a championship run with the OKC Thunder, was widely considered a premier two-way star in the association.
Bleacher Report even went so far as to rank him as the15th-best player in the league ahead of the 2025-26 season.
Fast forward to July, and Williams finds himself the focal point of an entirely new discussion.
A barrage of soft-tissue injuries hampered his season and eventually led to his inactive status for the vast majority of the 2026 postseason. Now, his position among the NBA's most talented is being called into question.
B/R just recently came out with yet another list ranking the projected top-30 players by the year 2030. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who will be 32 years old by then, came in at number three. Chet Holmgren was slotted at 20.
J-Dub, meanwhile, barely made the list at all, as he fell all the way down to 28.
NBA pundits seem to have forgotten how good Thunder star is
In four years, J-Dub will be just 29, yet his injury-marred campaign was enough for pundits to predict a rapid decline.
His ranking represents a 13-spot free-fall from his place in 2025, and, somehow, Bleacher Report foresees a dramatic decline in his career.
The ranking makes little sense, especially when you consider that SGA still sits at number three, even though he will be toward the tail end of his prime from an age standpoint. Other players like Evan Mobley (No. 23), Nikola Jokic (No. 4), and Tyrese Haliburton (No. 16) will be in their 30's and slot in ahead of Williams.
Obviously, Williams' biggest knock is his injury concerns. His hamstring troubles severely limited his ability to be his dynamic self on offense this past season, as he averaged just 17.1 points per game and posted the worst efficiency splits of his four-year career by a wide margin.
However, it's safe to say that the stat sheet reflects more of the constant interruptions to his season than any sort of skill decline. After performing at an elite level for three seasons straight, one doesn't simply drop off at age 25.
Now, over a year removed from his initial wrist surgery to repair a torn ligament sustained in the 2025 postseason, Williams will certainly be looking to reassert himself as one of the dominant forces in the league.
If he is able to do so, he will inadvertently prove this list faulty and set himself up for an illustrious career for years to come.
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