Though Ajay Mitchell may have quietly established himself as a tremendous number two option on the OKC Thunder through the first half of this year's campaign, if they wish to repeat as NBA Champions in 2025-26, Jalen Williams has to reclaim this role.
Following Sunday's outing against the Miami Heat, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander made this abundantly clear.
While speaking to reporters after Oklahoma City secured their third-straight win, the reigning MVP was asked to share his thoughts on Williams' production since making his way back from offseason wrist surgery, specifically emphasizing how he's played through some post-op rust that is "obviously still affecting him."
In traditional SGA fashion, he didn't mince words in his assessment of the situation, keeping things straight by saying "he has no choice" but to play through the ups and downs that have resulted from his surgery.
"If we're gonna win we're gonna need his best version. He knows that and we know that," Gilgeous-Alexander said.
Thunder need Jalen Williams 'if we're gonna win' a second-straight title
So far, Williams has played like a shell of his All-NBA self from just a season ago, particularly in the offensive efficiency department.
In 21 games played, the forward is posting averages of 17.6 points while shooting an abysmal 28.1 percent from deep. He also ranks dead-last on the team in both offensive rating (114.4) and on/off net rating (8.3) among those who have logged over 400 minutes played.
Now, to be fair, expecting Williams to bounce back to 100 percent right away after such a complex surgery on his dominant hand should never have been believed to be in the cards for fans and pundits.
After all, even months after going under the knife, the man literally compared the feeling of using his wrist to putting Laffy Taffy in the freezer and then "trying to bend it."
That said, it still doesn't detract from the widely discussed correlation between his return to play and the Thunder's drop from a historic winning percentage of .947 without him to .714 with him.
According to Williams, his expectation is that he won't be fully recovered until next season, which, per Gilgeous-Alexander's comments, severely diminishes Oklahoma City's odds of winning their second straight championship this year.
Fortunately for morale purposes, however, the superstar guard seems to be a bit more confident in J-Dub's ability to return to form sooner rather than later, as he would state in his post-game session that his co-star will "get better as the season goes on."
For the sake of their hopeful repeat run, they're going to need Gilgeous-Alexander to be right on this one.