March 19, 2026, 9:00 p.m. CT
Less than a month to go in the 2025-26 regular season, Jalen Williams anxiously awaits his return to salvage an injury-riddled year. The Oklahoma City sit atop the NBA standings at 55-15, but know they need the All-NBA talent to achieve their back-to-back ambitions.
Williams has been limited to 26 games this season. He missed OKC’s first 19 games as he recovered from two wrist surgeries to repair torn ligaments. The surgery was delayed until after the Thunder brought home the NBA championship. He played through their playoff run with the injury.
Once he returned, Williams needed time to knock off the rust. That explains his pedestrian stats of 17.5 points on 47.9% shooting, 5.4 assists and 4.7 rebounds. As it felt like he was turning the corner with his wrist woes, another injury setback happened.
Williams sustained a hamstring strain on Jan. 17. He missed three weeks before he returned on Feb. 9 against the Los Angeles Lakers. Alas, his return was short-lived. He re-aggravated the injury in just his second game back on Feb. 11. Since then, he’s been sidelined with a hamstring strain.
Over a month later, Williams hints his return could be around the corner. He joined OKC in its season-long five-game road trip for its win over the Brooklyn Nets. As the Thunder enjoy another two-day break, the 24-year-old took to social media to offer an update.
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In his Instagram story, Williams posted a photo of himself. In it, he wrote — ‘Back soon.’
As you can imagine, that had Thunder fans excited. For the last five weeks, we’ve been left in the dark about Williams’ return. With just a dozen regular-season games left, he’s running out of time to enter the NBA playoffs with some momentum.
Maybe Williams returns during OKC’s current road trip. In that hypothetical, there are a couple of NBA cupcakes coming up against the Washington Wizards and Philadelphia 76ers. Both could help him play some low-leverage minutes at first. Alas, I digress. We’ll see what happens, but good to see Williams says he’s on the cusp of returning.