As the Oklahoma City Thunder dominate the rest of the NBA with a historic 17-1 record and all-time point differential, juggling injuries throughout the season adds to the impressiveness of their feat.
Jalen Williams remains sidelined with wrist surgery. He initially underwent surgery in July to repair torn wrist ligaments that he played through in their playoff run. He had a follow-up procedure on Halloween as a screw caused irritation.
Williams has been the face of their injuries, but the Thunder have seen about every player miss time at this point. The frontcourt depth has been decimated as important pieces like Aaron Wiggins and Kenrich Williams have missed notable time this season.
In Williams’ case, does OKC’s league-best start give the reigning NBA champion some wiggle room with his recovery? Since last season, the Thunder are an eye-popping 30-1 when the All-NBA player is out. Surely that gives them some leeway for him to recover from a wrist surgery that has been more complicated than anticipated.
Nope. The Thunder don’t correlate their on-court dominance with injury timetables. They cognitively separate those two variables as distinct entities. Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault was very explicit with that when asked if they relate to each other at all.
“They’re all health decisions. We’re always conservative. We’re always cautious with the health of our players,” Daigneault said. “If we have to wait another day or another week or another game to get a more full version of the player, that’s going to be more sustainable from a health standpoint, we’re always going to do that.”
The Thunder have always leaned into being better safe than sorry. Seldom do you see OKC players return sooner than anticipated. Of course, it’s a collaboration process with injured players, as well.
All that said, it’s hard not to acknowledge the built-in luxury the Thunder have that the rest of the NBA doesn’t when it comes to overcoming absences. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a walking 60-win machine. As long as he’s out there, OKC should be favored in most matchups.
Gilgeous-Alexander is the reason why the Thunder have won at a historic rate over the last two seasons. Even while dealing with an abnormal amount of injuries. Last year, Chet Holmgren missed three months with a hip fracture. This year, Williams has missed the first month. None of it matters as OKC continued to rack up wins.
“Those decisions are not made with any association with team performance, depth or anything like that,” Daigneault said. “If we got guys out, we’ll go all the way through the end of our roster and play the guys on two-ways.”
Mark Daigneault said their depth has zero correlation to when injured players return: “If we have to wait another day or another week or another game to get a more full version of the player, that’s going to be more sustainable from a health standpoint, we’re always going to do… pic.twitter.com/6fS1svNWj4
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) November 23, 2025