{"id":528846,"date":"2026-01-11T06:41:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T06:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/528846\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T06:41:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T06:41:13","slug":"jalen-williams-reveals-frustrated-process-since-wrist-surgeries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/528846\/","title":{"rendered":"Jalen Williams reveals ‘frustrated’ process since wrist surgeries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> All-Star Jalen Williams led a 21-point comeback win<\/a> in a 117-116 victory against the Memphis Grizzlies, scoring a season-high 26 points in his 20th game since undergoing two surgeries to repair torn ligaments in his right wrist. Williams has preached patience since his season debut<\/a>; it\u2019s a theme for the 2025-26 season for the All-NBA forward as he comes to grips with his new normal.<\/p>\n

Williams expressed the frustration<\/a> that comes with such a long-term hurdle at Thunder practice on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sucks \u2014 it\u2019s a very annoying process,\u201d Williams said. \u201cNobody\u2019s going to be more frustrated than me when shots are short, when they\u2019re not, but it\u2019s just one of those things I\u2019ve learned throughout the game. And it\u2019s not like I\u2019m on a bad team, where I come and jack 40 shots, and figure it out that way. Again, this injury is not something that you get; you have two hand surgeries, and you\u2019re good to go.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s something over the course of a year or a year and a half, and having the summers to really figure it out, where it\u2019ll be really back to normal. It\u2019s just one of those things you just figure out in the game, and I\u2019ll be able to be effective in other ways, and not focus on it. That\u2019s my biggest thing; there are so many other things I can be doing to affect the game than score and play defense,\u201d Williams concluded.<\/p>\n

Aside from the slight dip in his scoring production, Williams\u2019 averages are on par with the numbers that made him an All-Star last season, averaging 17.6 points on 46.2% shooting, 5.8 assists, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.4 steals per game.<\/p>\n

Jalen Williams preaches patience amid wrist injury\"ThunderPetre Thomas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Thunder All-Star Jalen Williams knows he has a long road ahead of him before he\u2019ll feel like his old self again. Perhaps it\u2019s why Williams cautioned reporters<\/a> that the end of his recovery wasn\u2019t near despite making his season debut after a 19-game absence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s gonna take some time,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI haven\u2019t played in forever, and there was just a lot of like behind the scenes, as far as, like, what was actually going on with my hand and two hand surgeries, like, still trying to figure my way out through, like, my jump shot and dribbling, and, like, trying to get my touch back, and that\u2019s just something that\u2019s got to progress throughout the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams and the Thunder will host the Heat on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oklahoma City Thunder All-Star Jalen Williams led a 21-point comeback win in a 117-116 victory against the Memphis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3783],"tags":[7,364,6,310,475,179,3966,3965,2144,312],"class_list":{"0":"post-528846","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oklahoma-city-thunder","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-jalen-williams","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-oklahoma","12":"tag-oklahoma-city","13":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","14":"tag-oklahomacity","15":"tag-oklahomacitythunder","16":"tag-reporting","17":"tag-thunder"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115875105079891036","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}