{"id":564199,"date":"2026-01-27T14:56:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T14:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/564199\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T14:56:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T14:56:17","slug":"unsung-hero-saving-the-thunder-from-injury-epidemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/564199\/","title":{"rendered":"Unsung hero saving the Thunder from injury epidemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the OKC Thunder sit comfortably atop the Western Conference standings, they are finding out that they are not immune to the injury bug.<\/p>\n

Integral players like Jalen Williams, Isaiah Hartenstein, Ajay Mitchell, Alex Caruso, and Aaron Wiggins have all missed multiple games over the past week.<\/p>\n

Superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has done just about everything he can<\/a> to keep his team stacking up games in the wins column, but he hasn’t been able to do it alone.<\/p>\n

Luckily, help has come from a most unexpected place.<\/p>\n

Kenrich Williams has seen a significant bump in minutes over the past week as the Thunder continue to struggle to find healthy bodies. He has seen over 20 minutes over the last four games and has helped OKC stay afloat at 2-2 during that stretch.<\/p>\n

His 15-point performance against the Raptors Sunday night was just the seventh time all season that he saw more than 20 minutes on the floor.<\/p>\n

Kenrich Williams is putting pressure on other Thunder players<\/p>\n

Even though Williams has struggled to carve out a role on this championship roster, he has made the most of every extended look he has been given. In his 26 games played, he currently ranks fifth<\/a> on the Thunder in offensive rating and sixth in true shooting percentage.<\/p>\n

In the seven games where he has played over 20 minutes, he has not disappointed<\/a>, averaging 12.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game.<\/p>\n

At 6-foot-7, Williams represents a size advantage that other OKC wings simply don’t have. His length outside the perimeter also provides the Thunder with an extra rebounder to help out in the absence of Isaiah Hartenstein.<\/p>\n

Such a skillset has proven vital, as the Thunder have been dominated on the glass recently. In all three of their losses over the past nine days, they have been outrebounded by an average of 41.3 to 51.<\/p>\n

With OKC struggling to find healthy playmakers, it may be a fitting time to give Kenny Hustle an extended look by entrusting him with a larger role.<\/p>\n

With a record of 37-10, they can certainly afford it.<\/p>\n

The worst thing that could happen would be that Williams proves he is not a reliable asset and provides coach Mark Daigneault with the peace of mind that his rotation is sound.<\/p>\n

If the forward excels in a larger role, however, the Thunder could have stumbled upon yet another diamond-in-the-rough discovery, adding to their already stacked toolbox as they eye their second consecutive title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the OKC Thunder sit comfortably atop the Western Conference standings, they are finding out that they are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3783],"tags":[7,6,310,475,179,3966,3965,312],"class_list":{"0":"post-564199","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-nba","10":"tag-oklahoma","11":"tag-oklahoma-city","12":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","13":"tag-oklahomacity","14":"tag-oklahomacitythunder","15":"tag-thunder"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115967648361447590","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564199","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=564199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}