![\"Jalen](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2253439623-e1776108329763.jpg\")
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Oklahoma City Thunder guard\/forward Jalen Williams. <\/p>\n
The Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> have a lot of tough decisions to make moving forward when it comes to who stays and who goes.<\/p>\n Tough enough that you can say everyone outside of reigning NBA MVP and NBA Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> could move somewhere else in a trade.<\/p>\n The Ringer\u2019s Bill Simmons<\/a> put SGA\u2019s main running mate, NBA All-Star Jalen Williams<\/a>, as a possible trade candidate following this season.<\/p>\n Williams signed a 5-year contract extension worth up to $287 million with the Thunder in July 2025 and would be an incredible asset in any trade. Williams is a player who could return multiple 1st-round picks to the Thunder, if not something even more than that.<\/p>\n \u201cOKC has a lot of money to spend over the next couple of years,\u201d Simmons said. \u201cAnd I just sometimes wonder, like, if it doesn\u2019t work out (for the Thunder) this year, how does that play out \u2026 look, he\u2019s looked good lately. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a lot to worry abou there. But I also think it\u2019s going to be really hard to have three max (contract) guys plus Cason Wallace, plus all these draft picks. And I do wonder, if (the Thunder) are going to take a huge swings, what does that look like? Now, if they win the title again, they\u2019re not trading anybody. But who knows?\u201d<\/p>\n Williams played in a career-low 33 regular-season games this season due to a nagging hamstring injury and also sat out the regular-season finale against the Phoenix Suns<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n The Thunder open their NBA<\/a> title defense in the playoffs against an opponent still yet to be determined after the play-in games. It\u2019s the 3rd consecutive season Oklahoma City has the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n Tracking Jalen Williams\u2019 Path to NBA Champion<\/p>\n Williams, 6-foot-5 and 211 pounds, has established himself as 1 of the NBA\u2019s most versatile players the last 4 seasons.<\/p>\n Taken in the 1st round (No. 12 overall) by the Thunder out of Santa Clara in the 2022 NBA draft, Williams earned All-NBA Rookie Team honors in 2022-23 after he averaged 14.1 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 1.4 steals and was runner-up in NBA Rookie of the Year voting to Orlando Magic<\/a> power forward Paolo Banchero.<\/p>\n Williams leveled up in his 2nd season with 19.1 points 4.0 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 1.1 steals. His 3rd season helped propel the Thunder to the 1st championship in Oklahoma City history with career highs in points (21.6), rebounds (5.3), assists (5.1), steals (1.6), and minutes (32.4) while also earning All-NBA Team and NBA All-Star honors for the 1st time.<\/p>\n In the NBA Finals against the Indiana Pacers<\/a>, Williams became just the 2nd player in NBA history under 25 years old to have at least 25 points and 5 rebounds in 3 consecutive NBA Finals games following Orlando Magic center Shaquille O\u2019Neal in 1995.<\/p>\n Jalen Williams Opens Up On Injury Struggles<\/p>\n Williams is dealing with serious injury issues for the 1st time in his career this season \u2014 and it\u2019s been a frustrating stop-and-start process as he attemps to get back to full strength.<\/p>\n \u201cAnybody that\u2019s had a hamstring injury, it\u2019s never during, it\u2019s usually after (the game),\u201d Williams told ESPN on March 26<\/a>. \u201cTonight, will be another test. Obviously, I played two games before and then I got hurt (again). These next games are more the test.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tTony Adame<\/a> covers the NFL for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Washington Commanders, Dallas Cowboys, Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles and Denver Broncos. A veteran sports writer and editor since 2004, his work has been featured at Stadium Talk, Yardbarker, NW Florida Daily News and Pensacola News Journal. More about Tony Adame<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Thunder\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Oklahoma City Thunder guard\/forward Jalen Williams. The Oklahoma City Thunder have a lot of tough decisions to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709903,"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-709902","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\/116399652048586433","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709902","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=709902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}