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The Oklahoma City Thunder opened the new NBA season with a victory that reinforced their status as a top contender to repeat as champions. However, just a week later, those aspirations have taken a major hit.
Thunder star Jalen Williams, the team's second-leading scorer and premier defender during their title run two seasons ago, suffered a fractured fibula and dislocated left ankle in a gruesome injury on Sunday. That same night, Cason Wallace, a tenacious defender and sharpshooter, tore the labrum in his shoulder.
General manager Sam Presti did not provide a specific timeline for their return, but both are expected to miss at least several months, casting doubt on their availability for any playoff push—especially a deep one. Jeff Stotts, an athletic trainer who runs a sports injury tracking site, noted that since 2005, only one player has returned in the same season after suffering a torn labrum like Wallace's.
"We'll get them back, we'll get them healthy, but we have a lot of basketball to play in front of us," Presti said Monday. "We have to put it together and figure out the next steps because this is part of the business we're in."
Getting Williams back healthy had been central to Oklahoma City's goal of returning to the NBA Finals. Injuries sidelined him for more than half of last season, and he also missed time during the Western Conference finals, which the Thunder lost in seven games to San Antonio. When San Antonio and Oklahoma City met on opening night—with OKC winning on the road—it was widely viewed as a preview of the spring, when the two teams with loaded rosters featuring superstars still in their 20s were expected to battle again for a Finals berth.
"It's obviously going to be tough without a player like Williams," Thunder guard and two-time league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. "But he's not gone forever. He'll be back better than ever, and we know it. We've just got to hold the fort down until he comes back."
The Thunder aren't the only team whose season has already been upended by injuries. Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star guard Anthony Edwards is expected to miss around two months after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, ESPN reported. A right knee injury will also sideline Utah Jazz star forward Jaren Jackson Jr. for a reported six to eight weeks, while an ankle injury will keep Orlando Magic star Paolo Banchero out at least a month. Indiana Pacers All-Star Tyrese Haliburton (hamstring) and Orlando guard Jalen Suggs (right knee) also will miss time.
Drawing a connection between some of the acute injuries, like Williams' freak fracture, and cumulative injuries such as the knee that has bothered Edwards for months is difficult, said Dr. Tarek Souryal, a former president of the NBA Physicians Association who was the Dallas Mavericks team doctor for more than two decades. "What you're witnessing is most likely a statistical aberration, not necessarily evidence of a systemic problem," Souryal said. "A cluster of injuries, however unusual or alarming, does not by itself establish a causal relationship."
Key Analysis
Wallace and Williams are homegrown talents, drafted and developed by Oklahoma City into centerpieces of the 2025 championship team. Under Presti, the Thunder drafted and traded so well that their depth was often unparalleled around the NBA, with capable emerging contributors backing up more established starters. However, the current collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players union makes it financially difficult for a team to keep together a core of players for longer than a few seasons once they get old enough, and perform well enough, to command lucrative long-term extensions.
The Thunder are one of the league's prime examples; last summer, as expensive contracts owed to their star trio of Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams, and Chet Holmgren began to hit their payroll, the team jettisoned some of its key rotation players in financially motivated moves so as not to trigger onerous penalties. Wallace, however, wasn't someone the team felt it could part with; it signed him to a five-year, $139 million extension in mid-October. Those offseason moves, combined with the injuries, have withered the depth that had allowed Presti to be patient in trade negotiations during previous seasons, without feeling a need to make splashy midseason acquisitions.
An executive for an NBA team said rivals were quickly monitoring whether the Thunder's position would change in light of how much their rotation had been depleted only a week into the season. "It's tough from a compassion standpoint. Those are guys that work so hard, they're such great players, so that was a tough pill," Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. "The guys did a great job of appropriately honoring that and also getting themselves ready to compete, ready to play. They heard from [Williams]. They saw Cason. So it allowed them to feel good about going out there and competing for the team."
Four games into the season, despite the injuries, Oklahoma City was an unbeaten 4-0. How long it can remain atop the West, however, has become one of the key stories of the young season.
Originally reported by nbcnews.