Mark Daigneault offers injury update on Jalen Williams' wrist recovery

The Oklahoma City Thunder had one of the greatest seasons ever last year. They had a historic 68-14 regular-season record and brought home an NBA championship. Through one month of this season, they've one-upped themselves.

The Thunder have an NBA-best 18-1 record and all-time point differential. Back to business as usual, as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander regularly scores 30 points and sits out fourth quarters. To add an extra layer of impressiveness, they've done it without their other All-NBA player.

Jalen Williams continues to be sidelined with wrist surgery. He played OKC's entire playoff run to the Larry O'Brien trophy with torn wrist ligaments. It required regular pain-numbing shots to play through. That added to his mythos when he dropped 40 points in a Game 5 win in the 2025 NBA Finals.

Since then, Williams has paid the price. He had surgery in July. Expected to be ready by Opening Night, he had a second procedure done on Halloween to remove a screw that caused irritation. The small setback was due for a re-evaluation in 10-14 days. It's been over three weeks since then, with no announced update.

Williams has sporadically conducted pregame warmups. He's at the stage where he's shooting with both hands. As he missed his 19th consecutive game, which knocked him out of award eligibility, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault talked about his grueling recovery process before OKC's 113-105 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

“Day to day and is doing a great job," Daigneault said. "There’s so much invisible work that goes into a return to play that you guys don't get the opportunity to see and we don't even get the opportunities."

Daigneault confirmed that Williams has continued to rehab his wrist injury. He didn't give out an exact timetable, but he has progressed. The Thunder have overcome his absence. Since the start of last season, they're an amazing 31-1 in games without the All-NBA player.

"I rolled in this morning getting ready for our staff meeting, and I was walking to the back, and he's already there at whatever time it was, 8:15, getting his PT work in. He was on the court by 8:30," Daigneault said. "That’s the work you have to put in day after day without the immediate carrot of playing when you're going through a rehab.”

We'll see when Williams returns. For now, the Thunder will update his status on a game-by-game basis with the injury report. He's headlined a group of injuries that OKC has dealt with all season.

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Mark Daigneault offers injury update on Jalen Williams' wrist recovery