Wearing an all-black suit, Sam Presti delivered the season-killing news in front of a packed media crowd. The Oklahoma City Thunder will be without Jalen Williams and Cason Wallace for the indefinite future. Both will undergo respective surgeries to address injuries that could knock them out for the entire 2026-27 season.
The Thunder lost both starters in their Pyrrhic victory over the LA Clippers on Sunday. Williams sustained a gruesome-looking leg injury in the final minute of regulation. That turned out to be a fractured fibula and a dislocated ankle. Meanwhile, Wallace also sustained a torn labrum on his left shoulder in the same game.
Brutal. Just absolutely brutal. Entering the year as NBA co-title favorites, the Thunder have been knocked down a few rungs. Best-case scenario, they're part of the inconsistent group of title contenders. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren will be expected to carry the load — alongside the rest of the role players.
That said, Presti did his best to soothe the all-time bad news to Thunder fans. He believes they can recover from this and salvage the year. Now, how does that look? Remains to be seen. But their All-NBA duo should be enough to keep the rest of this season interesting. You're too talented at the top not to.
"Obviously tough night last night. There's no way to paint that differently. I like to say — and we say within our walls all the time — there's a difference between being positive and being optimistic," Presti said. "I'm not going to sit up here and say this is exactly where we want to be or this is exactly how we'd like to have it. But at the same time, we're extremely optimistic about the recovery for both players. Most importantly, things could have been a lot worse."
Even if this season turns into a wash in terms of title aspirations, it sounds like the Thunder are confident Williams and Wallace should return to the peak of their powers. That was especially critical to hear about Williams — as he had the more serious injury and surgery. That said, we truly won't know until he's back. Missing two straight years with injuries is the type of setback that completely alters your career path.
I'm not going to sit here and pump sunshine and rainbows. This sucks. Like, really, really, really, really sucks. One of the darkest days in OKC history will have everlasting effects that we just can't forecast right now. And if I'm being blunt, Williams' long-term prognosis is up in the air.
But the NBA marathon moves on. The Thunder will see where they're at over the next three months. That could determine what roster moves they made before the 2027 NBA trade deadline. Until then, though, Presti and OKC will provide both key players all the resources they need to get back on track — whether for this year or next.
"We'll wrap our arms around these guys. We'll get them back. We'll get them healthy," Presti said. "But we've got a lot of basketball to play in front of us. We've got to put it together, figure out what the next steps are because this is part of the business that we're in."
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Sam Presti 'extremely optimistic' Jalen Williams, Cason Wallace will recover