The Oklahoma City Thunder improved to 3-0 with a 108-101 victory over the LA Clippers on Sunday night, but the win came at a heavy cost. Two starters left the game with injuries that will keep them out for months.
General manager Sam Presti announced on Monday that guard Jalen Williams will have surgery for a dislocated left ankle and a fractured fibula. Guard Cason Wallace will also go under the knife, for a torn labrum in his left shoulder. Both are expected to be sidelined for several months.
Williams was hurt on a drive to the basket late in the fourth quarter and was taken off the court on a stretcher. Wallace exited in the first quarter and did not return. Teammate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was seen in tears on the court, a sign of how hard the injury hit the locker room.
The timing is cruel for Williams, who the team hoped would regain the All-Star form he showed in 2024-25. Last season he missed 49 regular-season games while recovering from wrist surgery and then hurting both hamstrings. He appeared in only five playoff games, totaling 107 minutes, as Oklahoma City lost a seven-game Western Conference finals series to the San Antonio Spurs. Wallace had just signed a five-year, $139 million extension before the season began and was expected to move into the starting lineup.
The losses land on a roster already thinned by summer trades that sent away Luguentz Dort, Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins. Oklahoma City has led the league in defensive rating for the past two seasons and ranks second this year, but Williams and Wallace were two of the team's recent All-Defensive-caliber perimeter players. That leaves Alex Caruso as the main elite perimeter defender, and the team prefers to limit his regular-season minutes. He has averaged 18.8 per game in the regular season with the Thunder, compared with 24.1 in the playoffs.
The front office does have some tools. Oklahoma City is likely to receive a $15 million disabled player exception, though using more than $6.9 million of it would push the team past the second apron. The Thunder also hold trade exceptions of $17.8 million, $11.3 million and $9.2 million, along with seven tradeable first-round picks, three of them in the 2027 draft, and 21 second-rounders.
Matching salaries for higher-priced targets such as Trey Murphy III or Michael Porter Jr. looks difficult, since the only Thunder players earning more than $7.8 million are effectively untouchable. Cheaper options mentioned by ESPN analysts include New Orleans' Herb Jones, Washington's Justin Champagnie, and Golden State's De'Anthony Melton and Gary Payton II, who become trade-eligible after Dec. 15. Clippers defenders Derrick Jones Jr. and Kris Dunn, both on expiring contracts, were also named as possible fits.
Predictions on the standings differ. ESPN's Zach Kram projects Oklahoma City will slide to the No. 3 seed in the West, noting that fast starts by Minnesota, Houston and the Lakers make a fourth straight top seed less likely. Bobby Marks still sees the Thunder as the best team in the conference, pointing to their 39-10 record without Williams last season and their bench depth.
