Jalen Williams Getting to Full Strength is Imperative for the OKC Thunder's Postseason

One of OKC’s biggest stars will need to play to his potential once again. 

The beginning of round one of the NBA Playoffs is approaching fast, as the NBA Play-In Tournament will conclude Friday night. This means the Thunder are closer than ever to starting their postseason run and hopefully claiming their second title in a row. 

Oklahoma City will need all of its key players to lead the way if it wants to defend its title, and will need one star in particular to get back to the same level of play he showcased last postseason. 

Jalen Williams has had a roller coaster of a season, battling injury throughout the year. He missed the beginning of the year due to a wrist injury that occurred in last year’s playoffs, as he had surgery in the summer. Willimas would deal with his wrist and a right hamstring strain during the season, which would limit him to playing in only 33 games this season. 

The injuries and limited time to get back to full health have, of course, halted some of Williams production this season. The star guard still averaged 17.1 points per game this season, but it was a slight fall off from his 21.6 points per game last year. 

His overall shooting hasn’t been affected greatly as he shot the same percentage he did last season, making 48.4% of his shots. However, the injury seems to have affected his three-point shot, as he shot 29.9% from deep this year, compared to his solid percentage last year of 36.5%. 

This year’s regular season might not have matched up to last year’s for Williams, but now, OKC just needs him to come to play in the playoffs the same as last season. 

Williams was the second leading scorer for OKC in last year’s postseason, averaging 21.4 points per game. The one-two scoring punch of him and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was too much for teams to handle over a seven-game series and was one of the key reasons OKC went all the way last year. 

Williams even made his mark on the playoffs as the number one option in certain circumstances, most famously in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, where he scored 40 points to give the Thunder their third win of the series. 

OKC’s number two option was imperative to the team’s playoff success last year, and the Thunder will need him once again to play to that level.