Thunder’s Jalen Williams, Cason Wallace Out Indefinitely

Presti added that Williams was in good spirits and was very optimistic about the situation. A return timeline will be provided after the procedure.

According to Martinez, Presti also provided an update on Cason Wallace, who has a torn labrum in his left shoulder, another injury that requires surgery. Like Williams, Wallace is considered out indefinitely for now, as a return timetable will be given post-surgery.

Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link) says both players are expected to miss several months.

It’s an absolutely devastating blow for the Thunder, who won a championship in 2025 with Williams and Wallace playing key roles. Williams made his first All-Star and All-NBA appearances in 2024/25 and averaged 21.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.4 steals without missing a postseason game in 2025 despite playing through a major wrist injury.

Williams underwent surgery on that right wrist shortly after the title run and was sidelined to open last season as he recovered from that injury. He required a second procedure on his wrist last fall.

The 25-year-old forward, who’s in the first year of a five-year, rookie scale max extension, also missed extended time last season with multiple hamstring strains, an injury which caused him to miss most of the 2026 playoffs — he only appeared in five of Oklahoma City’s 15 postseason games.

Williams suffered the fibula fracture and ankle dislocation with about 1:15 remaining in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s win against the Clippers. He was fouled hard in the air on a drive to the rim and his left leg got caught under the full weight of his body as he fell (Twitter video link).

Williams’ ankle was bent in the wrong direction after the injury. He had to be stretchered off the court.

As for Wallace, he was also injured on Sunday, having exited the game in the first quarter with the left shoulder ailment. The All-Defensive guard entered 2026/27 as a full-time starter for the first time in his career and recently signed a five-year, $139MM extension which begins in ’27/28.

The 10th overall pick in the 2023 draft, Wallace averaged 8.6 PPG, 3.1 RPG, 2.6 APG and 1.9 SPG on .432/.351/.809 shooting in 77 appearances last season, including 58 starts (26.6 MPG). He also performed well in the playoffs, which played a role in both his lucrative extension and the team’s decision to trade Luguentz Dort to Atlanta.

Oklahoma City was widely viewed as one of the primary championship contenders once again in 2026/27. The Thunder fell to the Spurs in the Western Conference finals last season in a hard-fought seven-game series.

As Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (Twitter links), the Thunder could apply for disabled player exceptions for both Williams and Wallace, but an NBA-designated physician would have to believe they’d be out through June 15 to approve them. A DPE for Williams would be worth a little over $15MM, while a potential Wallace DPE would come in at $3.7MM.

The Thunder, who are carrying 14 players on their standard roster, are currently over the first tax apron and below the second, but they aren’t hard-capped. If granted, they could theoretically use one of those DPEs (or one of their three significant traded player exceptions) to add a 15th man, but DPEs do not give a team an extra roster spot, Marks observes.

Martinez has shared Presti’s full press conference (Twitter video link). Presti opened by acknowledging the serious nature of the injuries (Twitter video link).

“Obviously, tough night last night. There’s no way to paint that differently,” Presti said. “We say within our walls all of the time that there’s a difference between being positive and being optimistic. I’m not going to sit up here and say this is exactly where we want to be or this is how we’d like to have it. But at the same time, we’re extremely optimistic about the recovery for both of the players. Most importantly, things could’ve been a lot worse.”

While there’s obviously no replacing the contributions of Williams and Wallace, the Thunder will have to rely on key reserves such as Ajay Mitchell, Alex Caruso and Jared McCain for more minutes and production in the coming months. It’s worth noting that Nikola Topic and Thomas Sorber are currently out as well.

Presti also discussed Otega Oweh, who was recently waived from his two-way contract, per Martinez (Twitter link). The 2026 second-round pick ruptured his Achilles tendon in the preseason and Presti said the organization would support him as he recovers.

According to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link), Presti was asked about the possibility of calling Russell Westbrook to see if he’d be interested in coming out of retirement amid the injuries to Williams and Wallace.

“I haven’t thought about anything relative to the (15th) roster spot… We have a tremendous challenge in front of us, but this is what we do and what we signed up for,” Presti said.

The Thunder have held the best record in the West each of the past three seasons, winning 57, 68 and 64 games. They’re currently 3-0.