The Oklahoma City Thunder were battered, bruised, and banged up during the 2025-26 campaign, which hit a fever pitch in the Western Conference Finals. As the OKC Thunder fell in Game 7 against the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Finals, ending their hopes of being the first team to win back-to-back titles since the 2018 Golden State Warriors, as the NBA shifts into a parity era, they did so without two of their top five players.
Jalen Williams’ season never panned out, despite his Gladiator mindset. You have to give him all the credit in the world for trying to battle back from every injury he suffered last season, but it resulted in playing just 40 games. It started in the offseason as he was recovering from summer-time surgery on his wrist. He battled through torn ligaments in his wrist to lift the Thunder to their first-ever championship in the 2025 playoffs. That was met with a training camp clean-up procedure on his wrist, which sidelined him until Nov. 28. Then, he suffered four different hamstring strains throughout the year. He sat in street clothes for Game 7 after remarkably trying to gut it out in Game 6 despite his physical limitations due to the injuries.
Williams wasn’t the only notable player in street clothes during Game 7, rising star Ajay Mitchell was held out of the end of the Spurs series with a calf strain. This was on the heels of a Jalen Brunson-type-leap that haad shades of 2022 Brunson in Dallas to help the Thunder sweep the Los Angeles Lakers in Round 2.
After missing the final four games of the Western Conference Finals and having the month of June off, Mitchell joined ESPN’s Sportscenter to discuss his breakout season. He offered up an update on his injury.
“Good. It’s been great. We’ve been on top of it as soon as we heard the news. Been working on it ever since,” Mitchell said. “We’re close to being back to 100. It’s a great feeling. Just excited to have a great offseason and be ready to start the year off strong.”
Mitchell is still not 100 percent, which signals he likely would not have been ready to play in a potential NBA Finals matchup if the Thunder were to get past the Spurs in that fateful Game 7. It also gives an idea of the grade of strain Mitchell was dealing with. The good news is, the team is still months away from the start of the season giving the third year guard time to recover.
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