Jalen Williams talks return from wrist surgery: 'It's going to take some time'

Poking the ball out of Collin Gillespie's hand, Jalen Williams led the fastbreak. He played hot potato with Kenrich Williams before he threw down the two-handed jam. His first points of the 2025-26 NBA season. He yelled at the crowd in excitement as he ran back to defense.

Williams finished with 11 points on 3-of-12 shooting, eight assists and four rebounds. He shot 1-of-1 from 3 and went 4-of-4 on free throws. He also had two steals and a block.

The Oklahoma City Thunder stepped up in the clutch to get a 123-119 win over the Phoenix Suns. They won the 2025 NBA Cup West Group A. Advancing to the eight-team knockout tournament, they will host the Suns again.

Friday was all about Williams. After missing the first 19 games, the Thunder added an All-NBA player back. When he was the last player to come out of the tunnel for pregame warmups, the entire OKC crowd roared in a mix of cheers and barks.

No doubt, this was a milestone for Williams. He had a grueling five-month rehab process that required two surgeries to repair the torn wrist ligaments he played through in their playoff journey. But that doesn't mean he'll immediately jump back to playing like one of the best players. It'll take time.

"Just pass the ball to the guys that had been playing was the goal for tonight. That's an adjustment. Game 7 was five months ago. Trying to adjust to the physicality of that to now was a little different," Williams said. "A lot of it was just rhythm. Trying not to do too much but find the spots where I was comfortable five months ago."

The offense will take some time to catch up, but Williams showed why he was an All-Defense member last season. It didn't take long for Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault to throw him into some center minutes. And when he guarded a perimeter player, he leveraged his size and height to hound them and force turnovers. Welcome back to the NBA's best defense.

"He played the right way, and he really competed. The ball pressure was like he played yesterday," Daigneault said. "The way he was pressuring the ball and heating the ball up was really impressive for a guy that hasn't played since Game 7."

With his wrist heavily wrapped in ice, Williams said as much in his postgame interview. It'll be a process, but luckily, the Thunder have plenty of time and margin for error for him to get back in a groove. What matters is that he looks like his normal self by the time the NBA playoffs roll around in five months.

"Defense is very easy compared to offense. Especially when you lose your right hand for five months. I can always play hard defensively and figure it out there," Williams said. "It's going to take some time. Like I said, I haven't played in forever and there was a lot of behind-the-scenes as far as what was actually going on with my hand. I had two hand surgeries. Still trying to figure my way out through my jump shot, dribbling and trying to get my touch back. That's just gotta be something that progresses during the season."

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Jalen Williams talks return from wrist surgery, grueling rehab process