{"id":55234,"date":"2025-07-10T22:28:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T22:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/55234\/"},"modified":"2025-07-10T22:28:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T22:28:09","slug":"jalen-williams-thunder-have-momentum-toward-extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/55234\/","title":{"rendered":"Jalen Williams, Thunder Have ‘Momentum’ Toward Extension"},"content":{"rendered":"

After agreeing<\/a> to extend<\/a> Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a><\/strong> and Chet Holmgren<\/a><\/strong> since the new league year began, the Thunder<\/strong> will now \u201cfully focus\u201d on getting a contract extension done with star wing Jalen Williams<\/a><\/strong>, ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania said during a Wednesday appearance on NBA Today (YouTube link<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cThere is momentum in those conversations with the Thunder between both sides,\u201d Charania said. \u201cThere\u2019s been positive talks, and both sides are aligned on where those negotiations are going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Holmgren, Williams is entering the final year of his rookie scale contract in 2025\/26, making him eligible for a rookie scale extension. His standard maximum-salary extension would be worth 25% of the \u201926\/27 cap, but he and the Thunder could agree to Rose Rule language<\/a> that would make him eligible for a starting salary worth up to 30% of next season\u2019s cap if he meets certain performance criteria, such as making an All-NBA team.<\/p>\n

Williams is coming off a career-best season in which he averaged 21.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 1.6 steals in 32.4 minutes per game across 69 outings, with a .484\/.365\/.789 shooting line. He earned a spot on the All-Defensive second team, as well as the All-NBA third team.<\/p>\n

Despite that All-NBA nod in 2025, Williams has not yet met the Rose Rule performance criteria \u2014 if he and Oklahoma City negotiate an extension that includes the possibility of his salary exceeding 25% of next season\u2019s cap, he\u2019d have to achieve the performance criteria again in 2026 to reach that figure.<\/p>\n

Williams averaged 21.4 points per game for the Thunder during their postseason run to a championship despite dealing with a torn scapholunate ligament in his right wrist, which he recently underwent surgery<\/a> to address.<\/p>\n

As ESPN\u2019s Brian Windhorst<\/a> relays, Williams said in a YouTube video<\/a> this week that he was battling a right wrist sprain for much of the season and suffered the torn ligament during an April 9 game against Phoenix. Between that time and the Thunder\u2019s Game 7 win over Indiana last month, the 24-year-old said he received constant lidocaine injections and cortisone shots to manage the pain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got 28 or 29 shots in my hand throughout the playoffs,\u201d Williams said. \u201cAnd I was like, \u2018That can\u2019t be for nothing. We have to win.\u2019 So, that was my mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams\u2019 shooting percentages dipped to 44.9% from the field and 30.4% on three-pointers during the playoffs, which he said was a result of changing his motion due to the wrist injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to tell the world that I was hurt, and so the world just ganged up on me about how I wasn\u2019t ready for the moment. Which obviously is wrong now,\u201d Williams said. \u201cBut that was the most annoying thing, because human nature is you want to just scream that you\u2019re hurt. But I was able to lock in and not use that as an excuse.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After agreeing to extend Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren since the new league year began, the Thunder will…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":55235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3367,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-55234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-jalen-williams","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114831301285195730","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}