Oklahoma City Sends Two Starters to Surgery

Oklahoma City lost two starting guards on Sunday night.

The Thunder beat the Los Angeles Clippers 108-101, then watched Jalen Williams leave the court on a stretcher late in the fourth quarter after a drive to the basket. He has a dislocated left ankle and a fractured fibula. Cason Wallace exited in the first quarter with a torn labrum in his left shoulder. General manager Sam Presti said Monday that both players need surgery and both are expected to miss several months.

Williams was hurt a week into the season. He missed 49 regular-season games last year while recovering from right wrist surgery and hamstring injuries, then played five games and 107 minutes in the playoffs as San Antonio eliminated Oklahoma City in seven games in the Western Conference finals. He scored 40 points in Game 5 of the 2025 NBA Finals while playing with a wrist that later required surgery. Wallace signed a five-year, $139 million extension shortly before this season opened.

The Thunder are 3-0. They also traded Luguentz Dort, Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe over the summer, which reduced their perimeter depth before these injuries. Oklahoma City led the league in defensive rating each of the past two seasons and ranks second in 2026-27. Alex Caruso is the only remaining perimeter defender who has made an All-Defensive team, and the team has averaged 18.8 minutes per game for him in the regular season against 24.1 in the playoffs.

Oklahoma City is likely to receive a $15 million disabled player exception, which would let the team sign or trade for a player in the final year of his contract. Spending above $6.9 million would push the Thunder past the second apron, though they are not hard-capped. The team also holds trade exceptions of $17.8 million, $11.3 million and $9.2 million, plus seven tradeable first-round picks, three of them in 2027, and 21 second-rounders.

Herb Jones, Justin Champagnie, De'Anthony Melton, Gary Payton II and Jaime Jaquez Jr. are among the lower-cost players Oklahoma City could pursue. Melton and Payton become trade-eligible Dec. 15. The players making more than $7.8 million on the roster, including Williams, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Caruso, Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein, are effectively untradeable, which limits the salary the Thunder can send back in a deal.