Jalen Williams spent part of the offseason back where his rise began, getting in work with Santa Clara’s men’s basketball team as the NBA season creeps closer.
Williams’ visit to his alma mater came in the final stretch of the offseason, and it fits the bigger picture for the Oklahoma City Thunder. The 2026-27 regular season is a month away, and Oklahoma City enters the year as a co-title favorite with the San Antonio Spurs. If the Thunder are going to chase a second championship in three years, Williams is a central part of that equation.
That makes this kind of summer work matter. Williams has been dealing with the need for a bounce-back season, and getting reps at Santa Clara is one more sign he’s putting in the effort to get there.
He knows that campus well. Williams played three seasons at Santa Clara from 2019-22, building himself from a college contributor into an NBA draft prospect before the Thunder took him with the No. 12 pick in the 2022 NBA draft.
That selection has aged beautifully for Oklahoma City. Williams has become an All-NBA level player and played a major role alongside Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in helping the Thunder win the Larry O'Brien trophy in the 2025 NBA Finals. His 2025-26 season was interrupted by injuries, but the belief around him is clear: when he’s healthy, he changes what Oklahoma City can be.
Santa Clara has plenty to point to as well. Aside from Steve Nash, Williams stands as the program’s most accomplished basketball product, and his success has helped spark a recent renaissance for the West Coast Conference school. Since he entered the NBA, other Santa Clara alumni such as Brandin Podziemski and Allen Graves have also made their way to the league.
Williams’ return is also a reminder of how he got here in the first place. He was under the radar early in his college career, then broke through in a big way during his junior season, setting up the path to becoming one of the best NBA players ever produced by a mid-major program.
In Other News...
Thunder Already Have A Jared McCain Problem To Solve
Jared McCain arrives in Oklahoma City as one more intriguing piece in a backcourt that already has plenty of traffic. The Thunder like having options, and McCains shot-making gives them another guard to evaluate, but his size limitations and fit alongside the rest of the group make him a less straightforward long-term answer than some of the other names on the roster.
The bigger issue is what comes next, because the Thunder are also staring at future decisions for Cason Wallace and Ajay Mitchell while trying to preserve the kind of flexibility that has defined their build. Add in rookie Bennett Stirtz and his team-friendly contract structure, and McCain starts to look less like a locked-in piece and more like a movable asset if Oklahoma City decides it needs to address another area of the roster, especially up front. [Read more 🡒]
Thunders 2027 Draft Edge Could Create A Fascinating Roster Question
The Thunders long-term draft position already has people looking ahead to the 2027 class, and for good reason. Oklahoma City is projected to be sitting on a rare pile of first-round capital, with outside projections tying future picks from the Clippers, Nuggets and Spurs into that haul, and that kind of asset base naturally opens the door to a bigger question about how the roster will be shaped two years from now.
Analyst Derek Park has even gone a step further by mapping those picks to three highly regarded incoming freshmen in Branch, Landrew and Goosby, each bringing a different physical profile and skill set into the conversation. It is the sort of projection that fits Oklahoma Citys patient team-building style, but it also sets up a fascinating roster puzzle: if the Thunder really do add that much young talent in one draft, how much room will there be to fit it all in? [Read more 🡒]
Jared McCain Suddenly Carries More Weight For A Thunder Contender
The Thunders summer roster changes have put more attention on Jared McCain, who arrived midseason from Philadelphia and now looks positioned to matter even more in Oklahoma Citys rotation. With the team reshaping its depth, McCains shooting has taken on added importance for a group that wants to keep its offense balanced and difficult to guard.
For Oklahoma City, the appeal is straightforward: McCain gives them another player who can stretch the floor and add points without needing the ball to dominate possessions. His role figures to be tied closely to how the Thunder fill the openings left by other offensive pieces, and that makes his fit more than just a nice bonus heading into the new season. [Read more 🡒]