Tear of right knee ligament! Left knee arthroscopic surgery! The defending champion suffered consecutive blows

On October 1, Thunder officially announced that Kenridge Williams underwent left knee arthroscopy and had a follow-up examination 6-8 weeks later. Before the regular season began, two players of the Thunder have seriously injured their knees: Thomas Sauber, the No. 15 pick, suffered a torn cruciate ligament of his right knee during training and was reimbursed in advance in the 2025-26 season.

Kenridge Williams was born on December 2, 1994, with a height and wingspan of 2.01 meters, and was out of the draft in 2018. Kenway played for the Pelicans two years before his career and was sent to the Thunder in the offseason in 2020. In the summer of 2022, Thunder renewed its contract with Kenway for 4 years of $27.2 million. Next season is his contract year, but now he is seriously injured. In the 2024-25 season, Kenway played 69 regular season games with the Thunder, 7 of which started. He averaged 16.4 minutes per game, scored 6.3 points, 3.5 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 0.6 steals and 0.6 turnovers, and his three shooting percentages were: 48.3%, 38.6%, and 71.8%. He averaged 8.6 minutes per game in the playoffs, scoring only 2.4 points, 2.2 rebounds and 0.4 assists.

Next to talk about this year's No. 15 pick Thomas Sauber, who was reimbursed for a rookie season before he played in the NBA regular season. The Thunder's first-round pick in the last four years have three rookies reimbursed seasons: Homgren, Topic and Sauber. Fortunately, the Thunder can play more, so Kenway and Sauber's injury will not have much impact.

Sauber was born on December 25, 2005. He is 2.06 meters tall and has a wingspan of 2.29 meters. He played 24 games at Georgetown last season, with 23 starting games. He averaged 31.3 minutes per game, was able to score 14.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.5 steals, 2 blocks, 2.3 turnovers, and three shooting percentages: 53.2%, 16.2%, 72.4%.

being selected by the defending champion is also a happy worry for a rookie. There are many star players on the team. Young people can learn a lot, but their playing time is not guaranteed. If Sauber is not reimbursed, he actually has the opportunity to enter the rotation and become a substitute at No. 4. Good fortune is so good that I look forward to Sauber returning in full blood.

In addition to choosing Sauber, the Thunder did not have much reinforcement during this offseason. They mainly retained the championship lineup and renewed the contract with three core contracts: renewing Alexander in four years, US$285 million in advance; renewing Jaylen Williams in five years, US$287 million in five years, and renewing Homgren in five years, US$239 million. The Thunder invested a total of US$807.5 million, ranking first in the league!

Thunder general manager Presti said: "Next season will be our competitive three consecutive years, and we have not paid any luxury taxes." Javier has one more year on his rookie contract with Homgren, so the Thunder will not have any salary pressure next season. Alexander said: "If we cannot win the championship in 2026, it is a failure!"

Thunder is not that simple to defend the title. The Rockets traded Durant, signing Finney Smith, Capela and others. The Nuggets traded with Valanciunas and Cameron Johnson, signed with Bruce Brown and Hardaway Jr., and strengthened multiple positions. Timberwolves core Edwards said: "The Nuggets should be paid the most attention to next season!"

The last question: Which team do you think can break out of the West next season?

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