Sporting a new beard that he says he grew in Vermont, Thunder GM Sam Presti met with members of the media today to discuss the upcoming season and what expectations the team and fans should have. The overall theme was excitement.
After trading a Future first ballot hall of famer in Russell Westbrook, perennial all star in Paul George, and Jeremi Grant, it would be easy to not have any excitement for this season but Presti still does.
Presti is excited about the mix of new and returning players the Thunder have this season and says it’ll be exciting to see how they mix together.
The main focus of the year will be how much they get better internally and what they do in meaningful games Presti says.
How much meaningful basketball the team will play will likely depend on how many games Chris Paul plays in a Thunder uniform. It has been speculated that the Thunder are still actively trying to trade Paul but for now he’s on the team and there is no plan to trade him right away.
Paul is going to have to remain on the roster for the time being and play well in order to improve his trade stock. He’s 34 and is still owed over $124 million over the next three years so teams will want to see how much he has left before trading him.
Along with answering questions about the upcoming season, Presti was asked about his thoughts on Kevin Durant’s comments about the organization.
Presti has remained consistent about how he feels about Durant and says it hasn’t changed and says he disagrees with him on how much the team has recognized his contributions to the team and the city.
He was also asked about Doc Rivers saying the Clippers knew the Thunder were looking to trade Paul George and says
“The comment was made and obviously no one asked our opinion on it but I think at the end of the day players like Paul George and Russell Westbrook are extremely hard to acquire in smaller cities in the league. When you have those players you try to do everything you can to retain them. But once asked for the trade I felt like we needed most of the situation to work for everybody which allowed us to do it but it’s not something we were entering into the year, I think the thought pattern doesn’t really line up if you just look at it logically. Probably that type of thing would be done much earlier”
This is sure to be a very interesting season for the Thunder with not many expectations but that isn’t going to stop Sam Presti being excited about what’s to come.
Flip the page to see video of Presti speaking on KD and PG.
