Oklahoma City, OK – If you’ve ever covered the Oklahoma City Thunder you know that the Sam Presti preseason press conference is the unofficial official start of the Thunder season and today is that day.
Thunder GM Sam Presti spoke with the media Wednesday morning and as usual, he had a lot to say covering all bases.
Last season the Thunder shocked the NBA world with a 57 win season and number one seed in the West and it’s safe to say they won’t be surprising anyone this season. They have a MVP candidate in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, DPOY candidate in Chet Holmgren and possibly Lu Dort and Alex Caruso, could add two Allstars to the mix with Chet and Jalen Williams, and have the defending COY. They are a household name now.
A few years ago, Sam Presti infamously stated that the Thunder wanted to make an arrival and not an appearance into the playoffs. Meaning he didn’t want to go about building a team that would be a lower seed one year and potentially on the outside looking in the next. They wanted to be a team that is a staple in the playoffs and making some noise being a perineal contender.
— Thunder Film Room (@TFRVideos) May 24, 2021
After last season being the one seed, some may think they have made their arrival and they’re here to stay. It would be a fair assumption too. Sam Presti though, thinks they still have a lot of work to do. They’re not even in the middle of the journey.
“I think when we talk about that period of time, I was really trying to explain a series of seasons, and sometimes people get lost, they forget a lot of the seasons because generally as people, myself included, we think about the beginning or we think of the end, and a lot of times we lose sight of the value of the middle of a journey.” Sam Presti states when talking about where the Thunder are.Â
“What we all know is that the middle is always the longest part of anything that you’re doing. At some point we’re going to hit the middle. I don’t know that we’re there yet. The way I would define the middle is when your best-laid plans, your visions and aspirations don’t unfold sequentially in A, B, C, D, E, F, they don’t go in order for you. For most of us, that’s reality. But when you hit that period of time, generally that’s where the novelty wears off, regression happens, plateaus happen. There could be some bad luck or some good luck that comes in there.”
While there are a lot of reasons for Thunder fans to be extremely excited for the upcoming season and future of the franchise and Presti knows that but he also knows this is a process and you can’t skip steps along the way.
As usual, Sam wanted temper expectations a little when talking about the team because he knows nothing is a guarantee. Winning a championship takes a lot of hard work and quite frankly, a lot of luck. The lucky part of winning a championship is the part the Thunder can’t control. It’s the things like health, what other teams do to get better during a season, and calls not going their way that they can’t control. The things they can though? They’re making every effort to control every variable.
Sam Presti and the organization has put together one of the deepest rosters in the NBA and possibly the best team, on paper, in Thunder history. That depth is going to be needed and Presti knows how important it is.
“I think the depth of teams in the league and I think depth in general is really important. I think depth relative to the parity in the league that we see now is directly linked because the teams are so deep.” Presti tells the media.Â
The best teams and teams that win championships have the best depth. Gone are the days with building a top heavy team and expecting them to carry you to a championship. The league is too talented and if one of those top players goes down things get a little shaky. Building a deep roster isn’t only important, it’s necessary if you want to be the last team standing at the end of the year.
And the Thunder are right where they want to be in terms of depth.
“Midway through the season last year, there was a change in the points of emphasis relative to the officiating, so we saw a much more physical game. We like that. We’re for that. We’re certainly not against that in any way. We think it’s probably better to have a balanced game.
But you’re still introducing a level of physicality into the game every single night that’s going to wear anybody down. Couple that with the fact that the second half of the season is more compressed with less days off and more games, more travel days than we’ve seen in 10 to 12 years, and you’re going to see just the attrition of the league probably change a little bit more, but to get a better product, which is totally understandable. But I think depth matters there.
The icing on the cake for all of that relative to the depth is the pace of the modern game is much different, so the days are the same. There’s still 24 hours in the day. There was always physical basketball. But the amount of torque on the bodies and the way in which — and how many possessions there are within a modern NBA game is just a different load. That’s why I think the depth is important to all teams, not just to our team, and I think we’re well-positioned for that.”
Just having a deep team ins’t going to get them a championship though. Some may argue the deepest team didn’t win a championship last season. While the Celtics were a relatively deep team, they certainly weren’t the deepest. They had one big thing working for them though. Continuity.
Yes, the Celtics might not win a championship last season if it weren’t for the additions of Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis but the core of that team has been together for years. They have struggled together, won together, and been through everything a team can go through together. The Celtics have built one of the most cohesive teams the league has seen and it’s no coincidence they were able to win a championship.
That’s where the Thunder want to be and it will take time.
Presti mentioned continuity quite a few times during his press conference making it clear how important he feels it is regarding this particular team. Last year’s team might have had the best continuity in the NBA. They were a bunch of young guys who were extremely close on and off of the court who often got compared to a college team. Another year with that core could only be a positive. The only issue is, they brought in two guys [Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein] who are expected to play and contribute a lot. Throwing those guys in isn’t going to be that easy.
“We kind of have to allow that to take its course, and as a result I think our continuity will not be great early, but if you look at continuity in the NBA, continuity generally shows up, or lack thereof, early in the year.” Presti when talking about the continuity of this year’s team.Â
Adding Caruso and Hartenstein to this group is like adding vanilla and baking powder to a cake. Yes, those are the right ingredients for a cake and very much necessary but how much do you add? Too much or too little and the cake is messed up and won’t taste good but if you get it just right, along with the other ingredients, the cake will taste just right.
The Thunder are at the beginning cake making process. They even likely have to go through some trial and error to figure out the right mix but once they do, look out. It just takes time.
“I don’t think it [continuity] will be a big issue for us once we get into the year, we get some miles underneath us. The more you play together, the more you rep together, the more you learn. We’ll just need to kind of get some of that moving in order for us to get the kind of continuity that we’d like to have with this particular team.
That [time] to me is the value of continuity, and I think because it’s a team sport, continuity is that much more important because it comes down to anticipation, knowing one another, how you have not just on-court continuity but you have off-court continuity, like how you know different teammates respond to different things, situations that you’ve been in together.
Those shared experiences, what we call them here, those are so invaluable, even if they’re not the best outcome that you want.
It can be a strength, but I think for us, it’s not just the continuity of two or three guys, four guys. We’re now introducing two significant players into that, and you kind of have to get to the bottom and go back to the top of the slide. That’s kind of an arduous process to do that.
But we’re up for that. That’s how we do it, and that’s — one, a part of the calculus of bringing two significant players into the fold as new additions. You’re taking on the risk of the breaking continuity, you’re taking on different risks relative to kind of your different team dynamic, but those are trade-offs we’re more than willing to make for those particular players. I wouldn’t say we’re just going to do that for anybody.”
Having a deep and very talented team that can build on the continuity, the Thunder should be at the top of the West once again this season and that’s something for fans to be very excited about. Sam Presti has a message to the fans though.
“There’s no silver platters in Oklahoma. I’ve said that before. There’s no silver platters in Oklahoma. But I would say, anything is possible. It just can’t be expected and shouldn’t be expected to be handed over or to be easy.
We as an organization and as a team have to earn our arrival, and we have one season to try to do that with, because that’s all we have in front of us. That’s the opportunity we have.
We’ve got an extremely young, energetic, ambitious team that’s constantly striving, and they’re inspiring people to be around. They inspire me. What we’re trying to do is be the exception to an age-old rule in pro sports, which is you cannot win at the highest level with young teams.”
Now, get excited and get ready for season 17 of Oklahoma City Thunder basketball!
