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OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 23, 2017Sam PrestiOklahoma City, Oklahoma SAM PRESTI: I want to begin by thanking Anthony Morrow, Cam Payne and Joffrey Lauvergne. All three of those guys, obviously had different tenures with the organization but all left an impact. And we appreciate their contributions and wish them the best. I also want to acknowledge the group of people that I work with on a regular basis in the front office from our interns in the front office to our assistant general managers and the different people, pro personnel, scouts, everybody that contributes to preparation for the trade deadline. None of that -- nothing gets done without a lot of work from all those people, and very appreciative and grateful to work with such a good group of people. Want to welcome Taj and Doug to the organization. We're really excited to have them. We think they will be excellent fits with our team and in our organization, the type of guys that they are. As we look forward with this team, obviously it's never been a focus of ours to try to replicate one season or another with regards to the past seasons. But one of the things we do want to always try to do is sustain the success that we have, not replicate it. And we felt like this particular team, with what they have tried to do, from training camp to this point, deserved the opportunity to try to maximize itself and I wanted to try to give this group every opportunity to learn how good they could be. With that being the case, we also feel like we have a lot of opportunity in front of us to get better. But the same principles to that process are the same. With respect to Taj and what he brings to the team. No. 1, brings a physicality. He is an excellent pick-and-roll defender, and he's one of most respected competitors in the league at the front court position and someone that we've long admired and are excited to have walk the halls of our building. McDermott, obviously helps space the floor and can really shoot the basketball, especially from the corners. But he's more than a stationary player, and I think that part of our job will be trying to put him in positions to maximize himself. And I think as we watch the team through the year, and one of the things that we've really tried to do is try to understand as we incrementally move forward, you know, with Russell, understanding the players that he makes better, and the players that help him. And that's a process we can't jump to conclusions; we have to kind of go through that. But we do feel like Russell can help both of these guys. I think both of them complement him. But I also think that Steven Adams, Sabonis, many of the players that we have on our roster, will benefit from the collection or the aggregate of the additions. With that said, we know Cameron Payne is going to be a very, very good player. And I think having more opportunity in front of him is going to really allow that to happen. I think the Bulls got a great young player in Cameron. But we felt like this was a thing we had to do to try to give our team our best chance to maximize itself, but also take a player with us; and Doug, moving forward, who is under contract next year and I think Joffrey is also going to be an excellent player for the Bulls. It became very apparent to us through this process that it was going to be really hard for us to retain him in free agency, and you know, when we traded for him, we thought we had a pretty good player on a good value deal. But it became apparent that he probably is going to be beyond what we could commit to that position, and I think the Bulls did an excellent job in respect to acquiring those guys. And obviously we know A-Mo. I think the main thing I'd just like to say about Morrow before moving on and taking your questions, is that I do think that, you know, all the shooters that come through the organization from this point on, I think most Thunder fans will remember a mow as the first great marksman that we had. I said to him today before he left: Total class act and really proud that he was with us. So excited, but also understand it's going to take time to acclimate with everybody and move forward. Q. Talking about Gibson, he's a free agent this summer, your chances of signing him, did you trade for him did you think might could sign him this summer, as well? SAM PRESTI: Well, obviously he's in the last year of his contract. He's an unrestricted free agent. What we do have are his Bird rights and the opportunity to have conversations with players as an above-the-cap team. But it would be really premature for me to say what we intend to do. Haven't even shook his hand yet. But what I always say is we try to keep players that we think are valuable and most importantly, unrestricted free agents have to want to have to be -- we are in conversations with our guys all the time about the team; whether it's Russell, Collison, people that I feel have had such a big hand in creating our culture and our organization, not just around the trade deadline or anything like that, but just throughout the year, how are we doing, what do you see. And I think that's important, because they are stakeholders. And I think, also, the last time I talked to him was before the break, but not specific, you know, things like that. But that's the great thing about Russell, you know what I mean. He's a competitor. He's going to compete, and I think he's done an excellent job this season. And I think the team as a whole has really battled through a lot of different circumstances, and I'm really proud of the group, and I think the opportunity to try to help it maximize itself is important. Like I said, we're not -- you can never replicate the past or previous seasons. We've never tried to do that, but I do think part of sustaining success is giving your team an opportunity to maximize itself and doing so in a way where you're not robbing the following year from having an opportunity to do the same. Q. Obviously it will be up to Billy to decide how these guys will fit in the rotation, but seems like Taj is a defensive piece that could do a lot of different things for you guys with his flexibility out there. What do you see out of him in that regard? SAM PRESTI: Well, I think, like I said before, I think physicality, toughness, experience; I mean, all of those things are benefits for us. And as far as like roles and things of that nature, obviously Billy has to figure out how to maximize the group over 48 minutes. We've always been very clear about the fact that it's not high school where the first five players, you know, play -- you have to figure out how to play 48 minutes. You have to understand how the players fit together so that each player is maximized and players are getting the appropriate rest and things of that nature. That's why Billy is one of the best coaches in the NBA. But we want to try to put together a group that has versatility, that has some common core characteristics in terms of just a certain mentality and a certain toughness that give him options. And I think the versatility of the team is better. With that said, Cameron, I think Cameron -- I'm really proud that we drafted Cameron. I think he's going to be a very good player. But we needed to take the role that he was playing and try to distribute more value in terms of opportunity across the roster and some other areas, and in order to do that, this is the deal we had to do. Q. This obviously creates a roster spot -- how much thought has gone into that? SAM PRESTI: Yeah, so we're going to take some time to make that decision. But yeah, we'd like to be in a position to add a 15th player. I don't have any names for you or announcements for you or anything like that. But we have roster flexibility to do that, and we'll look to do it in the coming days. Q. Is Kendrick Perkins a guy that you would consider bringing back into the fold? SAM PRESTI: I don't want to mislead or speculate, but like I would just say, when we have a specific person, we'll let you know. You know, Perk's been here. The door is always open to our former players, and so that's not a -- he's part of the family. So him being here, I understand that. But I don't want to speculate on who might be the 15th man. Q. André is a guy that his name was thrown out there as somebody the Bulls were interested in. In the past, you've typically traded restricted free agents, Enes and Dion that actually went into the summer, but what does it say about you bringing back André when you had the opportunity to perhaps trade him when he was an unrestricted free agent? SAM PRESTI: Obviously André does a lot for our club, a lot for our team. You know, I would say that we see him as being an important piece going forward. You know, we're excited. We're excited about having him. I think there's a commitment to him in that regard. Q. What's the time line? Are they available tomorrow night? SAM PRESTI: Well, bringing them in, we are going to try to get them in later tonight but that doesn't have any bearing on availability. Obviously tomorrow is physicals and administration and things of that nature. I don't know that they will be available to play. Q. You've mentioned admiring Taj for awhile. Your thoughts on McDermott; have you kind of kept an eye on him? SAM PRESTI: Yeah, absolutely. It's our job to know as much as there is to know about other players in the league in case other opportunities come up. McDermott is someone that obviously offensively is really talented, really skilled. And as I said before, we think as a chance to be a very nice complementary player to our existing players. I think one of the things that is a little bit underestimated about him is his size. He's a big guy. I think people often times kind of see him as like a stationary player. I think, again, part of our job as an organization, as a team, is to create a situation for everybody where they can develop and they can grow. He's still a pretty young player. So we're really excited about adding him and giving us another guy that can space the floor, because I think a lot of people think that helps Russell. But I actually think one of the things that makes a great player great is their ability to help other players be better, as well, and I think that's one of the things that Russell has demonstrated this season. That's how a team works. It's not one person helping the other. It has to be a collection of people working together, and I think that both these guys help our team, not just Russell, and I don't think Russell helps them alone. Q. With Cam being gone, what does that mean for Vic? SAM PRESTI: You look at that for the majority of the season, you know, when Cameron was out with the injury. We've played -- Semaj has done a great job. Victor has handled some of that, too. So we feel pretty comfortable there. That's one of the benefits I think of having versatility in the roster is that we've had some injuries this season; we've had different guys step up at different times. I think an injury to Oladipo with his wrist, we really learned a lot about Abrines during that period of time. He's really created a nice foundation for himself. Cameron's setback allowed Semaj to step in and have some valuable experience, and we learned about him defensively, especially. You know, honestly, I think Lauvergne did an excellent job when Kanter's injury occurred. As I said before, that's why you have a team, and that's why I think Billy's done an excellent job of keeping those guys prepared and engaged for these different opportunities. He's grown the team through the season, so that we have the depth to make some of these decisions and try to add some things that we think we needed to add. Q. To follow up on that question, does Victor's abilities to play the point, does that give you some flexibility, additional flexibility, thinking about that 15th roster spot? You've got two true point guards, but he can fill that role as needed. Does that add flexibility there for you at that 15th spot? SAM PRESTI: It could. I think that's, again, we've always tried to build a team that has some versatility, has some balance to it, in a lot of ways, whether it's experience level, style of play. Like we kind of want to have a balance. But versatility has always been something that we've looked for. Gibson, same way. You know, he can play a little bit at the five. You see us play Steven and Enes together. We like that versatility, and that's been a benefit to us. But you know, we'll sit down and figure out what we really want to try to do with that spot. Q. You've mentioned Taj's impact on the floor, toughness. The sentiment is that he's one of the more respected guys in the league. Do a sense of what he might give you in the locker room from a leadership standpoint? SAM PRESTI: Well, I mean, again, I don't know him personally. So it's very hard for me to say. But his professionalism and his approach; he's a serious player. I feel really good about the person and competitor that he is. So I think that's an addition. But I think McDermott is a pretty serious player, as well; obviously his college career. And both of these guys have played for a great organization in the Bulls. They have got really good foundation in terms of a day-to-day approach type of mentality. We feel really good about that. Q. Did you make this trade with -- did you announce with cap space -- SAM PRESTI: So the way that this transaction works is, what we did is we traded Cameron -- excuse me -- yeah. We traded Taj, with a trade player exception aggregated, and we kept the Ilyasova trade exception, all right, and took McDermott into that. So we have $5 million left an the Ilyasova trade exception, so that will carry through. We're about $3 million under the cap. We kept a $5 million trade exception and we used our players going out to bring back Gibson. So because of that, we could take McDermott back into the room and we still have some more flexibility to play with there. Q. We haven't talked to you officially since the season started. As you watched Russell, in particular, operate this year, what's been the most impressive to you? SAM PRESTI: I mean, I think he's improving. I think he's becoming a better player. Obviously when you get to a certain level, a level that he's at, I think circumstances can sometimes be the stimulator to improvement. You know, he's in a different role. It's been a very interesting experience for us because we're learning a great deal about the team. He's in a different role. We're learning about, you know, his effect on his teammates and positions that he puts them in and what works with him. It's kind of been a really interesting thing. He's a different player, but I think he's becoming a better player because the circumstances around him have changed, and that's what greatness is, in my opinion, is he's evolving. Obviously when you're at that level, the improvement is incremental, but I think he's been great, and I'm talking about on the floor. I think off the floor he's been excellent in terms of, you know, his competitiveness, his leadership. But I'm really proud of the team as a whole, because I think this is a team that has really come to work every single day, when you think about where we started training camp. We've seen a lot of evolution through the season. We've seen some guys step up during absences. I think the group has really connected. I think Billy has done an excellent job. Obviously we have some areas to improve and we're far from perfect. But I think the team, it's putting its best foot forward, and I'm excited. I'm excited for them. Q. You mentioned kind of -- the market for unrestricted, and you did the same thing for André, as well, other guys in the past you've had as free agents. What is the process like when a team is obviously not going to give you all the information of how they value players -- SAM PRESTI: I don't think it's anything specific. I think with Lauvergne, you know, it's like I wish we could keep everybody, I mean, but that's not the way pro sports work. Like you can't push a pause button on a team. To me, the most important thing for us is we want to try, as I said before, like sustain a certain level of competitiveness and give ourselves opportunity every year to maximize our team, but not Rob future teams of being able to do that. In order to do that, like you're not going to be able to keep everybody, unless you want to do it for one or two years and then start over. I think over time, you get a sense; Joffrey is a guy that can do a lot of things. He's tough. He's physical. I'm glad that we were able to get him from Denver when we did. I thought, we thought, that he was a little undervalued and maybe underscouted, and now I don't think that's the case. I think that people realize he's a pretty good player. He's young, and we have a lot of money committed at that position, so we can't keep everybody. I wish we could. But I have to think beyond one year, two years. I have to, in my mind, I have to make sure that the franchise is in a position, healthy, to be able to, like I said before, sustain a certain level of competitiveness and feel like we can build from that. Q. Previously, you said this is a season of discovery, and I'm sure that doesn't change with the trade -- SAM PRESTI: -- if you ask me at the end of the season I'll be able to tell you that, but I've always felt like -- and you've probably heard me say this before. But I think spending all your time thinking about, you know what could happen, thinking about what might have or what did happen, you take your eye off the ball and you can't actually understand or enjoy what is happening. I think what's happening now for us is that we're a team that is pretty exciting. I think we're a team that obviously we're relatively young but we're improving. I think the team's putting its best foot forward every single night. I will leave the definition of that up to the people that are watching, day-in and day-out. I'm just going to kind of wait until we see how the season ends and then I'll be able to answer that. Q. You said, give this team the best opportunity to get better. Do you think you have gotten better as far as the roster, and if so, how much? SAM PRESTI: I think that we're a better team this evening than we were this morning, because I think we're able to add some things that would help our team in terms of the collective, the aggregate. How much, I don't know how to answer that. We have to see how we play. But I think adding the shooting with McDermott to space the floor, giving ourselves another front court player pick-and-roll defender; you know, I think those are things that help us. You know, I think Cameron is a really talented player. But that role, you know, he's playing behind a Hall of Fame player. So it was going to be really hard for him to expand and contribute at the level that he probably, I think ultimately will, to another team. And in order for us to move forward, this is the decision that we decided to make. And getting those two guys, I think they make us a better basketball team in terms of our existing roster and how it complements itself. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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