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OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 20, 2018

Sam Presti

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

SAM PRESTI: So just want to, before we get started, just welcome everybody. Thank you for being here. We appreciate it very much. Never take it for granted that you're interested in covering the team. I just want to thank a few people before we enter into basically two comments to make and then happy to answer any questions that you guys have.

First, I want to thank our fans from just everywhere, all across the country, all across the world. Obviously here in Oklahoma and especially at Oklahoma City, we are so grateful for the support that we've received going into our second decade of basketball here, which is kind of hard to manage in. Feels like it's gone so quickly.

Our partners, everybody that support the team, from a company level, especially OU Medicine, who we announced a partnership with yesterday and some of you might have seen the sign on the building here. It's a tremendous opportunity for us and we're very thankful for their support, especially because it's such an opportunity to help everyone in the state, so we're really, really happy about that.

The community, everyone that's been with us from the beginning. I only have so many opportunities during the year to thank these people personally and on behalf of the organization, so bear with me. Sounds like an Emmy speech or something, but we really do really, really are grateful for the community we represent and they inform so much of what we do and we want them to be proud of the team.

And then obviously in this room, the media, you guys have covered our team now going on, this will be our 11th season here and there have been great relationships that have been built with Matt and his staff and the players. We're happy that we have the type of relationship that we have with you guys. It means a lot.

My next thing here -- two primary points, okay. So just two things I want to hit and then we'll take questions. One is kind of a tried and true kind of set of criteria that you've heard it before, but I think it's important that we continue to reaffirm this about our organization, and those are some organizational fundamentals. The other part is, an opportunity with the team that we feel like still exists to continue to improve and get better, and that's obviously playing identity, our basketball identity. I'll talk about both of those.

First things, organizational fundamentals. For us, these things are kind of pillars to what we are focused on and trying to create going forward, and also reflect upon from our past. One, commitment to process. I think everybody here understands that for us, we want to think big but build small. We don't want to take the path of least resistance and we don't want to be working on a day by day approach. We want to be working towards a vision that we have, and picking away at that strategically, you know, every single day through that.

Humility, that's another really important trait for us. I think there's a big difference between being confident and being arrogant. Confidence is critical to lead. Confidence is critical to compete at the highest levels, but we never want to be arrogant and that's an important thing for us to always hold true to.

Development. Development of people, players, staff, creating an environment where people can do their best work and always thinking about what people can do and not focusing on the things they can't do gives them best chance of optimizing their performance here and beyond.

I think, you know, that's been the lifeblood of our organization since we've been here since 2008 is development and then commitment to that. We'll have to continue to do that, regardless of whether we're winning 20 games, 50 games, or in between.

And then leadership. This would be our first season that Nick Collison won't be with the team. You'll probably see him. He'll be -- you know, he'll be around occasionally, but I think that with his retirement, opens up a whole new opportunity for Russell and Paul George to put their imprint as leaders on the team, and I'm really excited for that because I think they are great complements to one another.

I think they are both great people, and they will be the people that we'll be leaning on when we hit adversity and they will also be the people we will be leaning on when we have success and we need to manage that success effectively.

And I think it's an opportunity for growth for both of those guys and when you're at such a high level as they are as players, it's another opportunity and I'm excited to see them take on that mantle in Nick's absence.

That concludes the organizational fundamentals. Those are things you've probably heard me say over the years.

The other thing would be identity of play. This is an area that we are constantly evolving in. We're been here for ten years and we've been constantly tweaking and adjusting, and the world changes around you, and the game changes.

One thing for us that we think is going to be really important this season is going to continue to have a defensive identity. We can't take for granted just because on paper we look like we should be a really good defensive team that that's going to happen.

It's the space between there that really defines excellence and our ability to be consistently effective, you know, defending and doing it in a way that is extremely consistent, not just in -- against this opponent or that opponent, or on the road or at home.

And our defense has always been something that's been critical to us because of how we play offensively in terms of the speed that we want to play with, and we can't take for granted that we are going to be a really good defensive team just because we have some really elite defenders.

The other thing, much has been written about the Thunder want to play faster and obviously, with so many additions to the roster, wither in rinse and bringing Jeremy back and obviously Dennis, you know, physically, like we can play faster.

But I thought it would be important to kind of break down for everybody, like for us, speed and tempo are different than just getting up the floor. So first thing would be, when people think about playing faster, they think about playing faster offensively; that there's two sides to those floors, so we need to have speed and tempo defensively and offensively.

The other thing is people think about speed with respect to just style of play, but in reality, like we want to be faster making decisions on both sides of the floor. We do want to be faster, obviously physically, but we want to be faster in how quickly we recognize situations within the game. We want to be faster and play with more speed with respect to how quickly we recover from setbacks in terms of our resiliency and our turnaround time. These are all parts of playing fast. To us, these are all parts of playing with tempo.

The key goal here is playing quicker, playing faster, thinking faster, but still being really efficient because at the end of the day, with how good the players are in this league and how good the coaching has become in this league, efficiency is king.

One of the things that for us, we feel like is important, is playing in rhythm. So we feel like playing faster and playing in rhythm -- playing faster and playing in rhythm allows us to be more efficient, and that goes again for both sides of the ball.

Those things are critical. Again, we want to be playing our best basketball at the end of the season and we want to be a work-in-progress that's identifiable. So we want to set out, put some things out there in training camp and by the end of the season, we want that to be a recognizable form. We don't want to get to a point in the season where there's regression to what we're trying to do.

Of course there's going to be adaption; you're going to have to adjust and things happen. Whatever the plan is, coming into training camp, it's going to get disrupted in the first practice because, you know, or the first game. But we want to make sure that the intention and implementation and execution goes throughout the season, and that's a challenge because there's all different types of opportunities to change course or regress and I think we have an opportunity now with the continuity that we have to really build towards something and build something sustainable.

And I think Billy and his staff are -- they have worked incredibly hard this summer. I think they are going to do a great job, and I think the continuity, when you think about it, you know, we've lost Carmelo, we've added Dennis, but the remaining group is pretty much in place.

I think that's going to be a welcomed thing, as I said, at the end of the season. That's one of the things that I think has been a real challenge for Billy is the team has changed quite a bit and he's had to adapt and adjust and now I think there's a little more recognition coming into the year albeit, we're going to have some injuries, but I'm sure.

To summarize kind of the opening points, first, the fundamentals that we've talked about for years, we can never, ever take those for granted here. They are critical how we got to this point and they are going to be critical how we continue to sustain and continue to write the future for the team, commitment to process, humility, focus on development and leadership, those things are critical for us and I think for a lot of other organizations in both sports and business.

And then the identity of play in terms of making sure we continue to be an elite defensive team and putting in the work to do those things. Focusing on playing faster, but what that really means in the hope that, you know, we become a more efficient team, and then also having an identity that we can begin to build small and ultimately expand and hopefully have it be a great foundation to be playing our best basketball at the end of the year.

Q. Is this something the organization, with Westbrook's return --
SAM PRESTI: Well, we wouldn't -- first, we would never push Russell or any player for that matter, like on to the floor because of a specific date, you know what I'm saying, like the season starts on this date, so I think that would be foolish and we've never done that. We wouldn't start doing that now.

He's going to be reevaluated. It was a pretty minor thing that he had to have done. And he'll be back. We'll see how that reevaluation goes but then you have to work through rehab to noncontact, contact, to -- and then you've got to get back to the level that you play at normally.

So it's a process. But having Dennis is kind of a separate thing I think than really -- well, that's not really determining Russell's recovery.

Having Dennis is great for us. As I said before, there's silver linings in all of the different adverse ties that we faced over the years, even though at the time, some of them have been hard to identify, but I think that's one of the things that we're most proud of is when we are delivered situations, whether they are within our control or not, okay, how do we make this positive, how do we work on this, and I think with Dennis, he's going to get a ton of opportunity to work with Paul George, Billy Donovan, his new teammates, we're going to learn a lot about his game. To me that's a great opportunity.

Of course it makes it a lot better going through that knowing that Russell is coming back pretty soon, but what can we scrape out of this situation to inform us of how we can be a better team. In some ways it compartmentalizes things. You're going to be having to do a lot of things in training camp, and now unfortunately without Russell, that's going to limit what you can do with that. So it allows you to put that much more focus on bidding the infrastructure of the team without Russell and aLuing him to assimilate back.

I feel like I should touch on Dre because I feel like the question is going to be on Dre, so gone this long enough, just safe everybody the time.

With respect to Dre, he's going well. He's back on the floor and going to go through parts of training camp with us, non-contact. You'll probably see him shooting. You might see him doing some scripting. He's got to work himself from the non-contact part to contact and then obviously he's got to get back to like performance, which would be game situations.

I can't tell you exactly when that's going to be. We don't think we're going to be without him very long, but again, this is medicine. This is human performance. This is body. So sitting up here saying, this is when that's going to happen, I can't tell you.

All I can tell you is that he is doing a lot more this week than he was doing last week, and he's through the hardest part of this recovery process, and he's back with the ball in his hands and scripting things and on the treadmill and all those types of stuff.

But then he's got to get to the point where we can put him in contact situations and comfortable with, and once he passes those benchmarks, he'll be able to get back on the floor in competitive situations.

But both of those guys we feel good that we'll have them at some point relatively early in the year.

Q. Anything you'd like to add to the team?
SAM PRESTI: Yeah, one of the things inherent in roster building or anything you're trying to improve, every time you do something to improve, you are creating another situation somewhere else, like you're never going to get to perfect. Like that probably doesn't exist.

You know, in order to get Dennis ShrÃ¶eder, that's going to create something somewhere else. You can't -- you can't solve one thing without it disrupting something else, so that's why teams are constantly evolving. I'd love for us to have more shooting. I think you look at the team and you say, well, on paper, if we look at these numbers, like this -- totally see that.

So there's three ways in which we can improve that. One, like we can go out and try to find someone that's a better shooter than what we have, but they have to be better than the players we currently have at the existing positions and they have to be so much better that they overcome whatever deficiencies or strengths of the player they are replacing has so that's one thing.

And then obviously we're pretty limited in terms of our team building tools and mechanisms because of the cap system.

Second thing would be guys can step up and make some shots. Like that's another way you can get better is we need some guys to make some shots. I think that all of our guys are capable and talented and I expect them to make some shots. That's another way you can become a better shooting team.

And the other way would be if, you know, if we're not making shots, like what kind of shots are we taking. So in today's day and age, like if there are shots that aren't really good shots or high-quality shots, not taking them and distributing that possession to another place on the floor could actually make us a much better shooting team.

So how efficiently are you playing; how good are the shots that you're taking. Sometimes you can become a much better shooter by taking the ones that are really good for you. Dre is a great example of that. Shot 56 percent from the floor last year, and he did that simply by taking the ones that were right there for him that were right in his wheelhouse.

I gave a book to a lot of people in our organization this summer. I think it's an unbelievable book. I just stumbled upon it and I've heard about it for years, but the Science of Hitting by Ted Williams. I mean, that book is -- and I think it applies to everything, not just sports. And it's all about decisions. It's all about choice and it's all about restraint. It's all about discipline. His insight into his craft is just unbelievable, and I think you get to .400 by swinging at the pitches you want to swing at, you know, not the ones that the pitcher is choosing for you to swing at.

I read this book and I handed it out to a lot of people because I think it just -- it's a great metaphor for so many things in the world, not just for basketball or sports. I think it speaks to ways that we ourselves can move the needle in some areas.

Q. (Inaudible).
SAM PRESTI: The first thing with him that really struck me, when you really start to dig into him and think about him, the guy is 24 years old. He's younger than Steven. He's younger than Alex. He's the same age at Jeremy. Who else is in that group -- I was looking at it.

Anyway, 24 is young. But he's got a ton of experience, which I think is really beneficial. So what kind of role do we foresee him in? I don't know. I think his skill set is really, really well aligned to the way that we and Billy, you know, sees the team playing, and Billy, specifically, like really feels like paint attacks are going to be important for our team, and Dennis is a guy that lives in the paint and having multiple people that can do that creatively I think is an important part for our team.

I wouldn't want to put any limitations or say, you need to be this person. We have had a lot of success with a player like -- like that, a dynamic ball handler with Russell.

So I think there's opportunity there but he's going to have to develop that, and he has a lot of work to do. He's only 24 and his best basketball is way in front of him, and you know, obviously for him, like maybe the biggest impact he can have on our team right away is defensively and he has the chance to be an elite defender and we've got to get him back to that.

Q. When you talk about increasing the case for speed, whatever word you want to use, forwards with Jeremy and with Patrick, I assume they will play a pretty big role in that. But they are really different players. Curious from your perspective what you want to see out of those guys as it relates to speed of the game?
SAM PRESTI: As I said before, I think that -- I look at it more like tempo of the game because tempo to me creates rhythm, not to use a music metaphor, but I think the tempo creates the rhythm and rhythm should affect efficiency.

With those two guys specifically, Jeremy is an incredibly, obviously physically, he is at the 99th percentile as an athlete. He's a prototype in a lot of ways on both ends of the floor.

Patrick plays quickly mentally. I mean, he is a quick decision-maker. The ball doesn't stick with him. If you give him opportunities to keep the ball moving, possessions don't die with him. I'm excited for Billy because one of Billy's strengths is being creative, improvising, and I just think that there's a lot of interchangeable pieces to the team that he can -- he has to sort out. I don't know how those guys specifically will -- will, what roles they will play, other than I'm pretty confident they are going to play increased roles.

But I do think that playing with more tempo on both sides of the ball plays to both of those guys's strengths and it also really plays to the strengths of our best players.

But again, you can play as fast as you want, but can you play efficiently. And one of the things that our staff has spent a lot of time thinking about, and just we all kind of agreed on in thinking about it, was like I think every business is facing the same challenges, which is: Speed of everything is so much faster today, and a big part of that is technology.

And so the opportunity for you to be able to adjust, adapt, make decisions in everything is shrunk. But you also have to have a consistency of purpose to have an identity, so you can't just shoot from the hip all the time because things have sped up around you. You have to still be efficient and that's the biggest challenge.

For us, that's why the tempo component is important. It's not just how fast we get the ball up the court but it's the decisions we make once it's there and if those decisions can lead to better opportunities; and how do you get there? I think that's what's invigorated Billy and his staff because they feel like we have some quick decision-makers. We have some guys that can get up the floor quickly, and I think there's opportunities for us to continue to play efficiently throughout the year, but it's going to take some time.

But it's not just -- tempo is not just offense or physical. Tempo is mental, as well, and then also emotion well respect to how you can work through setbacks and resiliency during the game itself, you know, so that you can actually perform. I'm excited to see -- to see the team take shape and I think Billy and our players are, as well.

Q. Eventually, Russell is going to come back and then he and Dennis are going to be guys that potentially play together. How do you envision that working? Both guys have games predicated off the pick-and-roll.
SAM PRESTI: Sure. I think that's one of the things we talked a lot about. Billy, when we were talking about potentially adding Dennis, you know, he loves the idea of having another ball handler like that on the floor and really sees a ton of value in getting to the paint from multiple angles on the floor.

Again, I think the way the game is today, like you know, people pick up on patterns. That's how human beings operate. They recognize patterns. That's how we learn everything. So the more creative and in different ways in which people are attacking and coming from things, I don't like -- one of our assistant coaches made a good point to me the other day. He said random seems uncontrolled or unplanned. Not just random play but like creative play, I guess is the way that Europe is really looking at how offense is changing.

I think that Dennis and Russell together gives us more creativity on the floor, and also, they have an advantage all the time. Now, if there's multiple people on the floor that you don't know where that's coming from, and those guys can make those plays, it just opens up more options for us. That's something we thought about and we talked about, and I think our coaches put a huge premium on that ability to get to the paint, and we have some other guys that we're working with to see if they can continue to do that, as well.

The trade off is the shooting. We understand that. But there's other ways for us to score and generate offense, and then defensively, those two guys should be excellent together.

Q. Have you received any more insight into Dennis's legal --
SAM PRESTI: Not more than what we've -- than what we're privy to at this point.

But because it's a legal matter, I can't really speak too much to that, other than to say that I wouldn't expect it to be a distraction for the team in any way or for him. He's handling it with the appropriate parties.

Q. Paul George re-upped this summer. Perhaps you heard. It seemed like that did two things: One, it endorsed all the things you've been talking about for ten years about setting up a culture that's attractive to players and that kind of thing. Maybe not necessarily enticing outward free agents but keeping the ones that you have, but it also was an endorsement of Russell, which went against the long held narrative that people don't like playing with him. How important were those two factors in relation to Paul's decision?
SAM PRESTI: I know what you're saying with Russell -- what was the first one?

Q. The culture. Something that's attractive to players.
SAM PRESTI: I don't know, I think -- I don't want to speak for all the players that have been here, you know what I'm saying, but we've had a lot of players that tell us that they have had great experiences here and that they enjoy playing here and a lot of times, by the way that those comments are made is because we are constantly asking them, like what can we do better. Like where can we improve. You know what does it mean to play for the Thunder. How do you want to be remembered playing here. What should it feel like to play for the organization.

We want to know because we don't have all the answers and we -- I think everyone here could probably attest if you've been here for ten years that we've really evolved as an organization and we should. We've learned a lot. We want to be a learning organization. We want to constantly be pushing ourselves to figure out what we can do better, and I think we're always asking those questions.

I don't know how big a factor that was in Paul's decision. I think it didn't matter, but we want to -- we want to stand for more than what we do, and I think people can feel that. We also need to own the fact that we don't have all the answers and we've got to keep working. You can never take anything for granted, other than -- not other than, but the No. 1 thing is, like you've got to realize that players are people, and they need support, and they also need -- they need to be challenged, as well, at certain times, and you've got to have some hard conversations with people and you've got to be honest with them. I think that's a big part of the environment we want to have.

I don't think you can get anywhere in an environment where you're appeasing people, but I do think you can get very far in an environment where you have some empathy, some honesty, and some clarity. That's all you can hope for.

With Russell, again, like we don't -- are not totally exposed to the narratives because -- Nick Collison and I had this conversations a number of times. It's like we live in the reality, so going outside of that to get insight doesn't make a lot of sense because we are actually living there every day. We know what's going on.

That doesn't diminish the importance or the role of opinion, people writing or talking about -- we want that. That is healthy. Every time you guys have covered the team, that's so good for our organization, but the narratives that exist outside or why they are out there -- to those of us that work in the industry and that work inside the building every day, we know. The NBA has become an incredible entertainment business, and I think one of the biggest challenges that every team has is keeping your eye on the ball, not to use the Ted Williams example, but to keep your eye on the ball, of like, okay, what's important to us, what's really driving us to be the best that we can be to build a legacy for the organization and how much is that distracting, if we know that that's not accurate.

So I don't necessarily think that people that have played with Russell uniformly would say that. Do I think that he raises the bar in some areas? He does. He does raise the bar in some areas. Do I think there's things he can improve on? Absolutely, and I think he would tell you that himself. I've never known him to resist, you know, honest candid dialogue or conversations. I just don't know that. I've never seen him disrespect a coach and I've never seen him disrespect a teammate in a way that is verbasive (ph) he's emotional, and that's the league we play in, you know what I'm saying.

I wouldn't want to take the emotion away from our players, but at the end of the day, we have to respect one another for sure. But that's -- I think Russell is a guy that shows up at Nick Collison's retirement party. He's at Paul George's fishing event. He's behind the scenes in all those things and I think that stuff does matter. But he's growing, evolving, also, and that's the great thing about him is he wants to constantly get better, but we've never really been totally immersed in that. We know it's there but we also kind of see every day the way that things happen.

Q. With Russell turning 30, is there an organizational plan to prolong his prime, maintain his health, considering his style of play and considering the fact that he's coming off surgery?
SAM PRESTI: Yeah, I think a couple things that we think about with that: One, for the most part, he's never played, high, high, high minutes. That's been a consistent thing for several years now. I don't know where he checked in last year but for the most part he's around 34, 35, something like that.

He is in his prime right now and he's been available for 90-plus percent of the games over his career and 99 percent of the games over the last two years. Is that going to last forever? I mean, that's a pretty high bar to stay at 99 percent. But players that are at his level, when we talk about like regression or anything like that, like we're talking about going from being the MVP of a league or an all-NBA player and regressing as he gets older to small percentages from that.

So now you're talking about being an all-star level player. So we're starting at such a high bar that eventually when he's 35 years old, like he's probably not going to play the way he did when he was 30 for sure but Russell, talking about a player that's been an All-NBA player for seven years, and usually if you go back and look at the data, the guys that make it seven years, end up being ten years All-NBA teams.

The other thing about Russell that I think is so promising about his future is that players that play in the backcourt like that, have that kind of success, once they hit 30, their shooting numbers become much better. That's how they become more efficient players.

So there's so many ways for him to continue to evolve. He's going to have to work at that going forward, but I mean, he's right in the middle of his best years, and he still has a lot more at this level, and that's just proved by the last two years.

So we've been so fortunate to have him. We obviously have a responsibility to make sure that we are always doing what's best for him. I feel like we have done that, and you know, I think he's always going to be thinking, just like every great player, like how do I keep adding to my game, how do I keep evolving.

If you look at players of his size and that play in the backcourt at that level, all NBA level, their shooting numbers and efficiency numbers start to go up as they get older and I really think that will happen the same way for him.

Q. You touched on this with Patrick, but do you feel like he has to start -- when you're talking about the shooting?
SAM PRESTI: One of the things that I think is really important in general, but with Billy, is that we have to let Billy make those decisions. You know, the other thing about Billy is he's always asking for opinions. He's a constant learner.

So you know, it doesn't matter what role you play in the organization. He will ask you, you know, and that's I think what makes him great is he's curious, but at the end of the day, he knows that, you know, he has to make the calls. He has to make the decisions. Like he's in charge of what happens once the ball is tipped up and once we are competing, he makes all the decisions relative to what happens between the lines.

I know he likes both those players, Jeremy and Pat, so it will be interesting to see what he does there. But the other thing is, I thought he did a really interesting thing last year. This is one of the reasons why I think he's such a valuable piece to the organization.

We had with Melo and Patrick and Jeremy, there's not a lot of minutes there at the floor and I thought that his ability to get Jeremy into that 5 position, that created value for the organization. I think that's a really, really important part to the role of the head coach in today's NBA is you have to be able to carve your own pieces because of the -- and development being a huge component of that, because of the limitations of the cap and the system, and how good the other teams are, how good the scouting is, analytics; it used to be that having the numbers was a huge advantage. Now, it's not -- you can get those off the Internet.

Now it's implementation of the numbers and not just how you implement them but you're implementing them against a field that's all using the same thing, so how big of an advantage is it now.

So Billy I think has always tried to stay ahead of that, and with Jeremy, he found a way to create value, play him at the 5. Now with Nerlens, who we think is a pretty interesting player for our team and our identity of play, you know, we'll probably see Jeremy a little more at 4 depending what role Nerlens plays.

But just like you guys, I'm interested to see how it comes together. I do think that there's a lot to work with. There will be some decisions that have to be made, but that's why he's the head coach. I think he'll do a great job with it.

Q. We were just talking about Russell and his career and everything. What was the experience like at the Hall of Fame?
SAM PRESTI: I'm embarrassed to say this but I had not been to the Hall of Fame and I lived not far from it -- hours away, but in the same state. Being there with Mo is great. I think Mo is great ambassador. The thing I love about Mo Cheeks more than anything is I think he has class and I think he has humility.

This is a guy that has done everything and is now in the Hall of Fame, but he'll sit there and he'll go through organizational meetings. He'll listen to a guy from, you know, Stanford, talk to him about analytics and try to listen and learn, and he might have a few comments back, but it's a dialogue. And so like I think that's so healthy for people in our organization to see that, especially young people, just the humility that he brings.

The other thing that happened to me at the Hall of Fame that really struck me, and I think this is an important thing. I was walking through the exhibits and there was one that just -- there was an exhibit on a man named John McLendon who is a coach. I was reading his bio, and then I walked away, and I -- I went, did I read that right? He was mentored by James Naismith? The first African American graduate from Kansas, in physical education, and really a pioneer or minority coaches and literally went to Kansas to be tutored by Naismith at a time when, I think we all know, that the world was not where it needed to be.

And it really boggled my mind that I didn't have a lot of knowledge. I had heard his name but I didn't realize that this is a man that was at the very, very -- the nucleus of the game. And he's a man that people should know about because he pioneered so much in so many ways, and he wrote a book all about fastbreak basketball. And it is so ahead of its time, it's scary.

So he learned the game from Naismith but he innovated the game. He was the first coach to coach speed, tempo. He's also the inventor of the four corners which I don't think a lot of people are aware of. He had a team at Tennessee State win three championships in a row. He took a team from Tennessee State to Duke and played the first game of that kind. But they had to do an enclosed gym, and he's one of the few people that have gone into the Hall of Fame as a coach and a contributor.

Unfortunately he went in as a coach second, but some people were able to get that corrected. But this is a true, true, true, like a critical person in the history of the game, and I was a little bit -- I'll be honest, I was embarrassed. I did not know as much about him as needs to be known. So we're going to figure out and do some things. I don't know how we're going to do it yet but there's a whole story to be told off of this and I want to make sure that that happens.

There is a great amount of information you can get, I know, because like once you start digging into it, it's there. But this is a man that learned the game from Naismith, with Naismith, who is peers with Phog Allen, and I just don't know if people understand the impact he had.

You know, obviously for minority coaches, like what he did, I mean, this was amazing, and he's a man that needs to be recognized even more so I think than I believe he has been so far.

So I've talked to some different people about ways we can do that and I'm really excited about it because there's -- history is a great thing because it keeps teaching you. I hope high school coaches all through the State of Oklahoma are talking about this man and explaining what he really represents, because he's a true, true, true game changer and we can probably learn a lot from him.

Q. You mentioned Nerlens -- coming off the Dallas situation at the right time?
SAM PRESTI: We're really excited about Nerlens. Again, he represents a lot of things that we value. One thing about him that I don't think people realize is like he's a good passer, and we've got to figure out how we use that. He's a good decision-maker with the ball.

You know, I'm from Massachusetts and so is Nerlens, he played at evident receipt high, so I've been hearing about Nerlens since he was in middle school. He had other places he could have gone, and he chose to come here, and we painted a pretty uphill battle for him to see if he would be willing to accept it, and the fact that he picked to come here and has put in the type of work he's put in so far this summer is encouraging to me. But there's still more to do. But the fact that he chose to come here when there was no promises of anything, tells me a lot about what he wants to do and what he's trying to accept.

This is a guy that went six in the draft and if he didn't get injured, he probably would have gone one. We want to feel like we can help -- as I said before, develop, identify, and create a platform for guys to play well and to thrive. We've had success in the past with some guys that have stubbed their toe or maybe had underperformed.

What we are not going to do is judge him off of everything that, you know, the past. It's going to inform us, but we're going to let him -- he has to create his own identity here, and we're going to create an environment that hopefully can bring the best out of him.

But I mean, he can really protect the rim. He can run up the floor. He can get up the floor, but he can keep the ball moving. He can keep possessions alive. He can switch, which I think used to be -- now it's a straight-up strategy. You know, it used to be a last resort but now that's how you're neutralizing some other aspects of offense.

Q. You were really optimistic last season about Steven, coming off the work he did in the off-season. What have you seen from him coming into camp this season?
SAM PRESTI: The thing about Steven that I would say is first of all, people forget the guy is like 25 years old. So Dennis is younger than him.

But Steven's got like five years before he's in his prime. You think about the centers in the league, that are still going to be in their prime five years from now, it's a small group that you feel like are a really good group. There's always going to be a good group coming behind, especially in this last draft.

The thing that's hard with Steven is he's like a good to great company that has made such small improvements each year, that you don't -- there hasn't been these like big "Ah-ha" moments of, wow, that's totally different. His improvement has been so steady and over such a long period of time now, that the distance traveled is remarkable. I mean, he's come so far.

But it's come by a real process, a real small season after season process. He can have a huge impact on our team -- and the reason he's so valuable to us, he has such a big impact on our team by doing things that are within his control. There's not a lot of players that can impact a team or the game in controllable areas. Meaning, Steven, and just how hard he runs the floor; how quickly he gets out of pick-and-rolls and barrels to the rim to suck the defense in; the fact that he knows the schemes the way he does -- I always say be a great patriot, like in the NFL. He knows coverages. He knows schemes. He knows defense.

And then his physicality. Like he's a guy that you know he's on the floor. He doesn't have to try -- I know he's in the room. I'm not playing against him. Those are things that are within his control, and just by doing those things, he makes a massive impact on our team. For those of you, I don't know how many rugby fans we have in the audience, but you know, obviously the All Blacks in New Zealand, where he was raised, they are known for kind of their selfless team intangibles, up-and-down the entire roster.

And you know, when Steven plays like an All Black for us, he's a game changer, and the good thing is like he's willing to do those things that don't get recognized.

One thing we have to do always and we do internally is make sure we recognize those things when he keeps doing them, but he's a game changer for us in controllable areas. It doesn't have to be a hot shooting night. He doesn't necessarily need someone else to get him going. He can actually do these things and help a team win, and again, like in the era of fantasy sports, sometimes we can get distracted by that. But again, like great teams, it's all about the Gray area and the things in between and I think Steven Adams represents that.

With that being said, we expect him to take another jump this year, you know, but just being consistent in those areas as an All Black-type player, he affects the team and his mentality affects the team because he's trying to do the right things all the time.

Q. You mentioned Nick before, and obviously he made the addition to retire after the season was over. Do you guys have any plans to try to do anything, talking about history, thinking about his history with the team? Any plans on anything with him?
SAM PRESTI: I've talked to Nick this summer, just like every summer to be honest with you. Our communication has been pretty strong. We want to help him anyway we can decide what it is he ultimately what he wants to do. He's had such a huge impact on the team and represents so much of what we want to stand for and what we're about.

I don't know -- I don't have a definition for what it will be bauds I think he wants to take some time with his family and rightfully so. But we'll recognize him; he'll always be a part of the family. He'll always have a place here, and I say this all the time. Sometimes, like in the lifecycle of an organization, the right guy comes along at the right time, and just so happened to be that he was with us, you know, during our infancy stages, so we'll always recognize that.

You know, there's multiple ways to do that, and you know, we're going to figure out how we do it but he'll always be a --

Q. The television play-by-play person -- how weird was the process and decision not to bring Brian back?
SAM PRESTI: Well, I hate to defer questions, but truthfully, like Dan Mahoney is the person that you have to talk to about play-by-play announcer, and he oversees that department. I don't oversee that department.

You know, bd was great. I think everyone knows that. And I'm sure that whoever we bring on will do a great job and continue the -- you know, the work that was done there. But I don't want to seem like I'm dodging the question, but I think that Dan is working on that and I think he'll have an announcement shortly on that.

Q. You can't speak on other teams and what's going on right now in the league but just thinking about what you went through with Paul, Paul favoring Los Angeles in the beginning of the process and a lot of talking about him going to Los Angeles, do you think that what you all have been able to accomplish with getting him to re-sign here and to buy into the Thunder has had an effect on the rest of the league in terms of guys you talk to and how they approach free agents or guys who might be becoming free agents and going after these big fish?
SAM PRESTI: I don't think so. I mean, I don't -- I really don't. I think that every team has their own way of going about it. That's what makes the league great. I definitely don't think that any team is like looking at us and saying -- using us in any way. Because every situation is so unique and so different.

There's like a convenience, probably, of -- to storytelling, right, that you can pull these different disparate piece together and tell a story, and sometimes it might be right, but I don't think it is the case all the time, and everyone has different reasons why they make their decisions.

For us, we kind of covered that with kind of why we felt that was the right thing for us. But I also do think that the competition in the league is so -- it's become so competitive. The business itself is thriving as a result of the things that Adam Silver has instituted, or continued and evolved on top of what David Stern did and then obviously Adam has kind of instituted and built off of that.

The league is in a really healthy place. The competition is incredible. Obviously the Western Conference -- nobody even asked me about the fact that LeBron is playing in the Western Conference now, which is another incredible player in the West.

And I think what you're seeing is like the cycles of teams, they are much shorter because there's so much adversity that you face as a team in the NBA now because of, you know, there's going to be injuries and then you've got a whole component of the business side of the basketball that is unique. You've got teams are just so well run. I have so much respect for the guys with the other teams -- the good general managers with the other teams, they are brilliant, and like I know that because I've watched what we do and I admire so many of them, and the coaching is on another level than it's been in my opinion.

So teams are able to get more out of what they have, and the game is evolving. The style of play is evolving, and with that, the reason why I say all those things is because I think that's pushing people to do things because they know that it's really, really hard to find stability, sustainability, and to keep momentum in today's NBA because the competition is what it is, and everyone is looking to gain edges.

I like that. I like the competition that comes with the NBA. I think it's great, but I also think that, you know, it's a totally different league than it was even five years ago, and I think everyone has to adapt and adjust and understand that, and that's one of the reasons why you're seeing maybe a one-year prime free agent become more valuable than in the past, even if you're not able to keep them because they are just so hard to get those players.

And generally, the only way in the past you could get those players was through the draft, but they have passed the rules that have made that even harder, do you know what I'm saying.

So therefore, your risk tolerance has to be a little bit higher if you want to try to stay innovative and aggressive, and you also have to be willing to rebuild, to restart, to reimagine, and you also should be optimistic, too, though. That's why everyone trades for those types of players because they think it makes them better.

So we'll see. I think it's a function of a lot of things, and then next summer with all the salary cap space that's out there will be another, you know, another bonanza. We'll see. The whole league will change as a result of what happens there.

But it's just a really dynamic time in the NBA. That's why I'm happy for us that we have some stability. We have some continuity, and that, you know, we've got a good group of core players that are in their prime. We also have a group of emerging players that we have to keep Fostering and developing because they will be the key to sustaining ultimately, so we need those younger guys to keep growing and supporting the core guys.

But we like how we're positioned, but you know, it's a crazy world.

One other thing I just wanted to say before I close up. So I managed to do this press conference without falling asleep. My wife and I had twin girls last night. So I was very -- the amount I talked -- I didn't want that to become -- it's a small town here. I didn't want that to be -- you guys to find out later and feel as if I was not a human being by letting that be known, but also, I didn't think it was right to start the press conference that way because obviously you didn't come here to hear about my personal life.

But I just feel like it would be -- it's important to say that. So everyone's healthy and all that stuff. Milly and Elise are their names, family names, and we're thrilled and excited.

But I wanted to make sure -- I'm pretty happy as you can probably tell, but I did want to make sure that I acknowledged that but I knew that wasn't the first thing you guys wanted to hear about.

Q. Have you talked to --
SAM PRESTI: Actually, I have because my son is three and a half, so I was with him last night to make sure that he feels -- Nick, if you're listening, really focused on you right now. But yeah, making sure he's off to school and not totally disrupted but I'll be going back to see my wife right now. Her mom is in town for everything.

I felt obligated to share that because we're all -- it's a small town here, and so I wouldn't want you to think I went through today without acknowledging that.

Thank you so much.

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