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OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 29, 2019

Sam Presti

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

SAM PRESTI: Good afternoon. So just want to thank everybody for coming. As I do at the start of every one of these end of season press conferences, I'd just like to get a few thank yous out into the ether and then I'd like to review the year, talk about the future, and then let you guys fire away any questions you might have to ask me. I'll stay here as long as you like.

So first, I want to thank the basketball operations staff. It's a tremendous group of people, incredibly dedicated, and it's a true privilege for me to come to work every day with such a great group. I do think the family atmosphere that's been created here is a byproduct of the community that we live in, and that makes it possible.

I also want to thank the business staff. They do an incredible job supporting our players, creating a great environment for our fans. It's a thankless job and one that they deserve a ton of credit for as we end year 11, roll into year 12.

I want to thank our fans from all over the world for their support over the last 11 years and into year 12. It's impossible to make anything happen without that type of support, and we're grateful.

Our sponsors, obviously it's a critical, critical aspect of things for us here in Oklahoma City as the second smallest market in the league. We've been blessed to have tremendous corporate support, and we're incredibly grateful for them, as well.

And then as I thank you guys every year, I want to thank the media for the way you guys do your jobs. We know you have a job to do, respect the job you have to do, especially in a changing environment with all these new mediums and technologies, and we've got 400 iPhones looking at me right now, not people. But that's where we are, and I just -- we're grateful for the relationship and the way you guys have covered the team, not just this year but over the years.

One thing I do want to note before I jump right into the season is just in thanking everybody, while I was writing that out, it made me think about the fact that what the team stands for, what the Thunder stands for is something that people in Oklahoma City and Oklahoma can really come together over. It's been a huge driver for so many different things, economically, socially, and all those things are critical going forward. But that doesn't happen without all the people we just mentioned, not just the organization, players, staff, ownership, et cetera, but also just you guys in the media, the sponsors, the fans. Everyone comes together to make it something special. We're really grateful to be a part of that and privileged to be part of that. So I want to thank everybody for creating something that everyone in the city and in the state can come together over.

With respect to the season, obviously we're disappointed that we are not still playing, just like every team that is not in the Playoffs anymore. If I had to define the year in a couple words, I would say capability and inconsistency. For 70 percent of this past season, we were playing at an extremely high level, and I felt like we were playing some of the better basketball that we've seen in Oklahoma City, just with respect to the style of play goals we laid out, the defensive improvement that we tried to establish from last year to this year, pace of play, athleticism. I really felt like the players and the coaches were doing an excellent job of that, and they created an extremely high standard. We were on our way to having the third best record in the league against the top 10 teams in the league. We were playing a really balanced game.

Unfortunately that seems like a long time ago because 30 percent of the year or so, we struggled to meet our own standard, and that's -- I hate to use the word disappointing; I think disappointing is the end. I would use the word frustrating to define really the month of March because when you know that you're capable and you come into the year with a vision or a plan for how you want to try to be better from one year to the next and you're executing and you come back and you're not able to meet that, I mean, that's something we have to own. That's also frustrating because you know what you're capable of, and you're not able to reconnect with that.

So the month of March is probably the thing that we'll look at the closest. That's one of the things when we put our record up on the board during the exit interviews, pre-All-Star, post-All-Star, 38-20, and then 11-13. But really 6-13 in the month of March before we won five in a row heading into the Playoffs.

But unfortunately that last little stretch there wasn't enough to kind of correct ourselves, and we ended up getting beat by a really good Portland team. So we have to study that month of March.

The process of how we're going to go about that and how we're going to go about all the other aspects of how we create a path forward, that's going to be the same as every year. I do think it's important that there is some distance to that because, myself included, I'd probably be most focused on the 30 percent of the year, and I'd be working off of impression, emotion, reaction, and that isn't necessarily -- that's probably the most simple way to solve a complex problem, which most of the time leads you in the wrong place.

I'll sit down with Billy. I'll sit down, let him get away, let him get some thoughts together before we sit down and meet. I'll sit down with Clay, debrief the season like we always do, all of our evaluators, all the different pillars need to take a look at the year as a whole. We'll come back, we'll sort it out like we always do, we'll create a plan, try to find a path forward, and we'll get to work. As I said earlier, we're not looking to be fast, we're not looking to be quick, we're looking to be rigorous. We're looking to be the same problem-solving group that we have been over the years, which is pretty methodical, and we just don't have the liberty to be, I would say, kind of momentary problem solvers. Like we have to look at it a little deeper.

With respect to the team, so coming into the year, I felt like we were positioned pretty well from a depth standpoint. Last year when we sat here, I think the majority of the questions were about our defense in the second half. So we really focused on that. And I felt like we had really good redundancy behind Roberson in the event he was slow to return. Obviously we couldn't have foreseen that he was going to miss the whole year. And I thought Ferguson and Diallo during the first part of the year did an excellent job. We ended up with the fourth best defense in the league, and that's with pretty big slippage in the month of March. I think if we were more consistent in that month, we might have been a little bit higher, but top 5 is obviously good enough.

And I thought Ferg and Diallo and some other guys all stepped up.

The spot on the roster to me that we didn't have redundancy and continued support was when we lost Alex, and that's on me. That's on me. I thought Alex was going to have a breakout year to be honest with you and be a pretty big part to this team. He made huge strides. And when we lost him in the end of February, we were 18 games over .500, we were playing really well, and -- excuse me, it was a little bit before that, 18 games over .500, but once we got into March we started to feel his absence more, and I didn't have somebody else that could step in that was sitting on the end of the bench.

As I said before, once Wes Matthews went to Indiana, there really wasn't a lot of other options out there, and that put some stress on us offensively, and you never want to be in that position.

But there's no perfect team, and as I said earlier, the majority of the questions last year were about the defense, getting that corrected. I felt like even with the hit we took with Dre, we had some guys step up, and I think the players and coaches did a pretty good job overall, supposed to be a top 5 defense, but you're not going to solve one thing without creating another situation somewhere else.

You know, that's something we'll have to continue to look at, and I'm sure you guys will have plenty of questions about that. I'm happy to answer them.

As we look into the off-season, the key for us, it always is the same. It's how do we create a path forward, how do we create as many options as possible. To be honest with you, going into year 12 after 11 years and being in the Playoffs nine out of ten years, with changes all around us, it gets harder and harder. But if I sat here last year, I wouldn't have been able to foresee or predict what we'd have been able to do at that point in time. So I can't tell you what that looks like.

I can only tell you that we're going to look for literally every single way to improve the team, both externally and internally, but that's no different. I personally -- I love the puzzle. I love the challenge. I love this time of year. I love the opportunity to be with the people that I work with to try to solve these things, you know, and there's a price to the longevity that we've established, and we've got to keep grinding and figure out ways to make it last longer.

This will be the first time in four years that we aren't entering the summer trying to convince a franchise player not to go to a bigger market. So I'd say that's welcome on our end of things. When you're going through those things, I think it's relatively unprecedented that an organization has faced that four years in a row. I'm proud of the way we've navigated that, even though sometimes it hasn't gone our way. And you do things and you stress yourself and you push yourself, and trying to convince those guys to stay is a challenge.

The fact that we have Russ, Paul, Steven, Terrance, Dennis, Jerami, really the core of the team, the guys that played the minutes, under contract, is a stability that we welcome, and it allows us to go into the off-season with a little bit of a different perspective than we've had in the past, and that's helpful, because I think more than likely based on kind of where we are strategically, our greatest path for improvement is going to be the improvement of our core group.

And that improvement is probably going to be greater than any type of impact that we're going to be able to have with like a marginal addition here or there when you kind of think about the group that's returning and the fact that we primarily playing nine guys.

We'll look at everything external. We'll beat the bushes like we always do. If I sat here last year, I didn't think Nerlens Noel would be playing for us. He was a big factor in our defense being what it was. I had no idea that we'd end up with Dennis Schroder in August. So you've just got to work the plan. You've got to be consistent. And in our case, what works for us is being pretty methodical.

Just in closing, I would just say, look, we've established a certain standard here over 10 years, averaging 52Â½ wins per season, second best net rating in the league over the last 10 years, and we're disappointed that we're not still playing. At the same time, we have to take ownership over that, and we've got to take a hard look at where we are as a team, what the options are, and look at those and see how we can make it better.

But that's part of competition, and happy to answer any questions.

Q. You talked about the great start, then obviously March came. Was there anything from your point of view, what you saw, that brought about that 6-13?
SAM PRESTI: Well, I think that's the actual -- that's the crux of the question for me. Before we can even start thinking about like how do we solve for that. We don't have the liberty of just making like a snap reaction or coming in with an emotional vantage point. If we did, we'd forget the fact that we were 11 and 12, Paul George was going to be the MVP. We were going into Toronto and winning, we were going into Golden State and winning, going to Houston and winning, beating Milwaukee. We played really well. That seems far away.

I don't think you can discount the fact that we got our ass kicked in the Playoffs. There's no getting around that. But I think anyone objective and anybody that is more than a momentary problem solver would probably take a step back and look at the whole thing. To try to answer your question, it's to say, I don't have that answer, and I would think that if I did, you shouldn't listen to me because I would just be coming in here with an emotional perspective, which as a leader I can't do that.

Q. You said you will give Billy some distance and then you guys will talk. Can you clarify what his status is?
SAM PRESTI: Sure, yeah. We anticipate Billy being back. If anything were to change on that, we would have let you know, and I know some of you guys have had questions about that. But for us, for me personally, I always think that it's important to give the coach of the team time to reflect and decompress. These jobs are really, really hard. Before you can get into, okay, what did we do well, what did we lay out, what can we do better, what can we do different, how do you see the team, what did you hear in exit interviews, what did I hear in exit interviews, I think you've got to get away from it, otherwise you're operating in -- you're just being drenched with the end result, which matters, but how you got to that point I think is equally as important when you're making assessments to inform the future.

So we'll do that just like we always do, and we'll inform our off-season planning from there.

Q. Last year you guys started 8-12 and finished 40-22. That's a 65 percent winning percentage. The same thing happened this year except it happened at the end of the year. Is there a common theme with these last two?
SAM PRESTI: I mean, these are good questions, and I just want to stress to you guys, like a lot of the questions you have are questions that I have. You know, the difference is I'm responsible for digging into them, understanding them, and evaluating them for more than what makes me feel good. I'm not looking to feel good or to justify something or validate something. I care so much about this organization and this team, I really want to understand it deeply to the point empirically that I believe it, not just telling myself it must have been this or it must have been that. That's not enough for me or any of us in the organization.

I do think last year we sat here, and there was a clear inflection point, okay. We lost Roberson, and at that point things started to really get destabilized. That didn't happen this year. In fact, I think the players and the coaches deserve a lot of credit for the fact that we came into the season with some stated goals that I voiced on all of our behalf at this table saying, listen, we need to be an elite defensive team. We need to play with great athleticism. We need to turn our offense into transition so we can take advantage of the team speed that we have, and we need to get Russell as many opportunities at the rim as possible, both in transition and our other guys good looks in transition because if our defense plays to its potential, we should be pretty good.

Offensively we wanted to be a ball movement penetration team. We wanted to be a team that made quick decisions. And when we did those things, for 70 percent of the season, we were winning at a high level. I know it seems distant, and I'm not sitting up here trying to tell anybody that we had this brilliant season, because I'm not. But I also can't sit here and say that we weren't the fifth best net rating team for 70 percent of the season or that we were pretty hard to play against, home or road. That's what you're looking for.

We didn't have an inflection point, like an injury. In fact, the fact that Dre couldn't come back and we had Terrance step up and had really -- where Terrance went from one year to the next is pretty impressive, Diallo helped us win a lot of games. He was starting. He went through his rookie ups and downs, but he contributed, he stepped up. Schroder played a lot in place of Dre.

So I don't think there was an inflection point. I think we came out of the break, and we just couldn't match that level of intensity or I shouldn't say intensity, the standard that we ourselves created after the Utah game.

So we'll look at that. Some of it, listen, we played tougher teams. There's a million different things. That's why I need to meet with all the different pillars of the organization because everyone has a perspective and opinion, and I want to listen to those.

Q. Paul had a couple of hurt shoulders, now it seems like he's going into surgery. Could he be out an extended period of time? And if he is going to miss significant time at the beginning of the season, how do you go about making up for that, not only on the defensive end but on the offensive end where you guys really struggled down the stretch and especially in the Playoffs?
SAM PRESTI: Yeah, well, there's a lot of hypothetical and speculation in that question. So I would just say like in the event that any player is missing time for whatever reason, if it's for the birth of a child or it's because they're sick or because they have an injury, like we'll account for it. We did it with Dre. If it happens to be a player of great magnitude, that's going to be harder for most teams, but we've dealt with it before. In the event that that happens -- but I'm not going to sit here and pontificate about pontification.

Q. You said you anticipate Billy being the coach; does that mean that he's going to be the head coach starting the season next season?
SAM PRESTI: Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't expect anything to change. As I said, that might be the one thing you did miss is I said nothing changes. I haven't had the chance to sit down with him. I do think getting his perspective on things is important because there's nobody that works harder than him. If anything, I think he needs to take some time to think through the season himself and have a really good conversation.

But yeah, no, nothing has changed. If something were to change, obviously we would have told you guys.

Q. We know Russell has never been in trouble off the floor, but as the face of your franchise, as the face of the organization, do you find it distracting in his dealings with media or even some of his dealings with individual match-ups on the floor, do you find that all going away from what you want to be as an organization?
SAM PRESTI: I'm glad you asked that question. No one has asked me that question. Let me be clear about a couple things. I might be a little bit redundant on something you said, but number one, Russell Westbrook has been here for 11 years. The reason why there's so many people in the room and so many people watching the press conference right now, a big part of that is the fact that Russell Westbrook has helped us to achieve a certain level of sustained success that's relatively rare in pro sports.

The last time that I checked, he has never had a problem off the floor in a character vein. His reputation there is sterling. Philanthropically he's done incredible things for this community, and he's also done incredible things for his hometown in Los Angeles.

With all that being said, he's not perfect. None of us are. You know, but I'm not going to let 11 years or 10 and a half years of his contributions and performance be completely overshadowed by a couple pretty tough months, okay. And so we talk about those things, and as the leader of the team and the face of the franchise, as you said, we'll have those conversations, and there might be times that we might disagree with some of that stuff.

He has a point of view at times. He's an adult. He's a man. I respect that point of view. The one thing that I think everybody that works for the Thunder and plays for the Thunder has always had in mind is that we always have to put the organization first. There's no one person or individual that can ever afford not to do that.

At the same time, like we can't discount the things that Russell has done over the years and the things he's been able to achieve. Now, we certainly don't want to take those things for granted. But for me, it's more about understanding not only the outcome but also what's the root of that, and meeting somebody and understanding like, okay, why did you take it in that direction, we might disagree about how it was handled, and at times, that's perfectly fine with me, because you have 11 years invested into something that everybody cares so deeply about.

So yeah, would we prefer if he handled a few things differently? Sure. We've talked about that. I also think it would probably be worthy and noteworthy to establish the fact that he made some adjustments to that particular approach, and I think that's a sign of tremendous leadership and a sign that he is understanding that when he speaks, he is the reflection of so many different people. And I know how much he cares about the team because I've seen it for 10 and a half years.

Sometimes I wish that the conversations that I have with him, you guys could see. Know what I mean? Just in terms of the way he can express himself and the points of view he has, because he's a pretty smart guy, and he makes you think. You know, I want to understand, kind of continue to build that, because I think some of the things you referred to where positive in the sense that we can sit down and talk about them.

But we're not going to let a two-month period where -- and things get significantly magnified when you lose in the first round. But we'll sit down and talk about those things that we want to, of course, correct, because there's nothing more important than the Thunder to all of us.

Q. In years past you mentioned that Steven makes these settle jumps each year. How did you feel about his season this year?
SAM PRESTI: You know, again, I think he's a great encapsulation of this kind of 70/30 concept, which is that in the beginning of the year he was dominant. He's a big reason why we were 18 games over .500 and playing so well. He was calling for the ball in the post. He was really effective down there. He was putting people in the basket. He was rolling hard. He was doing the Steven Adams things that help you win games that don't always show up, know what I'm saying, those effort plays and the physical plays.

And then toward the end of the year, obviously he didn't play as well. But that's not just him, that's a group thing, not just Steven. I think the number one thing for him is he's got to become a better free-throw shooter, and as a team, like I know much has been made about our shooting in general, and we're probably more focused on efficiency than we are just going up and shooting-shooting, but shooting happens all over the floor.

Our free-throw shooting, if it just gets to league average, would have a significant impact on our offensive rating and our net rating as a result. Our ability to convert in transition would make a significant impact, especially for a team that's in transition as much as we are. It's kind of like -- our free-throw shooting is kind of like -- I've used this expression before, it's like leading the league in walks and pickoffs. We're there, we're doing the hardest thing, but we're not capitalizing. You know, that's a team thing.

Q. Thoughts on Paul George, what he's accomplished this season, tops in steals, how he grew in year two with the steals?
SAM PRESTI: You know, there's a point in the season where it was like game by game, I was saying to myself, I didn't realize how good this guy really was. I mean, he was playing at an exceptional level on both sides of the ball. To me the thing about Paul that's so remarkable is he impacts the game for every minute he's on the court because he plays both sides at such a high level that he's -- if he plays 35 minutes, that's 35 minutes of impact you're getting because he can score with it, he can make plays for other people, but on defense he also can negate really great scorers. He truly is a two way player and one of the best if not the best in the league, and he really had it going early in the year, and he was leading us.

So I think obviously he was slowed a little bit at the end, but I was kind of impressed through the year.

Q. We saw in the last series how important shooting is in the Playoffs with Lillard. Where do you think the offense goes from here?
SAM PRESTI: Well, I mean, listen, with respect to Russ, we're two years away from him shooting 34 percent or so from three and him shooting +80 from the free-throw line. So we know he's capable of doing that.

This is a player that is dominant in like just about every aspect of the game, but he had a tough shooting year. I don't think there's any reason to like dance around that.

Now, with that being said, a lot of the things he used to be criticized for when he was 25, he's doing exceptionally better now that he's 30, and my expectation would be that the same thing will follow, which is he's shown he can shoot from three, he did it two years ago as an MVP with a team without PG. That was a team with like Vic, Taj, Enes, Doug, Domas, Alex, that team. And I'd expect him to become better next year.

But we can't lose sight of the fact that like this is a guy that leads the league in assists to the corner. He leads the league in non-corner -- second in the league in non-corner three assists. Leads the league in assists at the rim. He'll go down as probably the best rebounding guard in the history of the NBA. He's second in the league in loose balls. He improved -- he had a good year finishing in the rim in half court, and he shot the ball off the catch from three in the corner I think at like a 36 percent clip. He struggled from a couple places on the floor, and listen, like we need him to have a better year shooting the ball, there's no question. But we can't diminish the fact that he's more or less dominating the game in a lot of these other areas.

Every time somebody seems to say, well, he's not doing this, he's not doing that, a lot of the things I just mentioned are things he wasn't doing when he was 25. I'd expect him to put in the work, I'd expect him to come back, and I'd expect him to knock some of those down.

Q. You talked about the guys being free-throw shooters, but might acquisition be part of that equation, getting better shooters on your roster?
SAM PRESTI: Always, always. We'll look under every rock. When you look at it, I look at it this way: Three of the five guys starting are shooting 36 to 40. Dennis is a 36 percent three-point shooter off the catch. We're not going to get shooting out of our 5's as of right now, depending on what happens with Nerlens. But maybe we can push Steven into a development phase where we have him look at that. I mean, he can shoot the ball. We've seen it for years in the practice gym. Everybody here has. Internal development is a lot of creativity, imagination, and you've got to stick with that through the years. We've seen that with different players in the league, regardless of age.

The backup 4, coming into the year, I thought Patterson, he was starting for a little bit, and then obviously JG took over that spot. But he's been a 35 to 40 three-point shooter. If he's back, which I'd expect him to be, maybe we need to ride that out a little bit longer and rely on him to shoot his career averages, which he has done even the year before.

Then we play nine guys, so that's not even counting Dre coming back and what he'll do. So that's leaving you like the Alex spot, which we'll definitely look to try to address. But like I said before, that's the nine guys that are playing, and we can either address those guys, play 10 guys, play differently, or add players from the outside, which we'll absolutely try to do. And that's totally on me to figure that out.

Q. There are a great many fans who will say three straight first-round exits, why bring the Coach back and expect something different. How would you speak to that?
SAM PRESTI: Well, I mean, again, I think every team is always changing. Our job isn't to just sit here and react to things. It's to be methodical as we go through things, understand how we can get better, what the plan is for that. Last season we could have said, listen, the team is not good enough defensively, and we put our heads together and became a better defensive team.

But the margins for error are small, in the Western Conference for sure, but to me that's one of the things about competition that doesn't bother me. Like sometimes you lose. Competing doesn't mean you only compete when the wind is at your back. So yeah, listen, we're not entitled to anything. We don't come into the year expecting to just automatically be served up opportunities to play in the Playoffs. You've got to earn those.

But you've also got to perform when you get there, and we haven't done that, so we've got to figure out what that is. We've never been shy about the fact that like we've got to go out and do the work, study it, and make the best decisions for the future of the franchise and the health of the franchise, and that's what we intend to do.

Q. When you hired Billy, you mentioned his technical competence and that's probably going to haunt you for the rest of the time you talk about Billy, but where did you see that stand up this season?
SAM PRESTI: Well, I mean, taking a team that was -- you guys were asking me as many questions about the defense last year, and getting them to be a top-5 defense is one part. I think our after-time-out success, again, I don't have the numbers on that, so I'm very, very careful on that stuff, but I feel like we got good looks coming out of time-outs. When we were going through the Western conference Playoffs in 2016, within two minutes of going to the Finals, I thought he did an excellent job. I don't think he's in the different than he was there.

I think he does a really good job. But these jobs are really hard. You can draw up the best plays or you can put together what you feel is a really good team, and sometimes it doesn't come to fruition because there's so many other competing factors and forces that are at play. And so ultimately it's whether or not all of us -- when I say that, I mean every single person in the organization, can we try to get the most out of what we have. You know, that's a unified thing.

Q. You got a lot of support from ownership the last few years, committing to the big luxury tax, all that stuff. Is their appetite for that still as strong as ever in the wake of three straight first-round exits?
SAM PRESTI: Sure, well, number one, I think our -- all those decisions, all those conversations happen after the season, so I can't give you a specific answer to that. We'll sit down and debrief. I know that when we're -- for 70 percent of the season, we're playing at that level and we're showing the capability and having PG and Russell Westbrook in Oklahoma City, that was really important. I think our owners deserve an immense amount of credit for a couple things. Number one, recognizing the opportunity to have two players like that in the second smallest market, understanding that to convince those guys to be here and to sign on takes a lot, you know, in this day and age and what the NBA has become.

I think they also understand that that's also a sign not only to the current players, but I think it's also an indication to future players down the line in different areas of the team that in Oklahoma City, we're going to do everything we can to try to, A, create an environment where you can be at your best, and B, try to win. So I think that it's twofold in that respect.

But yeah, like we could chop it up in hindsight and say, this should have happened, that should have happened. Essentially we're paying for the opportunity to have those players. The alternative would be to not have those guys, you know, in Oklahoma City. There are plenty of places that would love to have them.

Q. Would you expect that out of Markieff Morris?
SAM PRESTI: You know, the buyout thing is always hard in my opinion. I thought he played much better toward the end of the season. The one thing I think he brings to the team or any team, and one thing I think we need is he brings an edge. You know, he brings a physicality. He brings a toughness and a competitive maturity. At the same time, he was coming off of being hurt for a little bit. He had no problems when he was here health-wise, and we like the way he plays and competes.

But the buyout thing is always hard, especially when you're going well. It's hard to work those guys in. We've had it before with Randy Foye and, gosh, Caron, Fish. You compete for these guys and you get them, but assimilating them in, there's no science to it.

Q. You were asked about Paul earlier; any clarification you can give on his status and whether he's going to have surgery?
SAM PRESTI: Sure. So with PG, everybody knows that he was battling a couple different things during the year. Any time we're dealing with injuries, we work with the player. We work with the agent. We work with our physicians, and we almost always have a specialist or kind of outside doctor that we're working with, as well. You know, everybody felt comfortable with him playing. He was at no risk of any type of future injury. But we all knew that when we get to the end of the season, he'd have to be looked at and evaluated. That hasn't happened yet.

He's going to meet with that physician in another city. We'll be there for that consult, and then we'll see where that goes from there.

Q. Is there any clarity you can give on Alex's situation, how that happened?
SAM PRESTI: You know, all I can tell you is it was a personal issue, and Alex is doing well, and I really believe in Alex as a player, and he really was showing great strides. I thought he was going to have a great year. Unfortunately it didn't go that way. But I'm just not at liberty to talk more about that other than to say like we support him, and he's still part of our family. He's just not part of the team.

I hope he's back on the floor at some point because he's a really good basketball player.

Q. I don't know how it ended up -- for much of the year you guys were top of the league in technical fouls, barely even got close up there to the top. The whole league seems to be consumed with complaining to the officials. Yesterday was a marquee game. All anyone is talking about is the officiating. Is that good for basketball? Is that good for the Thunder? If you don't like it, what can you do about it?
SAM PRESTI: Well, I appreciate the perspective that it's not just the Thunder, that people do complain about officiating. If you don't believe that, just go to your high school -- local high school or unfortunately go to the YMCA. It's a societal transformation in sports. I think it's a sign of bigger things in my opinion. Like society changes, and people express themselves differently, and social media has created a pathway to so many good things, but it also can do some things that aren't productive, either.

With respect to the technical fouls, we don't come into the year saying we'd like to lead the league or be at the top of the league in technical fouls, just so we're clear. We addressed that with the players and try to play the fine line of you can't put players in boxes and say, we want you to play hard, we want you to be passionate, we want you to express yourself, but we don't want you to go over the line. It's a really delicate thing.

I think what we would like to have is a team that plays inspired but not necessarily a team that plays emotional because I think the emotional team is easier to play against. I think the inspired team is harder to beat. And that's a conversation that we have internally all the time.

With that said, over 82 games, there is going to be some emotion that comes with that. You know, every team is going to face it. The ability to have that and then it's all about how you respond in my opinion, and there's times that we could do better at that, but there's also times where you have to give some latitude to the fact that people are competing, giving everything they have, and there are occasions where calls are missed, and the reaction is sudden, and the official is in a position where they can -- that's called game management, and everyone manages the game differently.

The officials are under an intense amount of pressure, as well, and I think the last two minute reports are really an intriguing thing. They're obviously there because of the advent of gambling on pro sports. They're difficult because it's not an independent review, right, it's reviewed by the NBA, who produces the report, and it's not entirely transparent because we don't know who's doing the review, which sometimes can create more questions about them.

So I understand the need as to why they need to exist, because of what we're facing with gambling and the absolute need for transparency and integrity for our game. There's nothing more important. But there may be some things that we can do to try and maybe take the pressure off the outcome of the calls the next day. I don't know. It's really a question for Adam.

But I know it's top of mind for him. They've been working on this forever. And the officials, the best part to me about them is when you run into them in an airport and they're carrying their bag with their little neck pillow. They are allowed to sleep. And they're people. They're humans. They don't want to make mistakes. They don't want to make mistakes. Just like a player doesn't want to miss a shot. The world we live in is so immediate, and sometimes to be honest with you, it sometimes can be a little angry, and you've got to have thick skin.

Those guys work really hard. At the same time, it's split-second stuff, and the ability to respond and emotionally regulate is important for every team. But it is every team. We can be better.

Q. You've got a lot of contingencies for all kinds of scenarios. I asked you about Russell's shooting and you expected him to come back and be better. What if he comes back and he's the same or worse?
SAM PRESTI: Well, that's possible with everything. I can't make you a promise about anything. Like you can walk outside and it's possible it could be raining and you don't have an umbrella. I can't help you with that. You're welcome to stay here as long as you want, but yeah, it's possible. What you can do is create a plan and work the plan, put the time in, and all I can tell you is like we're two years away from him shooting 34 percent, and he shot 88 percent from the free-throw line in the Playoffs, you know? That's a big jump start to our offense. Offensively we had two pretty tough games. We had the same -- unfortunately we had the two -- we had two of the same games that the Spurs had in Game 7 shooting the ball, and that'll happen when you get into small sample sizes. We shot the blood out of it for three games, but it wasn't enough. They shot it better.

But I'd expect Russell to put the time in and come back better. We know he's capable, like I said before. He led the league in a lot of different categories. That doesn't happen by accident, either. He's put the time in for that. And then everybody has to get better. It's not about him, know what I mean? It's really a group effort. I have to do my part, but again, my job, I've got to look at how good is this team, what's the capability of the team, what's the path forward for the team, what are we going to do to improve the existing group, what can we do externally to work from there. It's a combination. It never comes down to one person, like I said. No one is bigger than the organization. No individual is bigger than the organization. It's never one answer to a problem. We've got to sort it out.

Q. Any chance you never hit your sweet spot this season? And I'm thinking of the 11 of 12 wins, you guys weren't defending as you were previous to that, and yet Paul goes off, Russell facilitates, it's great basketball. So do you think you ever really found that spot that you wanted to be?
SAM PRESTI: Well, I mean, again, yeah. There is points in the Playoffs where if you're looking at segments of a quarter or a game or a half, absolutely. A 10-game stretch, listen, you can't be -- it's like you can't hold one thing down, be good in another, and not have everything -- everything is interconnected is what I'm trying to say to you. I don't know that we were ever like at our best defensively and our best offensively, but I don't know that any team is. It's an 82-game journey. It's an 82-game process to create a reliable style of play and performance level that can compete under adverse conditions. And the one thing I really think that was promising to me was the way we played on the road in some big games.

Now, the flipside of that is we also came out and played some poor games against some teams that were under .500. So that goes into the mix, too, as we try to evaluate it, like what's driving that.

But as I said, capability, like we set a standard coming -- I say for 70 percent of the season, that yeah, some nights we're going to beat you offensively, some nights we're going to beat you defensively. We had some stretches, we were the second best three-point shooting team in the league for like two months, but then we go to like 28. So there's an inconsistency there that we have to try to find.

Now, when the data will tell you that like when the ball is moving, we generate pretty good shots, open shots, and when the ball is stagnant, we take tougher shots. I don't think that's like -- if you've watched the Thunder over 10 years, you pretty much know that. But I did think we played faster. I did think that when the ball moved, we generated the shots we wanted. I think that people think about efficiency as just simply making shots, but efficiency is also like winning the turnover battle, winning the offensive rebounding battle, winning the defensive rebounding battle. It's all these little games within the game that you have to be really good at.

You know, we looked at it, and I looked at it the other day, we're shooting the three about as well as Denver. We're five-tenths of a point off of Milwaukee, and we're disappointed about it, and we'd like it to be better, no doubt about it. But I also think we can't be dead last in free-throw shooting if we're getting there that much. So it's across the board improvement that needs to happen, and that's on all of us, myself obviously especially, but if we can add that to a 49-win team with the month of March we had, we'd feel good. But that's also hypothetical. That's got to happen.

Q. How about free-throw shooting? Obviously that's something that the players and team control. How do you get that -- what do they need to do to get better in that area?
SAM PRESTI: You know, we've talked to a lot of people about that, and one thing is we'll have a plan on that. That's something I'm looking forward to speaking to Billy about. Billy is an established coach. He's coached this game for a long time. We feel like we've got -- certainly capable of doing that, and we've got to make that a priority so we come back a little bit better.

Q. When do you expect Dre might be 100 percent?
SAM PRESTI: Dre is doing well. First of all, he's in incredible spirits, considering some of the setbacks he's had. But that's who he is. You guys saw him up here the other day. Know what I mean? He's buoyant is the way I would refer to him. He's the ultimate teammate. He's helping behind the scenes all the time, and he feels like he's in a really good spot.

Now, obviously we've got the off-season to allow that to take its course. So sad because he was so close to coming back when he had the setback. But listen, those things happen. It's how you respond to them. He feels great. He's a big part to the team. I think we all know that. Because he does all the subtle stuff. He's a winning player. Not having him out there was tough, but there's other teams that have injuries, too. It's just when you don't have a player for the whole year, you sometimes forget that, until you run into a situation where you're like, he was always good against that guy.

But that's competition. That's how it goes. You've got to account for it.

I just keep coming back to the fact, I think Ferg showed that he has the makings of being an elite defender at 20, 20 years old. Once he gets through the officiating gauntlet and they understand, he's going to be here, he's going to learn the tricks of the trade a little bit, just like Dre did, I think that he has a chance to be a really good player. He's got a good mindset about it.

One thing I would say is Andre Roberson deserves a lot of credit for helping that guy, which to me is a tremendous sign of what we want to be.

Q. Jawun, what's your plan for him this summer?
SAM PRESTI: Listen, we're in a situation where you can't add a two-way player after a certain date. We had an open spot. He'd be an interesting player for us to look at. He was good for our playoff prep. He did a great job for that. We'll have him around in the summertime. Strategically, it's like just you claim him off waivers because there's no one you can sign at that point, to that spot, so we did that. I enjoyed getting to know him a little bit. Obviously watched him for a while. He's a hard worker, and we'll see what he does this summer.

Q. Last week Dennis said Billy is the kind of guy that listens to players and there's good and bad in that. Do you feel like there's a strong culture of accountability here, and if not, is that something you would want to discuss?
SAM PRESTI: Yeah, so I think every coach has their own voice. Every coach has their own style. I don't know everything that Dennis said, but at the end of the day, Billy is in charge of what takes place on the floor, and ultimately charting the path as to what's going to get the best performance out of the team. Clearly there are times when we're playing at an extremely high level, 70 percent of the year, and he was obviously hitting the right buttons, and you weren't -- not you specifically, but those questions weren't being asked.

But you lose in the first round, and as I said before, everything gets magnified. That's part of it. So we'll sit down, and these are some of the things that like when you sit down with a couch, you might hear, like what do you think, how can we get better, what do you think about the team, how do we go into the last season -- excuse me, off-season into season, laying out those goals and hitting them.

I think the big question for us is we established this level and the standard coming in. Something was different. We have the baseline to measure. And I think just understanding what that is. Not saying specifically like, okay, individually, but as a group, because everything touches that stuff. No one is better to have that opinion or that I want to hear than Billy because he's the person that's managing that on a regular basis in kind of dealing with the group, and he's done a really good job while he's been here. So I'd like to hear that and figure out what we're going to do, how he feels about mapping out a plan to maybe sustain it through the season.

Q. You mentioned being an emotional team, and I don't want to imply anything, but is that something you feel you need to have a conversation with Russell Westbrook because it's a fine line, you want him to play with that intensity, but is that an area in which you feel he can improve?
SAM PRESTI: Well, listen. I think it's kind of like the age-old question. First, the implication that those conversations haven't been had or that we're not having them -- we're always talking to our players. But we also have to recognize that the same things that I think you're implying are the same things that I think people are cheering when we win, right, when we're winning, everybody is celebrating whatever it is that they're criticizing when we don't win.

The question is are we -- is that helping us win, know what I mean? If it is, we've got to keep it. If it's not, then we probably need to eliminate it.

But a player like Russell is expending so much energy, he's leaving everything he has on the floor, he's competing for himself, his teammates, his team. There's going to be some emotion in that. That's a big reason why we have bounced back and navigated from a lot of different things during the season.

Does that mean that you can't take time to look at every aspect of performance? No. Does that mean we're shying away from having that conversation? No. But that's all right. That's part of a relationship, that's part of trying to improve. That's natural.

I mean, I can't help that not everybody can see every conversation we have, but we also can't have him taking away that because, as you said earlier, the emotional team is easier to play against, but a team that lacks confidence is even easier to play against.

So you have to have confidence. You have to have some stick to you, which the last time I checked, I don't think he's short on. But that's part of the reason why we've been really good. I'm not going to sit up here and deny that. He's driven that engine for quite a long time.

Q. Do you think it's possible for him to shed some of the emotion that creates technical fouls and three-pointers early in the shot clock without a pass but keep the emotion? There's a balancing act --
SAM PRESTI: Yeah, well, I think, listen, there's evolution. Here's what I'd say about that. I know he probably wouldn't want to -- you may not realize it, but he's really evolved as a player. I mean, it's kind of like, I don't know, I'm not going to dissect that, but the bottom line is, like I said earlier, when you're 25 years old and you're getting criticized for all these things, you look up, you're 30, and you're doing a lot of those things significantly better, there's evolution.

He wasn't, like I said earlier, he wasn't hitting the corners like he hits the corners now. Listen, I don't know if they're keeping stats like this, but he's stacking the league in loose balls. I think that's been pretty regular. He took more -- he finished better around the rim. Shot distribution was actually trending and a little bit different than it's been in the past. He's missing -- right now, he didn't shoot the ball well this season, but I don't think that's a sign that he's not evolving. I think he is evolving in some ways.

But I know he may not want that moniker, but the bottom line is he has evolved.

Now, is he going to get better? I think he will, because all the things that we just rattled off were things that I don't think he's done regularly throughout his career. There's a gargantuan will that exists inside this human being that, like, I think is going to win the day, and I think he will come back. But yeah, for sure, there's always evolution possible. And I think that he has evolved.

I do think that some of the last two months maybe overshadows that a little bit. But listen, that's part of it. When you lose, when you lose, that's what happens. You've got to eat that. You've got to own that. As an organization, you've got to move on.

Q. We talked about all the rough stuff that's coming up this season, but what role do you think Billy has played in that, in these past few years of Russell's evolution?
SAM PRESTI: I mean, probably better ask Russell that question, but obviously Billy is the coach, and he's been a part of that. I think any time -- like the head coach and the lead guard are always going to have to have a relationship and a give and take, and there will be ebbs and flows of that naturally no matter what because you've got to work so closely together. I think both of those guys spoke to that in their media availability at the end of the season. And I think that Russell wants to be really good at what he does. He cares a lot.

He carries a pretty big weight. I think that needs to be respected. I think Billy carries a pretty big weight, as well. These are important roles and important positions, and they're vital. You know, but yeah, of course, I think that it's -- the partnership is important to be able to continue to evolve, and that doesn't mean everybody has to like hug each other all the time, either. Like that's okay. We're comfortable with that.

But for the most part, I think that Russell's evolution has been pretty significant over the last three years.

Q. When you're talking about Westbrook's shooting and having a contingency plan if it doesn't get better, this was a year when you expected it to be better and it wasn't. How do you feel like you guys did as an organization preparing for it?
SAM PRESTI: Well, what I said was not specific to Russell, but specific to Alex. So you know, it's a little bit different. Like I was saying earlier, like the guys I've listed off, the core of the team, the guys that are playing the minutes, know what I mean? They're the ones also taking the shots, most of the shots, from Jerami, who we haven't even talked about. It's kind of remarkable. He led the team in three-point shooting, I don't know that I foresaw that coming. But credit to him. Terrance, PG, Steve, Dennis, Russ, probably leaving somebody out. But yeah, I mean, to me like getting some bumps in those areas is -- especially where we are from a cap standpoint, I mean, like there's just a -- there's a price for longevity. We've had two CBA changes during this run. We've had style of play changes. And the reality is that the team that we have today was built off the back of the summer of 2016. It wasn't a blank canvas that we could meticulously craft.

And I know that seems like a long time ago, but like we had a decision to make after that, and we chose to keep competing and keep advancing, knowing that it was going to be hard to do that. But I just think that we've always looked ahead and said, let's sort it out, let's figure it out. And we'll do everything we can to look at all the ways we can bring in guys that can help the crew, help the team that we feel like we can help or we can grow and that can have an impact.

At the same time, we're also going to look internally because I don't think players are static. They never have been, all right, so we never -- I shouldn't say -- I don't think anyone anticipated Jerami Grant taking on the role that he did this season. He wasn't even starting this year. He was playing backup 5 last year, right, and he's our starting 4 and leading the team in three-point shooting.

So players aren't static. The contingency planning I was referring to was I think if we have Alex, I think we're a better team that way. But improved free-throw shooting would have also an improvement. But I've got to have a better plan for that spot. As I said earlier, you look at the group of guys I mentioned, luckily they're all under contract, and that's -- what is that, six guys or so, we play nine, and so you've got to have someone in the slot Alex is playing. Maybe that's Nader. He shows some real promise, I don't know. Maybe that's someone outside. We've got to figure out what Nerlens is doing. I think Pat may be back. He has a long history of being a pretty good shooter in the league. I feel badly about just kind of some of the breaks that have gone against him. But he's a relatively proven guy. And then we've got to fix that spot that we talked about for sure.

Q. Not having that contingency for Alex, did you think you did before that, or did you think -- well, when the season started --
SAM PRESTI: No, what I'd say is we were coming into the season basically really concerned about the defensive dropoff from last season because that was what we sat here and talked about. And Dre had an existing situation that we needed to account for. And so we tried to fortify that in the event he was slow to recover.

We also brought Dennis in. We thought he would be playing bulk minutes there. And I thought Alex was going to really be part of the team. And it didn't end up happening that way.

So that can happen. My guess is that if we do something, if this team -- no team stays the same, but in the event let's say this team was exactly the same next season and we went and filled that role with somebody who's an expert shooter, there will be something else we're sitting here talking about at the end of the year unless you're the last team standing. Every team is built that way. It's just how it works.

I get that. I think if Alex is available and playing, I think it will help us. Would it solve all these problems? No, there would be something else that we would be wanting to address because that's what we do. That's how you look at things. Nothing is ever good enough. Like it shouldn't be. You want to always try to take it better. But in terms of where you have to put your reinforcements, I'm glad we put them where we did, because we really did lose Dre, and the pain of losing Alex, it was really more prominent once we got to March. Like that's when we really started to feel it because we were playing really well up until then, but that's what we missed -- we missed him a great deal. That's how it goes.

Does that answer your question?

Q. You can't fill every hole; you don't have unlimited resources, there's not unlimited ball players out there. I just wondered if you knew that was a problem --
SAM PRESTI: Oh, do you mean Alex's situation? Oh, no. No, no.

Q. You thought you'd be in okay shape?
SAM PRESTI: No, I was worried about how the hell we were going to keep Alex.

Q. Well, I'm talking about if something happened to him, because you said it's on you that you didn't have a contingency if something happened to Alex.
SAM PRESTI: Well, I can't sit up here and not take accountability. You know, I can't, because at the end of the day, I mean, I can't read the future, but I'm accountable for sometimes reading the future, and it doesn't go our way that way. I made a bet that Alex was going to be a really good player for us going out, and unfortunately it didn't work out that way, and it happened late in the year. Wes Matthews went to Indiana, and that's sports. Like you can't fill every role. Like we couldn't foresee that we were going to lose Nerlens because Andrew Wiggins was going to hit him in the head with an elbow.

Like that's sports. Hindsight bias, that's something that in my position, like I can't operate in that. Like you can't unravel everything because these are human beings, things happen. Performance issues, personal issues. You've got to adapt and adjust, and no team's season goes the way they want. As I said before, Pat was starting, he was not in the rotation at the end of the year. We got 'Kieff, he did some things for us, but no team finishes the same way they start. And sometimes you find things through that. In my opinion, that's Ferg, right? We got a good look at Diallo, we got a good look at Ferg. Dre was helping both those guys. Burton helped us win a huge game in Houston. He helped us beat Portland. Nader showed us some things. I actually think Kevin Hervey with the Blue had a good year. Those are things happening under the surface. We're not talking about those here now, because as I said before, when you lose in the first round, people are pulling at the things that are more present. But I actually think that we had a pretty good development year relative to like those guys getting some opportunity.

Unfortunately it was coming at the expense of the fact that we were missing a couple guys. But like I'm always looking at where the silver lining is to try to figure out where the good part is when there's a bad situation. And then you move forward from there.

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