Exit Interviews: There is no clock

The Thunder put a wrap on the 2013-14 season at their practice facility on Sunday. Here’s a recap of the important parts:

• Scott Brooks started his closing media session thanking the media. You’re welcome, Scotty. We just want to get better next year.

• Brooks: “Offensively, we have moved the ball. I think three years ago, we were last in assists. I think this year I think we were in the mid 13 or 14. I think we can get into the top 10. That’s something that we want to be better at, we want to be a better passing team. We have improved in that area. Sometimes we want it now, like we all do, but it takes time to get better every day.”

• In the series against the Spurs, the Thunder actually did a better job passing the ball than they did against the Grizzlies, but the contrast between styles was still obvious. In the six games, the Spurs averaged 334.8 passes a game and the Thunder 252.3, per SportVU.

• I will say this about the perception that the ball movement has to dramatically improve: You have to play to your strengths. And while the Thunder are their very best when the ball is moving side to side with movement on the weakside, you also don’t want to value the idea of passing and sharing over making sure that Westbrook and Durant are able to stretch their God-given talents. The sweet spot is combing both. That’s the next step.

• Brooks on next season’s starting five, specifically with Perk: “That remains to be seen. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done this summer. Obviously [Perkins] been a big part of what we’ve done over the years … Positions are available,” he said. “I can say that.”

• Brooks on the potential of keeping Reggie Jackson in the starting five: “I hate to put myself in that position because who knows what will happen over the summer … [Reggie] can play both positions, as can Russ. They can play together, that was proven in this series.”

• Brooks was asked about his job security: “”It’s something I don’t even consider. I just do my job every day. I’ve had a lot of valuable lessons from my mother and she’s always told me this, ‘You do your job every day and live with the results,'” he said. “‘They’ say, you can’t worry about what ‘they’ say. You never even meet those people. I have many stories I could tell you about my mom and that’s one of them. Don’t worry about them. Those are the people that told me I wasn’t going to make it as a 4-11 freshman in high school, my dream of being an NBA player. I don’t listen to ‘they.’ I always focus on what I do and try and do it to the best ability I can. I’m not looking from nobody other than doing my job and living with the results. I love what I do, and I love the team I’m with. I know I have to get better and I know the team has to get better.”

• Durant was asked if he endorses Brooks as his head coach still: “That’s our guy. I’m riding with him. I’m riding with him. It’s easy for everybody on the outside to criticize, but once you’re in the fire, once you’re in that arena, those are the guys that matter. The guys that share the blood, sweat and tears, and sleepless nights, those are the guys that count, those are the guys that matter in our book. Everybody on the outside really doesn’t.”

• Westbrook: “Ever since I’ve been here and Scotty became the coach, he’s done a great job in having confidence in me personally. There’s times where things have gone south and he’s the only that always, always had my back, regardless of what happened. People saying I was doing this or doing that, being selfish, being that, he was always the first person to step up and have my back and support me regardless of what’s going on. I think he does a great job of always staying positive and trusting in our guys and trusting in our team.”

• Durant on the season: “We don’t feel like our season was totally wasted because we didn’t win a championship.”

• I’ve seen a lot of people already go in on Durant for that comment, but it’s basically the same thing he said last season. It’s a true sign of maturity, that he can see a bigger picture than just the black and white of a championship. You can say, “See! He doesn’t have that fire!” or talk about how Kobe or MJ would never say that, but here’s some breaking news for you: Kevin Durant is his own man. If you’re questioning his commitment to winning, then you’re a straight up idiot, point blank. Nobody works harder than he does, and just because the guy maintains some perspective about life doesn’t mean he isn’t a winner.

• Russell Westbrook was asked about the ticking clock on the Thunder: “What clock? Exactly. What clock? There’s no clock. I don’t believe in saying the time is closing. We have a lot of guys on this team capable of making things happen and our organization has done a great job of putting us in the position to be able win the championship every season. And once it gets to that point, it’s on us to make it happen.”

• It’s impressive to me that Westbrook completely understands the vision of the organization. He basically summarized it in three sentences.

• The overhanging narrative to all of this is the contract situations of Durant and Westbrook, whether they’re going to commit long term to the Thunder if they aren’t winning championships. Those decisions don’t come until 2016 and 2017, but listening to them today, all they’re focused on is the team, and finding that breakthrough. They don’t sound at all like guys with wandering eyes.

• Westbrook on defense: “I’m definitely going to make more of an effort starting next year and try to continue it throughout a whole season.”

• Nick Collison on Derek Fisher: “I don’t know what Derek wants to do. We’d love to have him back as a player. He’s very important to what we do. People don’t see what he does behind the scenes, but the guy, he’s incredible. He’s different than any teammate I’ve had. The way he can address the team almost like a coach, but guys don’t roll their eyes at him. He’s one of us at the same time, he has this abilities like nobody else in terms of leadership.”

• Thunder offseason plan hatched in the media room: Derek Fisher becomes head coach, and makes Scott Brooks his starting point guard. I can already picture it: “I just like his toughness,” Fisher said. “He plays hard every day. His veteran leadership is important to us and he has championship experience.”

• Collison said he’s going to continue to work on the corner 3. “With the way the game is played, with the way coach wants to play, he wants to spread the floor and if you’re not rolling to the rim he wants you to be spaced to the 3-point line. He feels that’s the best way to play offensive basketball.”

• Collison was asked about his future with the team with next season being his last under contract: “Things just a change a lot over time in the NBA. And it really doesn’t do a lot of good to worry about or try to make decisions now when it’s a year away.”

• Collison in comparing this disappointment to other years: “This year feels different. This year is a little harder. It felt like more of a gut-punch last night.”

• Thabo Sefolosha sounded like a guy that’s played his last game for the Thunder. Asked if he thought he’d be back next season: “I have no clue. I’m going to have to take some time to think about a lot of things and see the options and take it from there.”

• Thabo on getting benched: “It was very frustrating. Very frustrating … You have a lot of questions like why, and what is the thought process necessarily behind it and things like that. You just stick with the plan and stick with your teammates but definitely, it is frustrating at times.”

• Perk: “I know this offseason is going to be the biggest offseason of my career. It’s going to be the first time approaching a time where I’m going to be an unrestricted free agent. So I definitely have to come back in better shape and get back to the basketball I played in Boston. That’s my goal.”

• Perk: “They weren’t more athletic than us, they weren’t more talented than us, but they outsmarted us. And they won the series off of that.”

• Perk: We have to learn how to play the right way for 82 games and not try to turn on this on switch for the playoffs. What you do in January affects how you play in April, May and June. You got to develop that trust early. The two teams in the Finals right now, they play the same way all year long. They make the right basketball play every time down.”

• Derek Fisher gave an extremely powerful exit interview that went 20 minutes and only featured like five questions. He wouldn’t said firmly that he’s finished, but did seem to indicate this was it.

• Fisher on the Thunder: “The toughest distance to make up is that little distance there at the end. Whatever happens going forward, just have to figure out how to get those last inches.”

• Fisher with some great perspective: “It’s still a really, really young team, to be honest … Growth, maturity, a continued understanding of how much sacrifice it really does take to be the absolute best. You can’t put that in someone else. That really has to be an experience. There has to be a turning point and a defining moment that lights a fire in an individual and a group that says, I won’t accept anything less than being the best. And in recent years, I think this group has experienced it. More than any other group or basketball team. The last four years, three trips to the Western Conference finals, a trip to the NBA Finals, and a year where Russell Westbrook got hurt and didn’t even have a chance. In comparison to the Miami Heat, who have gone to four straight Finals and won two championships, and in comparison to the San Antonio Spurs, who have been one of the most consistent and well-run basketball teams and organizations in the last 15 or 20 years, nobody else is in that class, or even close to it, but this team. This is the team that is scratching on the surface of the best in all of basketball in recent years and in the history of the game. It’s not as far off as it seems in terms of how bad it hurts, but to get across that finish line, it’s still a long stride there at the end.”

• Fisher: “This group, they have it. They want it. Just have to do it, though. There’s no shortcuts. There’s no group of guys that want to experience it more than this group though. If this is it for me, that’ll be the saddest part. One day this team is going to have a championship trophy. And if I’m there, great. If I’m not, I’m going to be just as happy because they all deserve it.”

• Reggie Jackson: “I’d like to be a starter. I’m not going to lie.”

• Serge Ibaka indicated that he was close to having surgery on his calf. “Doctor, I talked to him today, he don’t know. He was thinking I was about to get surgery.”