Friday Bolts: Regular Season's Greetings

Sam Presti addressed the media ahead of the 2024-25 regular season on Wednesday. He talked about the remade roster and, while the NBA world is aflame with Thunder hype, pushed back against our new friend expectations.

Daily Thunder's Brandon Rahbar dissected the Presti quotes, including some insight into the ancient expansion rules that could come into play soon for the league: "One thing that we know about Adam Silver since he's been the commissioner, and I think he's done an unbelievable job of this, is he has modernized the league in every single possible way... The idea of working off a set of rules that were used when Bird and Magic were rookies, I don't think that's going to meet the smell test for his administration…"

Don't count on a significant mid-season trade.

Down to Dunk provided the audio feed of the entire press conference:

The Uncontested crew covered Presti's comments, and Rahbar joined the Dream Team (subscription required) after the presser.

Tom Ziller picks Jalen Williams as a potential first-time All-Star selection this season. "J-Dub averaged 19 on exceptional shooting for a No. 1 seed. Any improvement plus continued OKC excellence will put him in range of All-Star status, even in the deep and convoluted West, where the rise of Wembanyama and reintroduction of Ja Morant is going to keep things very tight."

Dan Favale (Bleacher Report) ranked both the Alex Caruso trade and Isaiah Hartenstein signings as top-30 impact moves this offseason, alongside the wildcard addition of Russell Westbrook in Denver. "Whether (Westbrook) is capable of more wholesale evolution is very much up for debate... Can he bump up his finishing at the rim? The volume at which he screens? His capacity to play beside other shaky shooters? Answer some combination of these questions in the affirmative, and Westbrook becomes the kind of bargain-bin net-value add for whom contenders thirst. Fail to play within the larger context of the Nuggets offense, and his signing could become the kind of miss that shatters Denver's already tenuous depth."

Nathan Grubel (No Ceilings) on the burgeoning youth movement among championship teams.

In other news, Zach Lowe was let go by ESPN just a week after Adrian Wojnarowksi's sudden retirement from the company. They'll both be fine professionally (Lowe will be back in these bolts soon enough). But Frederick Okocha (LWOS) is right to mark this as the world-wide leader's acceleration into coverage "focused on short-term revenue, personality-driven debate shows, and digital content that prioritizes clicks over substance."

In 👀 news, Kawhi Leonard is sounding iffy to start the season fully healthy. A rocky Clippers season could mean a lottery pick heading OKC's way. The self-perpetuating rebuild machine Oklahoma City put in motion when trading Paul George to the LA is still a-churnin'.