Thunder Journal: We're Back
Thunder fans, we are officially back.
Sam Presti’s annual preseason press conference is always the ceremonial tip off to a new season. And this particular season is one bridled with lofty expectations from not only Thunder fans, but NBA fans, insiders and analysts everywhere.
Those title contending expectations were one of the main themes of Presti’s presser. Let’s jump in, and I’ll do my yearly Presti Presser Paraphrasing.
“Each step of the way, expectations have followed us. Sometimes really high, sometimes pretty low. Most of the time pretty high. Those external expectations are things that we have seen internally or we internalize as possibilities. We see those external expectations as possibilities.
The difference is that external expectations are things that some people think should happen, and possibilities are things that we feel could happen, but we have a lot of respect for how hard it is for those things to take place. We don't think we're entitled to start on third base. We never have. And we don't expect anything to be handed over to us in any way.”
Yes, Presti realizes this is a team everyone expects to be in the championship hunt. Yes, he believes it’s a possibility as well. But just as this Thunder team has done every step of the way, going all the way back to the start of the rebuild, they are just going to work hard, take it step by step and day by day and let the chips fall where they may.
“This year we have two significant additions, I think everybody knows, with Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso…
We're going to need some time with this particular group, especially because we're not trying to wedge those guys in or have assumptions about how they're going to fit with certain players. We kind of have to allow that to take its course, and as a result I think our continuity will not be great early, but if you look at continuity in the NBA, continuity generally shows up, or lack thereof, early in the year. I don't think it will be a big issue for us once we get into the year, we get some miles underneath us. The more you play together, the more you rep together, the more you learn. We'll just need to kind of get some of that moving in order for us to get the kind of continuity that we'd like to have with this particular team.”
Don’t freak out if the Thunder don’t start out looking like the best team in the West. Sure, iHart and Caruso are big time additions, but OKC has still gotta figure out the chemistry, fit and rotations. But eventually, it’ll get it worked it and then it’s a wrap.
“There's no silver platters in Oklahoma. But I would say, anything is possible. It just can't be expected and shouldn't be expected to be handed over or to be easy. We as an organization and as a team have to earn our arrival.”
Just wanted to include this quote because it was a fitting sequel to the famous “an arrival, not an appearance” bar that Presti dropped at the beginning of the rebuild.
“The thing that always strikes me about our fans, and I think it's pretty unique to here… They don't just say, like, we're excited for the season. They really talk about how the team has really helped to change the city for the better.
I think it's very rare in sports that the people… They're not just spectating the game. They're seeing the whole picture of the team and how it has helped drive different things in the city, and it's given them more pride in different ways. That's pretty special. That revs me up personally.”
Facts. Almost any Thunder fan I talk to, and I agree with the notion wholeheartedly, believes this team is more than just recreational entertainment. It’s helped transform the reputation and standing of both the city and state, which is a point of civic pride for Oklahomans. When OKC voted to pay for a new arena, sure a big part of it was the fact that it’s fun and awesome to have one of the best teams with one of the brightest futures in the NBA… but it was also because the Thunder has become a part of Oklahoma’s identity.
“I definitely can't talk specifically about expansion because there's no telling when or if that could even be talked about or discussed…
I can speak a little bit about the rules. I think if and when that ever happens, I think the thing to note about the rules, or a lot of the expansion rules, relative to the personnel stuff were written in like 1980. They haven't been changed since 1980.
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…
One thing I think the league is really focused on, as well, is if there's a team or teams that are well-managed, you're not going to be randomly disadvantaged.”
First off, it’s wild those rules have been in place since a kid from Michigan and a kid from Indiana who would end up changing the NBA forever were just rookies. Most importantly, no need to stress about what expansion means for the incredibly deep Thunder. Or maybe Sam is speaking it into existence and hoping Silver sees the quote and realizes, ‘yeah, I shouldn’t mess over a small market team that’s meticulously managed and built a team the right way.’
"I think the other thing about that is we've got to be careful about seeing every road bump or regression as an opportunity to hit the trade builder. I think external solutions always bring with them a lot of risk to the existing team that you have. I don't think anyone really takes that into the calculus because there's such a bias for action all the time.
But if you can understand your own team enough to find internal options and solutions -- those could be schematic, those could be lineup adjustments, those could be rotation adjustments, those could be personnel changes in terms of rotation or player development or planning for development essentially -- so that you're not moving things out at the expense of the existing team, I think that's a little more nuanced way of looking at it.
That's why I think when people -- everyone tends to, when there's a team that's in regression or plateau period or whatever you want to call it, the default is, like, hit the trade builder…
But every time you do that, you're adding risk to your existing team. I think getting better at – not that we're not, but I think we have to look down the line and go, we're always going to have to see if there's alternatives internally first. There are usually things to try. But ultimately you're going to have to do some things externally, and we ultimately decided to do that this summer. But I don't think we can get in the habit of continuing to do that because I think it's going to lead us further and further away from what everyone really wants.”
Save your predictions, burn your trade machine screenshots.
“If Isaiah was 6'7" or 6'8", we'd still want him on the team. So it's not like this guy happens to be a 5. He's a good basketball player for how we want to play basketball.”
Hartenstein is a new era Thunder player. High BBIQ, great passer for his position, two way player, efficient scorer, plays hard, great teammate, does all the little things that help a team win. He’d be all those things even if he was in a power forward body. But those extra 5 inches are gonna come in handy for rebounding and rim protection.
“I don't think it's like a personal issue because we've played on Christmas nine times. We've only been here for 16 seasons. So we've been playing on Christmas more than we haven't. We also have been, I think it's top 5 in Christmas Day games since we've been here, 2008. I don't think there's another small market team that's played on Christmas more than we have…
I think there is a little bit of Hanlon's razor in there, and I think that -- and I say that to not be on opening night and not be on Christmas Day, have the second leading MVP vote getter and also the No. 1 seed. Sure.
But I also kind of like it because I think whoever is making those decisions, whether it's -- I think it's probably the league, I think they're kind of looking more at the age and saying, well, this is too young. Maybe they don't think we're this or we're that. I like that challenge…
We have to earn it. We have to show that we're a team that's capable of that type of recognition, I guess.”
BRB, I gotta google Hanlon’s razor.
“Well, we can't have that conversation until December. When we can, we will. I think it's clear that he fits a lot of the characteristics and the criteria that we value. Having had him here starting with the Blue, every time I say that, we're also admitting that we completely fumbled the ball on that, but we also did identify him, but we weren't smart enough to keep him. (Laughter). But we know him to a degree, the early stage. We know, I think, enough to want to have him here for a really long time based on his performance at his different stops but the human that we know from having been around him in the short time that he was here. But we have to wait and see where that leads us when we get to that period of time.”
Alex Caruso is definitely in OKC’s long term plans. I’d expect to see a multi-year extension in December. The Thunder gave up their first big rebuild asset in Josh Giddey, a player they were still high on but didn’t fit, in order to acquire Caruso. This front office doesn’t make that deal for a one year rental.
“I don't know how this team will perform. I do think there's a difference between building, picking players and selecting a team. I like the way the team has been selected…
I've done this long enough to say I don't have any idea how it's going to unfold. I do think that I like the compounding nature of the players we have, though…
But our guys have been -- that's one of the most inspiring things for me about this particular group of guys, that I really, really -- they give me energy in a lot of ways because I think their intentions and ideals are really in the right places to try to win. They're ambitious but without an agenda…
It's really special, and if we can maintain that, I think we can be a very good team for a very long time.”
Sam Presti, just like every Thunder fan and every NBA observer, really likes this team. Will they contend for a title this year? Sam doesn’t know. But he does believe that external expectation is a possibility.