By Michael Kinney
For the 16th consecutive year, Sam Presti sat in front of the media to give his State of the Franchise address. During that time, the Oklahoma City Thunder general manager used an example of how much the team’s logo has changed in going from a ‘no-frills Corn Flakes logo’ to what they have now.
However, the one thing that has not altered in all that time is Presti’s message. Once again, he preached patience, staying the course, developing the right way and seeing what happens.
“It made me realize that I don’t have a lot of newer novel thoughts about this particular season as we’re approaching it, and part of that to me is like okay, because it’s kind of where we are as a team, and part of that monotony or the drudgery of having to kind of start fresh year after year, it’s kind of like a touchstone for lasting success,” Presti said. “I don’t know that I’m going to have a whole lot of new insight for you.”
While those sentiments may have seemed just ‘coach speak’ the past few seasons and fallen on deaf ears, they have taken on a different sense of possible reality as the Thunder head into the 2023-24 NBA season.
“It’s a long process. It requires a lot of discipline, and there’s no promises,” Presti said. “That’s why we’re approaching it the way we have for the first 15 years. But we’re really excited for it. I use a Spinal Tap example at this time last year, and most of you are not old enough to know what Spinal Tap is, but if someone is turned up to 11, nobody can play well. So finding on the mixing board the right levels for everybody.”
Oklahoma City returns every key player from last year’s team. That includes 2022 No. 2 pick Chet Holmgren, who missed all of his rookie campaign after sustaining a leg injury.
With a healthy Holmgren back in the fold, the Thunder are being picked as one of the teams to keep an eye on this season. However, Presti doesn’t want the team or fan base to get too far ahead of themselves.
“A lot of people are talking about this being Chet’s first season, and it is in one sense, but it’s really our first season with Chet more than it’s Chet’s first season,” Presti said. “Our ability to absorb him in a way that allows him to play efficiently while everybody else can be a part of that as well is one of the strengths of the way that we play stylistically and part of the reason why we took this approach, and also with this particular style of player three to four years back.”
As of right now, Presti said Holmgren does not have any playing time limitations as he enters the season.
“He’s obviously a little more unique because he’s coming off a year of an injury, and he hasn’t played in this type of — this level game ever, let alone coming off something like that,” Presti said. “He’s hit all the marks so far, but we’ll have to be just very observant, and we’ll have to — we’re going to have to improvise a little bit on that.”
While the development of Holmgren, Jalen Willaims, Jaylin Willams, Vasilije Micic and Josh Giddey will be key factors in the team’s success, the Thunder will only go as far as their star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leads them.
Very few, if any NBA player had as productive offseason as Gilgeous-Alexander. Fresh off making his first All-Star game and all-NBA team, the 25-year-old led Team Canada to a Bronze Medal in the Fiba World Cup. That included dropping 30 points on Team USA.
That experience is something Presti believes will help Gilgeous-Alexander guide Oklahoma City this season.
“I think one thing that we believe in is diversity of experience. Playing with different players. One of the reasons why we play a lot of lineups is competitively it’s an advantage for us,” Presti said. “Shai playing in these different situations, take any of our players, asking them to play different positions, playing in different situations, changing the lineup at halftime, to me that’s discovery. That’s where you want to be, because if you have high aspirations, you shouldn’t be mimicking what does this team do. There’s no independence in that. I think Shai is doing that. I’d also say his off-season regimen is intense. He’s in the lab.”
Oklahoma City kicks off training camp Oct. 3 with their first preseason game taking place Oct. 9.
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