The Oklahoma City Thunder rebuild is according to plan.
Entering the second year of OKC’s roster overhaul, general manager Sam Presti again preached patience as the Thunder would be taking no “shortcuts” to achieve their goals.
Already, there are those questioning the Thunder’s methods, whether it be their draft selections or their continued goal of collecting draft assets, but Presti said its all a part of a method to get Oklahoma City back to contending in the Western Conference.
“I’m a believer that if you stick with principles, if you stick with a consistent approach, if you’re humble with the task and the challenge at hand, we’ll have some good fortune somewhere along the way,” Presti said during his pre-season Zoom press conference on Friday morning.
“I’m sure there are some people that are worried that we’ll take shortcuts… That’s not really in our purview right now.”
Presti has been crystal clear about the roster overhaul since the Thunder traded away Russell Westbrook.
As a small-market team, Oklahoma City cannot rely on free agency to build a title contender.
So the organization must put an emphasis on player development and building through the draft, as well as making the right trades when necessary, Presti said.
Unfortunately, it’s the long road to rebuilding, and it will take time and require plenty of patience to not damage long term goals by trying to accelerate the process in the interim.
“That’s one thing about being patient,” Presti said. “Patience is an active activity, an active action. Because there’s opportunities every single day to do things that would short circuit your longer term vision or plans.
“This is a hard thing to do and it’s one of the reasons why a lot of people try to avoid it.”
But there was a glimmer of hope last season.
Point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander settled right into his new role as the primary ball handler and face of the team, banking his best season in the NBA thus far.
Though not overly shocking, as the Thunder targeted Gilgeous-Alexander in the Paul George trade, but Presti said it was still a development they couldn’t have predicted.
“A year ago, we didn’t really know what we had in Shai,” Presti said. “It was the first time he was going to play full-time point guard for us and the strides that he’s made in less than a calendar year are remarkable.”
Now, with a young core surrounding him, the Thunder will enter the 2021-22 season looking for other signs of growth, starting the process of determining which pieces can be a part of the long-term project in Oklahoma City.
“We’re trying to build a team that can be sustainable in the Western Conference,” Presti said. “We have a group of young players that are hungry and are excited to play.”
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