Sam Presti SPEAKS OUT on SHOCKING Draft Decision…

Sam Presti SPEAKS OUT on SHOCKING Draft Decision…

round one of the 2024 NBA draft have some shocking moves as some teams drafted some players higher than they were supposed to go while some players dropped outside of the lottery even though they were potentially guaranteed lottery picks of certain teams one guy was D conck that ended up at the Lakers at 17 who a lot of people had as a top 10 player then Zach Edy who was supposed to go to Lakers at 17 ended up falling to Memphis at 9 but the biggest move of the night was how people are considering the Oklahoma City Thunder had the two of the NBA draft and Nicolo topic and Dylan Jones but we’re going to be talking about topic here as cuz Dylan Jones was someone we didn’t really Scout and later in the first round of the draft you know at that point we’re taking the best available and we consider Jones the best available at the time which I kind of agree 61 wingspan 235 pounds in college he averaged 21 points and 10 boards as a shooting guard at 65 that’s impressive we know the story on him but it’s topic is what really has me whereing I know a lot of other Thunder fans worried we talked about it in the live stream last night about how you know I had a little bit of an no reaction I’ll be honest a little bit of a reaction because you know a I didn’t really Scout him because I didn’t really necessarily see him coming onto the team going to be honest I didn’t really you know see a spot for him because a the injury and B I just don’t really you know see how he can make an impact at this moment but when I had you know a few hours to cool down you know gather my thoughts watch the S prey press conference talking about nicoa topic and you know why they went out and got him it makes sense now because he’s thinking you know farther down the line he doesn’t he knew there weren’t many guys in this draft that we could take and would have an instant impact he’s looking at guys two years down the line that can have an impact on this team and that’s what we’re going to look at here what prey had to say the first thing you had to say though was definitely about the injury which is Big all right this is what we’re going to cover here because it’s a huge injury all right it’s an ACL tear that’s huge it’s hard to come back from those and when you do sometimes you’re not the player that you used to be so this is what he had to say about it the league put in some rules this year where everybody has access to the new uh to to the new um that’s all you know we really got to all the new players that are in the draft we’ve seen all of the Imaging everything that we’ve seen is I don’t want to say suitable but we’re comfortable with I want to say our experience with chat and the time that we used with him during his first year was certainly a factor into the way we thought about this opportunity and I think we learned some things in that instance okay so it he addressed the injury all right and he you know he saw the Imaging the team doctor took a look at it apparently who’s been with us 17 years now they’ve all looked at it they’ve talked with topic and it’s something that they’re willing to take a risk on because we were in a weird position in this draft okay I think all of us were betting on when we saw Cody Williams start to slide when he was supposed to go like seventh overall slide you know he kept on suay was like okay there’s a real chance we can get Cody Williams now at the 12th overall pick then the Jazz selected him Danny a I will never forgive you for that but at that point we’re just kind of like okay it was like a guy that has a ton of upside you know that people were talking about in the draft that we can go get and they settled on Nicole topic who before he was injured back in March he was a projected top five overall pick in the draft that’s the reding redeeming quality about this he has a ton of potential a lot of people see him as a replacement to gidy which we’ll talk about later because he has great passing awareness he has insane flashy passes that are in his bag he drives really well he’s explosive he’s athletic he has a little bit of shot it could be worked on a little bit more to get to the NBA level but the potential is there he could be a serviceable role player and bench guy for us when he comes back from this injury and it looks as though he won’t play next season all right which is fine by me because I feel like we’re going to have guys on this team team who will play next season after that will probably be gone which opens up that spot for topic it’s just one of those things where the situation we were in we needed to go after guys that had I high upside you know a lot of potential that could work out for us later on down the line when eventually we have to lose someone because of salary so I get the move now I completely get it it’s just the fact he’s injured has me a little bit scared but when he’s talking about this whole chat situation the only difference between those those two situations is CAD got injured a few weeks before the season started he played summer league he was working out with the team all right he was healthy when he was drafted topic he was injured when he was drafted he had an ACL tear okay and Chad’s injury was horrible as well so they’re going to definitely use like he said the time that they had with chat The Experience they had with his injury for topic as well to see if they can get him back on path to be the kind of player he was before uh the draft even started before that injury because like when we mentioned he was supposed to be a top five pick before the injury now going into what I said earlier about how a lot of people see him as a giddy replacement all right prey addressed that he did he addressed what everyone said about him being a giddy replacement this what he said had to say I wouldn’t compare him specifically to Josh or any other player in that way but like I said earlier guys that are big for their position that process the game well those guys are uh those guys are play pretty much all those guys will play pretty much all over the floor I don’t know what he was saying they’re not great grammar there pressy in different combinations so we value those skill sets probably more than trying to like replicate a specific role or anything like that then going to final things that he had to say about that I do think those guys I don’t think you can have enough people that can make decisions on the court and when you combine that with size it definitely increases the effectiveness or the probabilities of those decisions being good I like how he brought up his size because when you saw saw the picture of him standing right next to jdub at the draft taking pictures together you know one 12th overall pick to another you can definitely see okay He’s listed at like 63 or 64 I believe he looks more like 66 or 67 he looks bigger than what it shows on his draft profile I don’t think he’s really 63 or 6’4 he’s probably like 66 would be my guess 6667 you know has the same kind of size as giddy but he’s more explosive he’s more athletic a lot of people say he could potentially have you know a bag like Luca which I don’t necessarily want to go there I wouldn’t go ahead and say that already he does have a nice looking game as it is and he has great cord awareness IQ passing ability like I’ve watched some tapes now over him his passes are insane he can find the open man and he Zips it across the floor he throws it with power he gets it to a guy quick all right so it doesn’t give the defense time to actually get you know get back and guard the person that just got past the ball which is impressive driving ability like I mentioned he’s quick and explosive but that knee that ACL it could limit him now and so I feel like the shot is going to be the most important part that we’re going to have to watch him for is to see if the shot can develop but like he said comparing him to Giddy you like you can’t necessarily compare him to another player all right he’s his own player he has game you know access to a game that is better than giddy but gidd has assets to his game that are better than topage that happens as well when you been in the league three years now and so it’s one of those things where yes I can see why people are calling him a gter replacement but their games aren’t completely the same okay you got to look at it differently topic I truly think has more raw athletic potential whereas giddy he has more you know mental awareness in IQ all right he makes the right decisions on the floor whereas topic he’s just you know athletic and he makes these flashy passes that giddy couldn’t make all right because of his athleticism so it’s one of those things where okay I can see it now all right I see the process he didn’t really talk about Dylan Jones from what I saw it was more there a lot of questions were over topic because of the injury and concern and people were thinking like okay is he just a guy to replace giddy is he going to play it all next year a lot of the questions were for that Dylan Jones what I’ll say about him real quick 64 65 with a 61 wingspan at 235 PBS that’s impressive and the 235 pounds it’s not a husky 235 at 65 either he is built all right he’s got a good amount of muscle on him and he averaged 21 and 10 as a shooting guard all right last year for Weber State that’s impressive 10 rebounds with a 611 Wings span at 235 going into the NBA at that and he’s you know he I don’t want to say he grow one more inch or two it’d be nice if he could I doubt that’ll happen I think he’s kind of hit his spurt now but but like I said 61 Wings span 235 pounds 10 rebounds in the what was it Big Sky Conference can translate into probably four or five boards for us as a guard if he ends up getting a significant amount of playing time when I say significant like 16 minutes a game I doubt that’ll happen I bet he only gets like 10 minutes a game but we’ll see what happens the biggest question and concern from this draft all right was Nico to pitch is he going to play What’s This ACL injury look like and why was the reasoning for drafting him after listening to the Press you conference saying you know he’s looking for the longterm here that’s what this draft was all about looking for long-term decisions setting us up for even more success down the future extend our Championship window by another two to three years I get the picks now I do and then now with having a second round pick after training Lindy Waters the third to Golden State for the 50 56 uh 52nd pick there’s a lot of questions going that are we going to go get a guy that you know has a ton of potential like Brony could that happen could we try to bring him to OKC and put him on a two-way contract or is someone going to drop even further in the draft that could make an impact on the team potentially if they show success in the G league on their two-way contract it’s definitely interesting what’s going to happen here I want let I want to see what you guys think you know grade what the Nicolo topic picks you know our first round the draft night looked like because a lot of people say these were the steals of the draft for the Oklahoma City Thunder how we got a ton of up upside players at Value picks as well Topic at 12 was apparently value when you supposed to go top five originally so let me know down in the comments what you guys think of the picks and who you guys think we’re going to take in the second round tonight with that all the way I’ll see you guys in the next video

The Thunder came away with two first round picks last night, and many are saying they are the STEALS of the draft. However, at the time fans were confused why the Thunder made these moves. Bryson Akins breaks down what Sam Presti had to say for his reasoning behind Nikola Topic.

Thunder Digest covers the latest reports, news and rumors regarding the Oklahoma City Thunder. If you want to stay updated with every trade, move and tidbit on players like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, Lu Dort, Josh Giddey, Cason Wallace, Isaiah Joe, Aaron Wiggins, Mark Daigneault and Sam Presti.