GM Sam Presti First Round Media Availability | 2024 NBA Draft | OKC Thunder

GM Sam Presti First Round Media Availability | 2024 NBA Draft | OKC Thunder

um just want to start by uh as as we always do um uh after the draft just thanking all of our uh all of the scouts uh the entire group of people that are involved with the draft process um AC and Vince Rosman uh just do an unbelievable job of getting us prepared throughout the year and um also want to just always recognize the fact that so many of the evaluators and the scouts spend so much time away uh travel all over the world um you know there’s a lot of rental car returns at 5: in the morning you know connecting flights to far off lands show up uh the player there to see is uh gets foul trouble in the first three minutes of the game like there’s just a million stories like that but you have to be able to stack all those together um in order to put yourself in positions to to gather the information that allows us to make decisions and so um AC Vince and the entire group of people that are focused on amateur valuation 365 days a year deserve a lot of credit uh and I feel so fortunate to to work with a group like that um just want to I can’t talk about uh the trade that we made until it goes through so I’ll do my best to to to talk around it where I can but you’ll have to just understand that I can’t can’t answer things directly um we’re really excited about Nia I know you guys are going to ask us a lot of questions about him we’ll be happy to answer those um it was a unique situation uh to be able to get a player of that caliber uh where we did and um we’re really excited about bringing him into the organization bringing him into the program um so with that we’ll we’ll answer any questions that you guys have go y goad yeah um what is the situation with Nico’s knee and what is the uh I guess is there a timetable sure well um obviously we are like well versed on that the uh the league um put in some rules this year where everybody has access to the new um to all the new players that are in the draft so um we’ve seen all the Imaging everything that um we’ve seen is um is is you know uh I want to say like suitable but like we’re comfortable with is what I would say um uh myself and Donnie St are uh director medical who’s been here for 17 years now uh traveled out to visit Nia uh he examed him in person I was able to spend some time with him uh we had a group of Scouts that interviewed him in um traviso AC was there for that um and now we’re going to sit down and kind of determine like the plan of action for the injury uh but we’re going into that EX extremely optimistic um with what it is that we’ve seen and where I think we’ll be able to get to but our expectation is that he probably won’t be playing for us next season um our experience with Chad and the uh time that we used with him during his first year uh was certainly a factor into the way we thought about this opportunity and I think we learned some things in that uh instance totally different totally different players totally different situation different ages etc etc but um you know that I think our ability to look at that as an opportunity probably um allowed us to gave us some confidence to to make the decision that we did with him talk about his game that’s wor the way um I’m going AC talk about that um I mean we’re really excited about Nicola um he’s the youngest player in the draft this year and at that young age he’s demonstrated an ability to play at a high level and in a high league and Euro league competition which you used to dominate right I’ve had some success there um in addition to that his great size great playmaking ability um highq a lot of things to be excited about so we’re looking forward to to getting him in Sam AC I’m not sure he best equipped to handle this question but just kind of Backtrack on when you guys first sort of saw him come on the radar as you watched him evolve what you saw that led you to think at 12 that maybe he’d be your guy you take that yeah we been on Nia a long time even at the junior level um and you as I mentioned before his playmaking his IQ it stands out right away and when you associate that skill set that package with his size I mean you see why he’s been so dominant and has so much success and I just want to just reiterate our excitement for him being there and and getting him into the building and incorporating into what we’re doing was there um a time along the way where you felt like he might be evolving to the point where he would be a guy he’d want a game or a a stretch of games maybe in his his career overseas I think I don’t know if it’s one specific time but from the first time you saw him you recognize that he’s a talented player and as you continue to evaluate him you see his Improvement year the year and this year just he was before his injury he was having a great season and like I said we’re just excited about getting him here the only thing I’d add to that Jenny is um just if you look at the KN as a whole I’m trying to be careful about what I’m saying but if you looked at the night as a whole I think um you know the themes are pretty consistent with other Knights that we’ve had um draft wise you know um I think tonight was basically you know there’s um High processing uh on offense um High skill level as uh you know with with regards to vision and passing and um that’s com combined with like a big players you know people that can handle the ball make decisions with the ball um are are pretty big for their position are interchangeable um so I think it’s a relatively like consistent uh Focus for us and um you know it’s something that we we value in in players so with Nia specifically um having somebody that young with those tools um is is certainly intriguing but he you know we have a long way to go with respect to um his development and um but some of the things that we’re able to add to the team tonight in general are consistent with things that we’ve been trying to uh focus on for several years now for either of you guys um are there some similarities in his game or kind of the role you envision that that joshh giddy had here and are those two things connected in any way yeah I I wouldn’t say well I wouldn’t um I wouldn’t compare him specifically to Josh or uh any other player in that way but like I said earlier um you know guys that are big for their position that process the game well um those guys can play pretty much all over the floor and different combinations um and so we value those skill sets probably more than trying to like replicate a specific role or anything like that um I do think those guys I think the the night um sorry uh would uh it’s late um you know I don’t think you have enough people that can make decisions on the court and when you combine that with size it it definitely increases the the the uh let’s say the effectiveness or the probabilities of the decisions being good if You’ never made the the trade you can’t talk about would you still made the this this draft pick um you mean you never traed gidy oh oh oh oh M toit you mean yeah um we generally you know listen I I don’t want to get into like the hypothetical component of things but we generally go off what we think are the the best players and um in this particular case uh I think one of the reasons we probably were in the position to to acquire him is because of the injury and the fact that he wasn’t is available to to to work out um and I feel like you know we’re willing to place a high value on his on his skill set long term um but I I I couldn’t answer that I you know specifically but we generally go off the board see Sam hinted at your familiarity with the league that uh Nicolo was in can you maybe uh describe what that league is like how it uh has prepared players for the NBA and obviously Serbian basketball is just U surging right now yeah um Euro league is the second best basketball league in the world um a lot of NBA players play in that League um a lot of great European players participate in that League um it’s a very very competitive league and for Nicola to have the success that he’s been able to have in that League um in my experience that’s not a normal thing and I think that’s something we value a lot and um it’s year leag is just is extremely competitive I I just can’t reiterate that enough like in comparison to the NBA I think it’s right up there and and I think I have a lot of respect for him having success in at such a young age use the word competitive and Sam that was something that you said the other night about Alex Caruso is just wanting as many of those types of people what have you seen from Nicola in terms of just sort of that the competitive mentality that uh this organization tries to be about and that’s the Euro league is is men and and they don’t they don’t want a young player to dominate that league and have success and I went over there earli this season and at the game I was at he was playing against TI doich who’s one of arguably one of the better point guards in the history of your league and he didn’t back down and that’s something that stood out to me and I’m looking forward to just him getting here and and continue to build on that Sam you mentioned um chance rehab that was a year long is your expectation with Nia to be here to rehab to sort of mirror what CAD did in terms of being with the team yeah he’ll be with us he’ll be with us um uh shortly you know when he gets here um he’ll be integrated into the team like any other player and um I think we have some things that we’ve learned from that should that should be able to help him get acclimated um and uh you know he’ll be he’ll be involved in everything that we do you guys said poku Mees are there any like connective threads between some of these serving well spent a lot of time talking to Voss about this player truthfully you know um he was he was a very insightful person relative to uh this particular player uh vosa had similar injury uh early in his career so um he was you know I think everybody knows what we think of of meic you know he’s he’s got a great basketball mind and so being able to talk to him a little bit about not just the player but what a player like at that age is going through and how to how to um kind of I think from an empathetic standpoint I think that was important and then also one of the things about Nia that I find really um uh beneficial or valuable is I think he’s extraordinarily mature for his age he’s an extremely extremely mature person um if you speak to his teammates or observe him in team settings um he’s a he’s a tremendous teammate he’s uh I think he’s got a great understanding of uh Team Dynamics for a young age I think he’s got a great presence of himself and understanding of himself he’s very curious um the person is uh is is is really interesting in terms of um how he sees teams and basketall and competition and learning and uh at that age I think that’s pretty rare so that was also extremely um extremely intriguing to to have all of that and obviously when you have someone that you know as well as as meic you know that’s that’s very helpful too just to follow up on that AC when you met with him in triso it was what what did you sort of learn about and like you know the person and what are some of the things as an evaluator that you’re looking for exactly what Sam just said I think that was the the one thing that just stood out and just jumped out from that interview is his maturity and his IQ and his understanding of the game of basketball and his willingness and understanding of how to make his teammates better um student of the game somebody that loves to play excited about him I want to clarify one thing when I’m talking to Vasa I I spoke specifically Tim about have you having an injury at that age you know what I mean what is is that like how could you how could you put yourself in that position um obviously he’s Serbian so he knows him but I I do think that having that Insight from him as a foreign player and and being injured with the same injury at that point in time was super valuable for us I know this may not this would be the last one I know this may not seem like a big deal now but I hear you are without electricity for a good chunk of the day yes what uh what was that like and what how how did that how did that change the day and the Dynamics for you yeah I mean we were here late last night um when those storms came through and uh we had to actually exit uh like through the parking lot across the street because the power lines were down across the across the road um and the power was out in the building except for the draft room had a generator that was operating at that time you know this morning it everything was out um and so we were trying to get the arena up and running if we needed that to do the draft down there um so for most of the day there was there really wasn’t any power here um and most of all the AC was not on so it was extremely hot um and so um but we have a great group of people um Mark St Ives and um Johnny Schultz were you you know I think they may have slept here last night trying to figure out how to get everything up and running and um all the people that were involved you know uh in in in getting things going um we didn’t really have anything until I want to say about like 5:00 when the AC kicked on and um we’re super fortunate that we have people like Saint and uh and Johnny and we just have a whole organization of people like that that are team like kind of team focused extremely selfless um and willing to do anything you know to help to help the team and so those guys and everyone with them were tremendous in uh getting us to this position but if you told me we’d be sitting here with lights on in this room at like 3:00 today I never believed you as there is no way but we got it going we’re able to get all the Scouts in the room um it just would have had it just been too hot to have that many people people in one room so that was probably the biggest thing I was most concerned about was you have these guys and these men and women that spend so much time preparing for this and like because of something like that they may not get the opportunity to be in there it’s like that was like almost heartbreaking to me so the fact that everything came on we were able to get everybody in there and uh it’s just a it’s a big moment for everybody because they put so much work in so to me that was a big highlight of the night night

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