GM Sam Presti Media Availability | July 6, 2024 | OKC Thunder

GM Sam Presti Media Availability | July 6, 2024 | OKC Thunder

Sam obviously exciting for the organization um to be able to bring in a guy like Isaiah uh what was this like for you to be able to to get a guy like him uh specifically him to come in yeah um anytime we have an opportunity to improve the team uh certainly with somebody that we feel fits the organization and also the way we play uh this well it’s a great it’s a great opportunity I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the fact that um you know Mr Bennett in these types of situ ation is tremendous our ownership group is is just awesome we’ve been um we’ve been so blessed over the time that we’ve been here not just with their support but with the way that they operate together um they’re a great example for everybody in terms of how they operate and as a team uh supporting one another and allowing clay to kind of be the person that leads the charge of the group but uh days like today aren’t possible without that kind of support and we’ve been we’ve been fortunate to have that for quite a while on the floor there seems to be Rapport that he builds with his teammates on on the bench the camaraderie he seems to have as well just on the personal side of of his ability to develop relationships anything that you have seen or noticed from him um well I mean just following his trajectory and his career uh over the time he’s been in the NBA you know his units play well uh together uh he’s got uh great mentality for the team I think that his game also makes a difference in that way because he’s connected player people want to play with players like that um and he’s worked extremely hard to get to this point in his career and he’s still he’s still very young so that’s one of the things that we’re also really excited about is uh he’s a young player that is still developing exploring his game and we’re excited to do that with him Sam I don’t want to assume anything but I imagine you don’t usually fly to people’s home chanels to try to acquire them uh is there anything you would say as to the trip and the significance of it and trying to go get well we’ve done that in the past you know um when we’ve when we’ve been in different meetings or settings and things like that something that we’ve always tried to do just from a personal standpoint um but in this case it’s similar it’s an opportunity to uh be with the person try to hear where they’re coming from what’s important to them and then lay out what it is that um we’re trying to accomplish and how they fit into that and um you know I thought I was to to Houston but it ended up that it was Oregon so either way I mean when it comes to trying to make the team better um you know the when it comes to trying to make the Thunder better like we’ll go across the world if we have to do that and uh in this case that was a a relatively short trip for what the what the outcome was what what did you learn about him during that trip um well you spend a lot of time researching players watching players talking to people about them um um but there’s no substitute to actually sitting down in front of them and listening I think in those types of situations the default for a lot of people is to do a lot of talking um I think it’s more important for us to do more listening in those situations try to understand their story from their point of view what are they trying to accomplish at that point in their career um how we might be able to help them do that and also help our help our team as well and um I think that was a big part of it you know learning about his family a lot of the different Journeys he’s been on situations he’s been in um things that have helped him um how to you know how to help him explore his potential and and also line that up with the the the aspirations we have as a team and organization you’ve talked in the past about when you add somebody not compromising the good stuff that you that you do talk about how he fits into the way you play and how he fits well I mean we’ve talked about that um end of last season probably previous years as well we’re looking for players that um help us strengthen our strengths um you know also help us uh improve our limitations but not at the expense of the overall Collective of the team or or the strengths that I was talking about I think he does that uh pretty uh swiftly um he’s going to help us in some areas that we’ve you know that we’ve wanted to improve but I think in his ability to do that he’s not taking away from some of the things that we do well and um that’s pretty rare so you know we you could often times just go out there and look to fill uh a need with the lowest common denominator or what’s available at that particular time you can feel good about that in the moment but um shortly thereafter you’ll see that you know there could be two or three other things that have now become problems that weren’t in the you know in in the past so uh I think he does that easily um he’s a connecting player uh he’s a smart player he plays our style of basketball um he also happens to be like a big player which I know people were very focused on but I think the thing to notice about him more than anything is that he’s a good basketball player he happens to play the center spot but he’s a good basketball player we would want people that process the game like that play both sides of the ball good teammate extreme professional feel really good about the professionalism and the the seriousness of both Alex and Isaiah in terms of what how they carry themselves how they approach their craft what we’re bringing into the building uh so all those things I think make him a really good fit in that way more pick and roll with him because he’s not going to step out and shoot threes like shed but uh strengths on offense well I think again um that’s going to take some time that’s really a mark question in terms of how we want to uh deploy him but when you have a player that um can read the game the way he does is comfortable with the ball in his hands um that opens up so many things for us and um you know it gives us someone different in terms of you know how he approaches the position which I think is good I think um as I said at the end of uh the season like we’re not we’re not trying to prove anybody wrong with our play style we’re not um you know rigidly committed to one way or another um I think what we don’t want to be is ordinary uh um and at the same time you know you want to be diverse and I think what his addition does is it takes us from being um you know unorthodox in a lot of ways to being more diverse and so uh I think he just bolsters what it is that we do getting the draft picks that you got signing the free agents back with h Joe and with Wiggins and getting hard and sign is about as smooth as offseasons you’ve had in a minute um well they’re all different you know um they’re all different um doesn’t really matter you know what what uh what it looks like right now obviously we have to go out kind of go back to square one uh whether or not we made these additions or we didn’t we’re going to have the same challenge in front of us uh everybody understands how good the western conference is it’s been excellent in the past it’s I think it’s at peak level you know now um you know more than more than ever I think um one of the things that’s helped accelerate our team and our performance and our development as a team is the fact that we play in the west you know every single night we’re out there we’re on the razor’s edge of competition you really have to have your game together um it’s it’s not an easy conference to play in and I think that’s helped our team develop quickly uh at the same time uh we’re not going to walk into the season with any wins from last year we’re going to have to kind of go back and um stack days stack experiences as as as trit as that sounds really is unfortunately the path to Improvement and success and our ability to um maintain that mentality uh from training camp on and really work on the things that drive success are is going to be kind of the the formula we have to follow Sam this is the highest profile free agent you’ve signed costliest also how tough was the sale did you sence I don’t know I think well the first thing is have to acknowledge the fact that um you know Isaiah was coming from a great situation I think the worst thing you could do is to walk into a situation and try to diminish uh the current place that the player has played in I think showing a lot of respect for that respecting how hard a decision like that can be for a player especially when they’ve had Success personal and uh Collective um you can only put your best foot forward I think it’s less about thinking about the past with the other team and more about trying to paint a picture of the future with your team team and what that can potentially look like part of that for us was um you know him being 26 uh our belief that we can continue to his development and put him in situations to continue to expand you know the his strengths and what it is that he does well um but you know these are really tough decisions for free agents they um they’ve earn the right to make these decisions and all you can do is try to go out there and expl Express what you what you see and and what could be um and you know you put your best foot forward but fortunately for us um I think he was able to see some of the things we we were talking about um and we’re excited that he’s you know that he’s chosen to come with us do you remember much about him during the draft process a little bit you know I mean it’s there’s been a lot of drafts um but yeah absolutely um remember him through the draft and then you know we followed him closely U through his time in the league and um you know especially as we’ve been moving you know into our current approach and play style is there’s certain players that you know really resonate for us that we feel like can uh amplify what it is that we do that we feel like you know we might be able to help as well um the thing with him that also I think is important is that um obviously he’s a connecting player um he fits kind of the the the general style of play but his game doesn’t conflict with the development of our core players you know he’s in a position I think Caruso is similar they both bring things to the team that are very additive that are true to what it is we want to try to do on and off the court but they also are not taking away from the experiences that you know Shay uh Chad and Jaylen are going to have to have in order to continue on their trajectory so um it’s rare to hit all those marks but uh Isaiah did that is it kind of chip away with that notion small markets can’t compete on the free agent Market guys want to they want to get paid yes but they want to win yeah I mean I I know those are I think the thing that happens in those situations is um it’s it’s it’s really a case by case situation and like the way always looked at that is there’s going to be people that gravitate toward what it is that we’re about and trying to accomplish and and there’ll be other people that don’t prioritize it quite like that and that’s why they call it free agency it’s a free it’s a decision it’s a it’s a freedom of choice the the people that we are um really interested in um we’re hoping that they you know they resonate with the things that we’re about and what we’re trying to accomplish and I wouldn’t make it just a totally blanket statement but certainly history has demonstrated that free agency is is um not usually something that um all markets are participating in I think we were fortunate in this case because Isaiah is a guy that’s come up uh with a winding path he’s earned everything um he has um worked himself into being an excellent uh player individually but as I said earlier his units play really well together pretty much anywhere he’s been um and the other thing I really like about him is he’s you know he’s he’s looking forward about you know other ways he can improve and he can get better um you know a lot of people would get an opportunity like this and they’d be thinking about um kind of you know the the you know looking back and I think he’s actually looking forward he’s looking about you know what’s next how do I improve uh thinking about how to set up his uh you know his home gym and his wait room um you know those are the kind of guys we want to have you know I I always remember when we signed uh Lou to his uh his first uh extension and the first thing he said to me was like now I can hire my my trainer full-time you know that’s that’s when you know you’re investing in the right people you know and and there’s the same thing with Isaiah Isaiah is saying all right well I’ve got to get my home gym set up he’s thinking about these are the professionals and the types of people that we want to populate the building with um Caruso hartstein um other guys that we have are thinking about their profession in a different way and we want to continue to populate the team with those types of mentalities see I’m thinking top more think of the Isaiah and Chad just how they might look specifically just what do you think those two can be together I mean I think it’s hard for me to sit here and say I know what that looks like other than to say if you have Smart players uh that are all about the team it something good probably will come from that um you know Isaiah understands walking in that we have a good team that you know jet is extremely impactful at the five but we also have been very open about the fact that we’re not married to like one way of doing things but we certainly know that that’s a big part of our formula and he knows that walking in you know we don’t make promises on minutes we don’t make promises on roles we make promises on environment um and trying to put the team in the best position to be successful and you know that was you know he wasn’t asking for that either so I’m kind of excited to see where we end up with the particular group that we have and how it all works together um but I I will also say like you know from Isaiah and Alex like no one’s asking us questions about that kind of thing because I think that demonstrates just kind of where they are in their careers how they think think about basketball how they process teams um and that’s that’s great to have but um you know we’ll look at a lot of different things I’m sure Mark is always you know looking at different things tinkering with different things um and I’m excited to see kind of how it all how it all comes together but it will take some time I think that’s one thing that we have to recognize um we’ll be incorporating to uh you know two guys into the team that have previous NBA experience in addition to some the guys we got in the draft um and we have to give it a chance to kind of coales and figure it out and there’ll probably be some bumps on the road but that’s what we have to do in order to get where we want to go you extended wig and Joe I’m just curious like what what have you learned about those two guys that have kind of LED them to this point where they get long-term extensions yeah I mean I mean it’s it’s really great to see that um again both of those guys have come from different pasts um I use this as an example with some people the other day our coaches for summer league the other day about remaining open uh remaining uh non-judgmental um having a beginner’s mindset when we’re looking at younger players in summer league um I kind of pose the question that when Aaron Wiggins was um playing his first summer league you know did anyone in the room raise their hand and say he was going to be signing a five-year extension for us in a few years and the answer is no you know nobody knows those things so when you go out and watch everybody in summer league you know we’re all humans and um people generally want to get to the fastest answer possible with as little work possible um and that’s where we get into these big you know big judgments and and uh plan our flag on things and hopefully no one remembers um when we’re so wrong and um you know Wiggins has really kind of beat the door down he’s been extremely mature he has taken it step by step um he’s got a great mindset for the type of player that he is and he’s earned his way into this situation Isaiah very similar um you know he was without a team there for a second um was cut from uh Philadelphia came into our situation um with no real um like no wind at his back at all you know um didn’t play right away uh was trying to adapt in season to a new team was trying to find their way as well and turned a few minutes into a lot of minutes and and became a pretty invaluable player for our particular team again different paths um but we kind of like those types of guys you know we we tend to do well with them um and you know that’s something that we we you know we’re not looking for everybody to uh have everything handed to them like I said before you know there’s no silver platters in Oklahoma City and we understand that and that is part of the fuel for us as a collective group I think Caruso Isaiah Joe Wiggins hartenstein I think all these guys some of the guys that we’ve drafted um you know they’re coming from they’re coming from behind and we like those types of guys we want to try to invest in those people and um put as many of them together because they’re they’re hungry um they’re grateful uh and they’re driven and you know those are pretty important C uh qualities for success

General Manager Sam Presti speaks with media.

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