Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti spoke with the media on Wednesday to conduct his 2023-24 pre-season press conference.
The event marks the beginning of the new season. Media day will occur in less than a week and preseason basketball kicks off in less than two weeks.
Buy Thunder TicketsDuring the nearly two-hour media availability, Presti talked about a wide range of topics that ranged from updating fans on Chet Holmgren’s progress to giving his official comments on a new potential arena.
Let’s recap the presser with some of the biggest quotes and paraphrases Presti provided during his time with the media. More stories about the event will be published in the ensuing days.
Here for Sam Presti’s 2023-24 pre-season presser, which is scheduled to start at 10 am CT 🫡 pic.twitter.com/3QAfneewL7
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti: “We’re 3 draft classes in to the pivot we made a few years ago… We’re excited about the culture guys that we've had both as people and players.”
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti: “This is our 16th year of basketball in Oklahoma City and we’re really excited about that.”
So many great players have come and gone, followed by other great players.”
Presti says that only 5% of players in the league when OKC got the Thunder are still in the NBA.
— Brandon Rahbar (@BrandonRahbar) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti on trying to predict how the season will play out for the Thunder and NBA in general: “There are 2 types of forecasters — there's those that don't know, and there's those that don't know that they don't know.”
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti said “we got very fortunate in a lot of ways. And that is still with the fact that we were an under .500 team and struggled to play more than a month of consistent basketball.”
— Rylan Stiles (@Rylan_Stiles) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti: “The way we play has allowed us to absorb a lot of different talent.”
Mentions how Giddey’s & JDub’s roles evolved throughout the season last year
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti: “I walked past the gym coming in here, and those players look different than they did a few months ago.”
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti “a lot has been talked about this being Chet’s first season, and it is, but it’s really our first season with Chet..I’m really excited about it’s not going to be something that rolls out and you box up. In fact, I’d be scared if we latched onto whatever we see early.”
— Rylan Stiles (@Rylan_Stiles) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti, in preseason presser: "It's really our first season with Chet than Chet's first season."
— Joe Mussatto (@joe_mussatto) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti: “Social media is now the fifth major sport in North America… And generally speaking, the people that are the loudest and the most controversial make the All-Star game.”
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti said he was impressed with the rate of learning from the young core last season:
“Things that could take 2-3 months for a lot of teams to absorb and learn from in terms of regression or adversity, our guys were getting 2-3 weeks.”
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti gives an example of the advantage in doing this unorthodox “We had Chris Paul, Dennis Schroder, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and typically you’d say you can have two on the floor, but you can’t have three, and who gets the short end of the stick? The young guy.”
— Rylan Stiles (@Rylan_Stiles) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti: “What I say to our fans is: enjoy the ride. We have a great group of guys. And they work hard.
They really want to do well for the city, the team and themselves. One day we want to have a real home court advantage again. And we realize we have to earn that.”
— Brandon Rahbar (@BrandonRahbar) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti: “As I always say, what we're after is sustained high performance for a long period of time.”
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti on SGA’s Canada World Cup performance: “I think one thing that we believe in is the 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.”
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti quotes Ty Jerome he said “we understand the results aren’t there but we are improving. Inside the building, the spirits are high.” Great insight from Jerome.
— Rylan Stiles (@Rylan_Stiles) September 27, 2023
When asked about being mentioned as a potential landing spot for available stars, Sam Presti won’t outright dismiss it but said it might be too early to make an all-in move for their young core
“We can't let the fact that we have some additional draft capital make us soft.”
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti’s comments on the OKC new arena situation: pic.twitter.com/HVsx9809jd
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti on a new OKC arena:
“I’m biased, I can’t hide that (points to OKC logo behind him). I’m not a politician. I’m out of my depth on that.
Other than to say, I think that the history of the city and the team working together is a unique one.”
— Brandon Rahbar (@BrandonRahbar) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti on Vasilije Micic “You don’t get to choose when things happen…In his case he had a contract overseas, team goals to achieve overseas, we had good communication. There was one year where there was no out in the contract.” Mentioned it just lined up this year.
— Rylan Stiles (@Rylan_Stiles) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti on Aleksej Pokusevski “this is an ankle sprain so it’s not what we were dealing with last year.” He gave praise to Aleksej Pokusevski who “played extremely well last year [before the injury]”
— Rylan Stiles (@Rylan_Stiles) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti said Victor Oladipo won’t be at training camp and they’ll need to make a decision with his contract soon
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti on Mark Daigneault’s extension: “I think he's a great fit for the team and organization. The thing he does so well is he takes the vision of the organization and takes it to the floor every single day.’
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti on Isaiah Joe & Davis Bertans: “You can ask people to write out the best shooters in the league, I think they make it on most lists.”
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti: “Watching Shai’s emergence has been incredible. And we’re not taking that for granted.”
— Brandon Rahbar (@BrandonRahbar) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti on a rebrand “I would never say no to that.” Added “there’s a time for relooking at that kind of thing, and if we do, I think we will do a really excellent job…but also making sure we stay true to who we are.” Said “the cement is not dry, only 15 years going into 16.”
— Rylan Stiles (@Rylan_Stiles) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti on Chet Holmgren “he will get tested all year. A guy who challenges shots, he is going to get dunked on. There’s going to be rust. What position?…he might play one position on one end and a different possession on the other.”
— Rylan Stiles (@Rylan_Stiles) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti on his hoops skills: “I was a good high school player. Which doesn’t really carry a lot of weight in this building.”
Presti played Division III college ball. (And he could dunk back in the day.)
— Brandon Rahbar (@BrandonRahbar) September 27, 2023
Sam Presti says there are two professors from Hamilton, Canada.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander cause he’s always in the lab.
And Neil Peart, the drummer from Rush. pic.twitter.com/TrHtbNy668
— Brandon Rahbar (@BrandonRahbar) September 27, 2023
