Sam Presti Kicks Off Training Camp With A Virtual Presser

Sam Presti never uses the word tank. He must figure it is anathema to the Oklahoma culture. He uses the word transition…which I guess is somewhat fair in a sense. Presti hopes when all this losing takes place this season he won’t have to tank much longer and he’ll have a Cade Cunningham type on his basketball team to move the transition to the next level.

Presti said the Thunder will start the season off without any fans in the arena…which is smart.

Presti didn’t say anything about the recent presdiential election and that was smart as well because I’d guess around 65-70% of his season ticketholders voted for the Christian evangelical grifter Donald Trump. But to Presti’s credit he didn’t say anything about Hugo Chavez rigging the election with sweat and hair dye pouring down his face either. You can read between those lines as you choose.

Presti did say he had some interesting veterans on his ‘current’ roster in Al Horford, Justin Jackson, George Hill, and Trevor Ariza, but made it clear he won’t be saying too much about those guys until the day after Dec. 8th.

Presti talked some about the young guys who will be the core moving forward. Those would be Shai, Lu Dort, Darius Bazely, Diallo, the Skinny Serb, and the second round rookie point guard Theo Maledon from France who could be the second coming of Tony Parker if things go really, really, really well.

He said the Skinny Serb will be playing NBA level minutes which is smart as well because this is a season of learning while transitioning for everyone involved with the Thunder. I’d get him every minute possible between the NBA and the G League and feed him six times a day.

So basically the word moving forward is transition, not tanking. Or like Jake Owens says in Journey of Life…sometimes you have to lose some to learn how to be a winner.

I’m gonna be playing a lot of Jake Owens during these 72 games because this is going to be a journey that much is certain regardless of Sam Presti semantics.