More questions than answers from OKC Thunder GM Sam Presti -5 takeaways

Shooting issues:

Of all the questions Presti addressed (other than Donovan’s future) this was the one I was most anxious to hear his response to. Although Presti did take ownership for not foreseeing potential issues overall this was Presti’s most disappointing and least satisfying answer.

Presti cited the loss of Alex Abrines as the main problem stating there was depth at every position except the wing, Several times Presti noted how much Terrance Ferguson and Jerami Grant improved even more than anticipated. So, if TFerg and Grant performed above expectations than just imagine how much worse this situation would’ve been had they not improved!

When pressed on the matter in terms of what would happen moving forward, the GM said they would look to internal growth and obviously scour outside the team to address the shooting.

Presti said there will be onus placed on improving free throw shooting and internal development and again pointed to conversations with Donovan as a tipping point.

No definitive answer:

From my perspective, it felt like Presti skirted this issue entirely. Yes, there will be hopes of internal growth or for one or more of Abdel Nader, Deonte Burton or Hamidou Diallo to get better from deep but to place all the perimeter shooting issues of the Thunder on the fact Alex Abrines left is ignoring the real issue. The OKC Thunder were a terrible shooting team – period.

What I wanted to hear from Sam was he was committed to adding shooters, hiring a shooting coach and setting goals for every player in terms of their offseason homework.

Presti said last season the team felt their regression and early playoff exit was due to defensive issues primarily based on the loss of Roberson and therefore that became the offseason focus. While Presti didn’t offer an adequate enough response (at least for my liking) presumably this will be the “one thing” he puts the greatest emphasis on this offseason.