Sam Presti press release on Russell Westbrook and Chris Paul: 3 Key takeaways

Whether you refer to OKC Thunder lead man Sam Presti as a GM or magician his recent acts are adding to his lore. With that in mind T.I. offers three key takeaways from his recent statement.

OKC Thunder General Manager has been busy this offseason especially in the past week or so. First, he was confronted with a trade demand from Paul George with only one location on his list. That team was the Clippers.

While that easily shifted the focus on the team’s objective heading into next season there are equally compelling arguments this allowed the GM to do precisely what he was hoping for – to reduce the team’s overhead in order to stop being a repeat luxury tax offender.

Unfortunately, this initial trade meant it was time to move on from the most loyal and arguably important player ever to wear an OKC Thunder jersey – Russell Westbrook. Presti worked with Westbrook to send him to a team he was desirous to join sending him to the Houston Rockets.

Those two deals bookended a separated trade which sent Jerami Grant to Northwest division rivals the Denver Nuggets.

Whenever Sam Presti speaks to the media his words are gauged more carefully than a tightrope walker. This is also true of any team press releases. Having witnessed several of both scenarios the Presti “presser” if you will is an exercise in reading between the lines.

To that end, here are three main ‘read between the lines’ takeaways one could pull from Tuesday’s OKC Thunder statement from Sam Presti.