Mark Daigneault introduced as OKC Thunder head coach – 3 takeaways

The “R” word is back:

The entirety of the 2019-20 campaign was earmarked by the R & R era of repositioning and replenishing. That was how Sam Presti described the Thunder following the Paul George, Russell Westbrook trades and how he continually referred to the direction the OKC Thunder was taking starting with the 2019-20 season.

The predominant belief is the veterans will be traded either before the season starts or shortly thereafter. Given that thinking, I was waiting to hear what “R” word Sam Presti would drop to describe this season half expecting it to be “rebuild” but knowing  Presti’s aversion to that word it wasn’t surprising he used “reposition” instead.

In fairness, reposition is a sort of a more positive way of saying rebuild. For example, I could say —OKC will utilize a primarily young roster as they repostion the team for the future. Replace “reposition” with “rebuild” and the context remains precisely the same.

The other aspect of the press session that reinforces Presti is committed to rebuilding was the words he followed “reposition” with (starting at 2:14 of the above video tweet):

“As we reposition our franchise for future sustainable success we want to remain cutting edge, forward-thinking, asking tough questions of ourselves, and push ourselves forward.”

It’s as close as we’re likely to get to hearing Presti ever utter ‘rebuild’. That said in the context he used ‘reposition’ combined with the hiring of a young head coach it’s the first time I’ve felt confident the masterful Presti is all-in on creating the next iteration of the OKC Thunder that will hopefully rival the unit that launched the franchise and produced three MVPs.