OKC Thunder: ‘Resiliency’ dominates Sam Presti 5 media takeaways

Expect the unexpected:

I’ve cited this reality show ‘Big Brother’ phrase previously and I think it’s bound to become the ongoing mantra of this season.

In terms of the new roster and staff, this season will be ever-evolving and that could include great surprising overachievement phases as well as lows when the team suffers tough hard-fought losses.

In preparation for these uncharted waters, the GM touched on the quartet of returning youngsters frequently throughout the presser. He credited Luguentz Dort and Hamidou Diallo for always rising to meet the challenge.

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Diallo was the subject of another hidden Presti takeaway moment. The GM credited the youngster for his previous successes and noted injury had derailed his efforts. He also implied he expects the youngster to have an impactful season but there was the typical Presti undertone of what the opposite implied. In essence, this felt like a call to action for Diallo — he either needs to embrace this opportunity or someone else will.

And that was very much the feeling he left us with regarding the majority of the roster (aside from SGA, Dort, Bazley, and the rookie Poku). Everyone will be afforded an audition so to speak. What they do with their opportunity will dictate how well they do with the team. It’s clear Presti will continue to seek landing spots for George Hill and Trevor Ariza and depending on how those auditions go he might be shopping others as well.

As for the new head coach, Presti expectedly was full of praise for his new head charge stating how forward-thinking Daigneault is. In addition, Presti noted how adept Daigneault is at building individual relationships with each player.

In yet another hidden takeaway, Presti stated his new head coach would “get the players closer to the vision the organization has for the culture they want”.  That was the second time in the interview that the GM implied the Thunder want to slightly shift their identity. Could this be the first hint of the Thunder hinting offense will be a greater focus in the future?

We may learn more about that today when Mark Daigneault meets with the media. Stay tuned Thunder Nation – this is going to be exciting as the franchise begins its next phase.