Presti not expecting Thunder downturn despite departures

OKLAHOMA CITY -- In last season's playoffs, the Oklahoma City Thunder's dreams of repeating as NBA champions dwindled with a string of untimely injuries and then faded altogether in a Game 7 Western Conference Finals loss at home to the San Antonio Spurs.

For the Thunder, an offseason of change followed, namely trading starter Lu Dort and key reserves in Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins -- all cost-saving moves that shrunk the team's payroll by more than $300 million.

"I think the team last year had another level to it," Thunder executive vice president and general manager Sam Presti said Thursday in his annual preseason news conference. "I think we could have got to another level. But I think in due time, like I said earlier, this particular group of players, if we stay healthy, if it has time together, it has a chance to be as good if not better than any of the teams we've had."

Speaking of their championship core of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, 28, Chet Holmgren, 24, and Jalen Williams, 25, Presti later said, "We have three guys, two of which are not even in their prime, that are All-NBA players, and also the other guy that's a back-to-back MVP [Gilgeous-Alexander], and he's only getting better as well in his prime."

Williams played in just 38 games last season because of injuries, including a left hamstring strain that kept him mostly sidelined in the playoffs against the Spurs.

"He looks fantastic," Presti said. "He looks great. He's playing great. We're looking forward to him being himself again."

During an hour-and-a-half session with reporters, Presti praised the key contributions of Dort, Joe and Wiggins while saying it was "certainly disappointing" to lose them. And he said the Thunder will be different after losing players who roughly played a combined 10,000 minutes over the past two seasons.

"We have to give ourselves time to figure out the best way to position this team because those guys played a lot," Presti said. "They were big influences on things. We're going to have to kind of learn a new way, which is healthy."

He also spoke at length about the second apron -- the financial threshold in the NBA's collective bargaining agreement that has helped shape how teams are constructed.

"When people talk about the aprons, everybody is talking about it from a very small point of view because it affects everybody differently based on your starting point and the timeline of your team," he said. "We have a tendency in this world to paint everything with a broad brush or prescribe something based on one person's symptoms. It's like, everyone has got a different experience with these aprons. So I don't think it can be a broad brush."

Added Presti: "For us, the ghost in the machine is the finances, not so much the aprons. I've said that for three years probably. And sure, it's a changing dynamic, but in 2012, they introduced the Rose Rule and the repeater tax, and that was a disruption. It took time for people to accommodate and acclimate to that. It's always going to change. You have to kind of figure it out and adapt to it. But I wouldn't paint it with a broad brush for everybody, like everyone is affected the same way. I don't believe that at all."