Sam Presti Dishes on OKC Thunder's Rebounding Efforts: 'We're Just Trying to Find the Best Way to Win'

Oklahoma City's laser sharp general manager talked about the Thunder's philosophy during his exit interview on Tuesday.

Sam Presti speaks to the press in Oklahoma City, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. / NATHAN J. FISH/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY

Oklahoma City’s season came to an end in the second round of the playoffs, but the experience is exactly what the Thunder needed. Tasting success and defeat in the postseason as such a young team is the most valuable thing the Thunder could’ve taken from this season.

Overall, the season was a smashing success. Stars emerged, the team gelled, and Mark Daigneault’s style and pace was shining through. Oklahoma City developed an identity that will be extremely important moving forward. And as the team approaches a crucial summer, no team is in a better position to succeed moving forward. Management has so many different options and potential possibilities on the horizon.

At Sam Presti’s exit interview, he detailed many different aspects of the Thunder’s season and what made this team so special. He answered hard questions about the trade deadline, the Gordon Hayward acquisition, and everything in between. One question that was constantly brought up during the regular season was about the team’s below average rebounding and front court depth. He echoed what Daigneault said all season long and put into perspective why Oklahoma City does what it does.

It’s not to be stubborn and try to win in a way nobody has before. It’s to give the Thunder advantages on the court.

“Even the defense and the rebounding, like, we obviously are not a great rebounding team,” Presti acknowledged. “But I'd rather be a really good defensive team than a great rebounding team. That's not to say that we can't bring that up. We certainly can.

“We're not trying to prove anybody wrong by being a bad rebounding team and trying to win. We'd love to be great at everything. But we don't want to create a hole in -- solve one area and create three holes in another area that we're scrambling to fix in another way. We're just trying to find the best way to win.”

All season, Oklahoma City gave up rebounds to bolster its defense and create mismatches on offense. The forced turnovers and high pace the Thunder played with wouldn’t have been possible with a traditional front court.

Now that the Thunder saw what worked and what failed in the playoffs, it’s possible changes come from it. Oklahoma City will be better equipped to problem solve holes for the next few seasons of deep playoff runs because of the answers they got in this year’s matchups. Maybe an athletic rebounding power forward is the answer, or another creator off the bench.

But for now, it seems like Oklahoma City is sticking to its guns philosophy wise. All season long, teams had no answer for the Thunder’s approach on both ends. There would be nights when other teams would have career rebounding nights and would still lose by double digits. It was phenomenon worth following.

Presti is right though. Fixing the rebounding issue just to create three other issues would be counterintuitive. Doing what’s best for the team longterm will always be the priority, and Oklahoma City’s team building mold fits Presti’s comments perfectly.

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