From navigating roster turnover and championship expectations to managing high-stakes financial hurdles, Sam Presti details how the Thunder will leverage youth and flexibility to defend their title.
Sam Presti had a lot to talk about Thursday.
With the Oklahoma City Thunder just weeks away from opening the 2026-27 season, Presti’s annual preseason press conference touched on nearly every major storyline surrounding the team.
The Thunder have gone through plenty of change since winning the championship last season, and Presti spent a good portion of his time explaining what those changes could mean.
Oklahoma City lost Lu Dort, Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe during the offseason, among other roster changes. Presti pointed out just how much experience is actually leaving, noting that the Thunder are replacing roughly 10,000 minutes from the previous two seasons.
That’s a significant amount of basketball to replace. But it also creates opportunities.
Players who may not have had the same chances a year ago could be asked to do more this season, and Jared McCain is one of the names that stands out.
Presti spoke highly of McCain, not just because of his shooting ability, but because of the way he has handled coming into an established team and learning how to fit into it.
Now McCain has another offseason in Oklahoma City behind him and a better understanding of what the Thunder expect.
Ajay Mitchell is in a similar spot.
Mitchell became a real part of the Thunder’s rotation during the playoffs and now has a chance to build on that experience. Presti mentioned his defense, physicality and passing as areas where Mitchell can continue to grow.
Then there’s Chet Holmgren.
Holmgren is coming off a major season, making his first All-Star team, earning All-NBA honors and finishing second in Defensive Player of the Year voting.
Still, Presti doesn’t see him as a finished product.
The addition of Aday Mara and the eventual return of Thomas Sorber also give Oklahoma City some flexibility with how it uses Holmgren. The Thunder can play him at center, put him alongside another big or go smaller depending on the matchup.
That flexibility could be one of the more interesting things to watch once the games actually begin.
Sorber and Nikola Topic are going to be a little different.
Both players have missed significant time, and Presti made it clear that getting healthy is only the first part of their return. They also have to get used to playing basketball again, dealing with the speed and physicality that comes with live competition.
That could take some time.
Presti also spent time talking about the financial side of the Thunder.
The second apron has been discussed plenty when it comes to Oklahoma City, especially with the team’s young core eventually moving into bigger contracts.
But Presti said the bigger issue is the financial commitment itself.
Those decisions aren’t something the Thunder have to solve all at once, though. The organization will continue to evaluate where the team is and what makes sense as the roster develops.
Expansion came up, too.
With Seattle and Las Vegas among the potential future expansion markets, Presti acknowledged that an expansion draft could eventually affect how teams build their rosters. But until the league actually establishes what expansion will look like, Oklahoma City isn’t going to make major decisions based on something that remains uncertain.
And then there was the community.
Presti talked about the importance of players being accessible to people throughout Oklahoma and how much those relationships matter. He pointed to Isaiah Hartenstein’s involvement with the Oklahoma City National Memorial and the interactions Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has with young fans before games.
Those moments aren’t going to show up in the standings, but Presti clearly sees them as part of what makes the organization what it is.
By the time Thursday’s press conference ended, there were still plenty of questions surrounding the Thunder.
There are new players to integrate, young players waiting for bigger opportunities, injured players working their way back and financial decisions that will eventually have to be made.
But that’s also what makes this season interesting.
The Thunder know what they have. Now they have to find out exactly what they can do with it.
