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By Nick Gallo | Broadcast Reporter and Digital Editor | okcthunder.com

On Tuesday night at the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, 14 ping-pong balls, numbered one through 14, will be placed in a lottery machine. Four balls will be randomly drawn by NBA officials, and the four-number combination will be one of the 1,000 that are assigned to each of the 14 NBA Draft lottery slots based on their records during the 2021-22 season.&nbsp;

That combination on the first draw will reveal which team receives the number one overall pick in June’s NBA Draft, then that process will be repeated three more times to reveal the teams who select two through four. The Thunder holds two of the 14 lottery slots, with 48.1 percent and 7.2 percent chances respectively to have their lottery combination revealed as one of the top four picks.&nbsp;

There’s much fanfare heading into lottery night, but Thunder General Manager and Executive Vice President Sam Presti made clear that it’s all just “a game of chance”.&nbsp;

“You have absolutely no control over it,” Presti said.&nbsp;

The Thunder’s own selection in the lottery has the fourth-best overall odds, with a 12.5 percent chance of being selected first, a 12.2 percent chance of being selected second, an 11.9 percent chance of being selected third and an 11.5 percent chance of being selected fourth. The Thunder also owns the LA Clippers lottery spot, which currently has the 12th-best odds, at a 1.5 percent chance at number one, a 1.7 percent chance and number two, a 1.9 percent chance at number three and a 2.1 percent chance at number four.&nbsp;

The teams whose lottery combinations do not come up in those four selections will then be positioned in reverse order of their records from last season for draft picks 5-14 in the lottery. In the scenario where neither of the Thunder’s lottery spots gets selected, the lowest each of the team’s picks could fall are eight and 14 respectively.&nbsp;

The Thunder’s lifeblood is the layering in of young talent through the draft, and certainly hopes for an outcome that allows the team to select towards the top of the draft. But it is understood in Oklahoma City that it must remain optimistic and make the most of wherever their pick lands.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

“For us it's a much bigger night than maybe for other teams that have different avenues to their team building, but we'll work through it no matter what happens,” said Presti. “We showed that last year.”

“Last year we got a pretty bad outcome in terms of the outcome of the drawing, but I don't think we got a bad outcome from the night,” added Presti, referring to the fact that the Thunder’s pick slipped from fourth to sixth, but the Thunder selected Josh Giddey there and he ended up being a four-time Western Conference Rookie of the Month thanks to his talent and hard work as well as the tutelage of the Thunder development staff.&nbsp;

As the Thunder enters the second draft of this next generation of the team, it will have two more picks to work with in addition to the lottery selections, at number 30 and number 34 overall. The Thunder can also utilize all four of those picks as assets to move up, to pursue draft picks in future years or create additional value for the organization. Ideally, the team will also find players in this draft that align with the identity the group is cultivating.&nbsp;

“I like the idea of adding to the group that we have for continuity reasons,” said Presti. “For me the most important thing is we've got to find somebody that fits our program and really can connect with what we're trying to do, and that we also can connect with them.”

Instead of worrying about where exactly these lottery picks are going to land and trying to control an uncontrollable, the Thunder is focused on generating the qualities of winning basketball and finding the right way to do that in Oklahoma City. Much of that will come down to the foundations for work ethic and team-oriented basketball that is being established by the players the Thunder already has.&nbsp;

“Luck favors the persistent,” said Presti. “The team will move forward more next season in my opinion based on the guys that are on the current roster and them improving more than what happens in the lottery.”

Instead of having an emotional reaction to the outcome of the Thunder’s two selections on Tuesday night, Presti and the front office will evaluate the results then respond as they prepare for the chance in June to welcome in new players to the Thunder family.&nbsp;

“After the lottery happens, we sit down and we assess exactly where we are and then we figure out how to play the ball from there,” Presti said.

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The 2022 NBA Draft Lottery - What You Need to Know

The Thunder lost by two on the road down in Dallas. It was a mid-January date with the Mavericks, one in which the young Thunder trailed by over 20 points at one point before rallying back. But the final score and result in the standings weren’t what mattered. It was a six-minute stretch in the third quarter where the Thunder played some of its best basketball of the season.&nbsp;

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander started a 24-5 Thunder run with a step-back 3-pointer, but from there on out OKC registered assists on all six of its made field goals and got to the free throw line for more easy points in a barrage of smooth offensive execution. That game wasn’t an inflection point, but rather a shining example of the underlying offensive improvement that had been percolating for weeks.&nbsp;&nbsp;

“We were much more functional,” said Thunder General Manager and Executive Vice President Sam Presti of the team’s offensive development midway through the year. “The style of play was much better.”

“The thing that was exceeding the individual development was the development of the team itself,” Presti added. “We started to play more efficiently. We were playing less patterns, more rhythm. Guys were stepping into shots, not just getting shots. The speed of the decisions was enhanced. We were just playing in a more continuous fashion and quicker minded.”

Players like Gilgeous-Alexander had already spent some time inside the Thunder’s system, but the 2021-22 campaign was a crucial starting point for a class of rookies that included four draft picks and a handful of two-way and 10-day contract players that saw significant time for the team. Thunder rookies averaged nearly 50 points per game after the All-Star Break, the most in the NBA. Throughout the season, five different Thunder rookies scored at least 25 points in a game.

The reason for that offensive production was a commitment to the balanced, ball-sharing style that was on display that January night in Dallas, regardless of the results on the scoreboard. Cultivating that identity in the early stages of these young players’ careers is vital not only for their long-term growth, but also the evolution of the team moving forward.&nbsp;

“We might come up on the short end of a game because we're working really hard to not take the bait and sacrifice our commitment to that style of play,” said Presti. “We’re holding someone accountable to that style of play. That might not have the best influence on the outcome of the game, but it's going to really carry forward because if you start making those concessions now, you can't get those back.”

There were some key elements to the Thunder’s offensive growth throughout the year, and even when the gains weren’t necessarily in production, they were on display in shot distribution. From the very outset of the season, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault pointed out that the team’s primary goal was to play in the paint, attacking relentlessly downhill towards the rim to put pressure on the defense.&nbsp;

“As a team that is trying to build a style that can scale forward,” said Daigneault. “We want to make sure that what we're doing is efficient and can scale towards efficiency.”

The Thunder led the league in drives per game, with over 61 each night, ranking in the top 5 in points, free throw attempts, passes, pass percentage and assists on drives. Living in the lane allowed the Thunder to take over 50 percent of its field goal attempts in the paint, ranking third in that category. The Thunder also notched 32 games with 50-or-more points in the paint thanks to making nearly 15 layups per night. All that action towards the rim created gashes in opposing defenses, doubling as wide open angles for kickouts to the perimeter.&nbsp;

“When you're down there, a lot of attention goes to the ball,” said Thunder rookie Tre Mann, who scored 25-plus points on four occasions last year. “When you're in the paint, everybody's looking and that gives guys like me opportunities to find space and to get shots.”&nbsp;

As Presti mentioned, as the season went along Thunder players were more often stepping into clean shots that were created for them rather than having to manufacture something out of nothing. Getting catch and shoot 3s is a vital piece of any modern NBA offense. Last year the Thunder took 3-pointers on 42.2 percent of its possessions, the highest in Oklahoma City history and 10th in the NBA this year, as the league’s three-point arms race continues to escalate.&nbsp;

The Thunder launched over 37 3s per night, seventh&nbsp;most in the NBA, and even put together a streak of 14-straight games with at least 10 made 3-pointers. Once again, the Thunder’s rookie class of Mann, Josh Giddey, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and Aaron Wiggins, along with two-way sharpshooter Lindy Waters, did some heavy lifting in this category. Thunder rookies made 362 3-pointers last year, the second most all-time by a team’s rookies in one season behind only the 2019 Atlanta Hawks, who made 368.&nbsp;

Within the rookie class, seven different players had a game with four-or-more made 3s, the most unique rookies on the same team to achieve that in NBA history. That list included Giddey, whose shot continued to improve throughout the year like so many of his teammates. Giddey, Mann, Wiggins and Robinson-Earl all play different positions, but just like some of their elder teammates, each had confidence from behind the 3-point line. To compete in this new age of the NBA, the Thunder will have to get shooting from all five positions on the floor in the years to come.&nbsp;

“It means the defense has to play multiple coverages,” said Giddey. “If we've got pick-and-pop guys like Mike (Muscala), (Isaiah) Roby, J-Rob (Robinson-Earl), it stretches the defense out.”

Continual downhill attacks and kickouts meant that Thunder players were faced with thousands of closeouts by defenders throughout the season. As opponents raced out to the perimeter to guard them, young Thunder players were faced with critical pass-shoot-drive decisions that must be made, instinctually, in the blink of an eye as the other eight players on the floor rotate into different positions. To combat the amount of thinking required in those situations, the Thunder was less focused on getting the ball into specific scorer’s hands and more on simply moving it to the open man – making the right play.&nbsp;&nbsp;

“The energy, it always will come back to you,” said veteran wing Kenrich Williams.&nbsp;

The results were some incredibly balanced offensive nights, including 29 games in which every player that entered got into the scoring column. The Thunder had two games with at least 7 players in double figures and 14 games with at least 6 players with 10-or-more points. By honing those pass-shoot-drive situations, the Thunder was able to elevate its assist numbers as the year went on without allowing turnovers to go wild. In fact, the team had 20 games last season with at least 25 assists.&nbsp;

The selflessness on offense started with on-court leaders and ball-handlers like Gilgeous-Alexander, Giddey and Lu Dort, but that style became contagious with the entire group as the team racked up 40-or-more bench points on 25 occasions, including 7 games with 50-or-more points from reserves. On top of that, the Thunder compiled one of the incredible multi-season streaks in the NBA: 211 consecutive games with at least 20 points from bench players, the longest streak in the last 40 years.&nbsp;

“Guys are better making decisions on and off the ball,” said Gilgeous-Alexander. “I can see the progress offensively for sure from day one to now.”

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Growing an Offensive Style

There were plenty of highlight plays for the Thunder this past season on defense – from Lu Dort’s swipe of De’Aaron Fox to set up his game-winning layup to rookie Tre Mann’s strip of Nikola Jokić to Darius Bazley blocks on Giannis Antetokounmpo and Rudy Gobert at the rim.

There were hundreds, perhaps thousands more defensive plays that were invisible to most observers, but preciously revered by the Thunder coaches and players. Players rotated over as the low man to plug up the paint, called out coverages and delivered in “moment of truth” situations like rookie Jeremiah Robinson-Earl’s snatch block on a would-be dunk by Troy Brown Jr.

Even more importantly, the Thunder executed the mental side of the game, like when it patiently trapped the LA Clippers in the backcourt to force the ball into the hands of a poor free throw shooter in the waning seconds of a game at Paycom Center. Two Clippers misses at the line kept the Thunder in striking distance for a Shai Gilgeous-Alexander game-winning 3 on the final possession.

“We have the bones of a very good defense,” Thunder General Manager and Executive Vice President Sam Presti said, “But that doesn't mean we're going to be a good defensive team next year. We have to go back to the drawing board again and rebuild the defense the same way we did. We demonstrated that we're very capable of being an efficient team on that end of the floor, and that's hard to do with a young team.”

“We're starting to develop an identity of a pretty tough, competitive team, despite being younger,” said Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault, who was quick to address those core values in-game, saving the details for film sessions. “That comes from a shared commitment to certain like habits and fundamentals that are expressions of toughness.”

Presti stated that next season the Thunder needs to come back a more physical group. As Daigneault noted throughout the season, so much of quality defense is attributed to effort and toughness, but there were some core elements to that defensive skeleton.

For the youngest team in the NBA, whose average age was still under 24 years on the final day of the season, there was so much to learn in training camp and in the first few months of the season. In guarding pick-and-rolls alone, there’s drop coverage, switching, getting up to the level of the screen and blitzing. There’s zone defense and full court pressure and doubling on post ups. They’re all taxing to different degrees on different players, and newcomers have to not only learn them all, but execute them on every possession to be a strong team defender.

“It’s really being locked in, trying to perfect every little detail that we can do,” said Thunder defensive ace Lu Dort. That's one thing that we emphasize a lot in a locker room - just really playing hard and competing.”

An NBA squad can’t even get into those coverages if the opposing team is out and running in transition, but fortunately the Thunder didn’t find themselves chasing the play much this year. In fact, the Thunder ranked second&nbsp;in fast break points allowed at just 10.7 per game and allowed zero fast break points to their opposition in three games last year – at Utah and twice inside Paycom Center, against Philadelphia and Dallas. A crucial aspect of transition defense for players is to simply pick up a man rather than scrambling to identify their specific defensive assignment. That job is made easier with a flexible lineup, and given the Thunder started two point guards at 6-foot-6 or taller in Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey, most nights the team was well-positioned to get back, get set and scramble.

“Both of us are taller for the point guard position,” said Gilgeous-Alexander of himself and his backcourt mate Giddey. “That just allows us to be more versatile on defense.”

Once the Thunder got set in the half court, its priority was on protecting the paint, and specifically, the rim. The Thunder gave up both the sixth&nbsp;fewest field goal attempts and the 10th&nbsp;lowest field goal percentage in the restricted area all season. By being early in help position and not shying away from high impact moments, the Thunder was mostly able to take away those momentum-swinging plays by sticking their nose in there with verticality on layup tries, diving on the floor for loose balls and being scrappy in mismatches.

“Sometimes when the team scores two points it isn’t just like two points, you know?” said forward Darius Bazley, who ranked 35th&nbsp;in the NBA in blocks per game, accumulating 70 total swats to go with 56 steals.

For much of the season, the Thunder hovered near the top 10 in defensive efficiency and field goal percentage allowed, finishing 13th&nbsp;in that category at 45.8 percent. While defense certainly involves all five men working together on a string, there’s also a level of individual pride that is required both at the point of attack and off the ball. Since the Thunder didn’t have the most size on the floor each night, Daigneault said the team proved that its commitment to protecting the rim as priority number one is a sound strategy moving forward.&nbsp;

“The coaches do a good job of holding us accountable to guard our yard,” said veteran Kenrich Williams. “As well, we do a good job of holding each other accountable and just having each other's back.”

When opponents were stymied trying to get into the paint, they kicked out to shooters on the perimeter. Primed and ready to make the extra effort to contest shots, the Thunder rushed out and made opponents think twice about whether to launch the shot, pass or put the ball on the ground.

The Thunder’s headline stretch defending the 3-point line came in the second&nbsp;half of the season, when it put together a streak of 24 straight games holding opponents to under 40 percent from 3, the longest streak in OKC history and the NBA’s second&nbsp;longest streak since the 3-point line was implemented.

On top of that streak, the Thunder held opponents to under 40-percent shooting from 3 in 60 of its 82 total games this year, and the core reason was that it made second and third efforts to get a hand in shooters’ faces. For the season, Thunder opponents shot just 33.8 percent on above the break 3s, the fifth-lowest mark in the NBA.

Not only did the Thunder lead the league in contested 3-point attempts (25.9 per game, on 66.9 percent of opponents’ attempts), it also ranked first&nbsp;in total contested field goal attempts per game (57.3).

“Everybody can make open shots. We know that, and we stress getting a hand out,” noted Mann. “The numbers prove that guys make open shots and those numbers go down once they have a hand in their face.”

“From an efficiency standpoint, there's really nothing more efficient in the NBA than a free-throw trip,” said Daigneault, outlining one of the final keys to finishing off a defensive possession. “We want to be physical, obviously, but we want to limit fouls that are cheap.”

By getting back in transition and being early in help in the half court, the Thunder prevented itself from being in disadvantageous situations, ones where the only play left to prevent a basket was a foul. As the Thunder contested shots it was also sure not to make risky choices that would result in fouls. For the season, the Thunder ranked fourth&nbsp;in both fouls per game and opponent free throw attempts.&nbsp;

The final flourish to any defensive possession is a strong rebound. Thanks to all those missed shots the Thunder forced, it ranked fifth&nbsp;in the NBA in defensive rebounds and sixth&nbsp;in total rebounds per game, with 10 games throughout the season with a double-digit rebounding advantage. Crucially, the Thunder honed the rebounding instinct in its youngest generation of players, as the team’s rookies racked up 1,348 rebounds throughout the season, the most in the NBA for the year and the third&nbsp;most in the league since the 2000-2001 season.

Not only did all those boards help seal defensive stops, they also were propellant for the Thunder’s offensive attack on the other end of the floor.

“If we're getting rebounds, we're able to push it back the other way and get more of an advantage,” said veteran center Mike Muscala. “If we're constantly taking the ball out of basket, the defense is already set. In order to make runs, we have to get stops.”

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The Bones of a Good Defense

In their first few years in the league, each Thunder player is outfitted with an offseason training regimen until they get to the point where they take those types of career decisions in their own hands. This summer, that schedule will include workouts in Oklahoma City in May and June, then Summer League in Salt Lake City and Las Vegas in July before some unscripted time in August before players begin returning to market in September to ramp up to training camp in October.

Those five months between now and the preseason will zoom by quickly, and the Thunder, led by General Manager and Executive Vice President Sam Presti, wants to make sure that it is making the most of every day in the interim. Coming off a 24-58 campaign as the youngest team in the NBA, the Thunder knows there is a ton of work to do, and miles of runway ahead for both individual players and the group to grow, starting with this offseason. There’s no set date at which these Thunder players will fully bloom or reach their next level. In fact, that progress is often non-linear. So instead of looking too far ahead at potential outcomes, the Thunder is absorbed with daily processes.

“You can't have one eye on the clock and one eye on the destination,” Presti added. “We need to have two eyes on the path for us to be successful.&nbsp; We'll let other people watch the clock.”

To help players develop their skills in a way that is directionally oriented with the entire organization, Presti and the Thunder staff provide clarity about what each person can do to succeed within the team concept, and what the long-term vision looks like for the organization. Last Tuesday, both Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey praised Presti and the front office for that openness.

While the Thunder and its players will be working diligently to get better on the court this offseason, it’s up to Presti and the basketball operations staff to make decisions about how to help the team in terms of personnel decisions. The second NBA Draft of this next cycle of the Thunder organization will come in late June, and the team holds two lottery selections as well as the 30th&nbsp;and 34th&nbsp;picks. Free agency will follow, as will deadlines for potential contract extensions for Lu Dort and Darius Bazley.

There is a ton to both contemplate and execute upon, and Presti’s nose is to the grindstone on it all, including the potential for changes to the NBA and Players’ Association collective bargaining agreement in the summer of 2023. As a result, the Thunder is not looking for fast food solutions on the cheap. To get the type of NBA meal the Thunder wants and Oklahoma City’s fans yearn for, the strategy is more like baking, requiring precision, patience and restraint.&nbsp;&nbsp;

“Trying to fix things quickly takes a very long time,” Presti quipped, but with sincerity. “So we're going to try to avoid making it longer by trying to make it shorter.”

While repetitive playoff berths can be microwaved into existence in some NBA markets, the Thunder recognizes that being in one of the league’s smallest cities, it has operate a different way if it wants to achieve sustainable success. To be big picture competitive in the NBA means not a single appearance in the playoffs, but an arrival in the postseason with the likely promise of more cracks at deep runs to follow.

As with the first extended stretch of high-level contention, the Thunder fan base was fully invested, along for the ride no matter which direction the path twisted. The same must be the case with this generation of Thunder players, the ones currently on the roster and those who will be added this offseason.

Not all of them will be a part of the next great Thunder team, but all will have contributed to the journey, and that’s why the organization will appreciate every step of it. That unwritten future, the one whose first chapters are being drafted now, can bring glory to Oklahoma City, and that story is the most precious thing any Thunder fan could cherish.

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Pressing Ahead into the Offseason

By Nick Gallo | Broadcast and Digital Reporter |&nbsp;okcthunder.com

A week ago, inside the press conference room at the Thunder ION, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander burst through the door from the practice floor bubbling with energy, shouting “Good Morning, Good Morning, Good Morning!”

Kenrich Williams cradled a basketball while he expounded upon his love for playing in Oklahoma City. Tre Mann wouldn’t let any of his locker room buddies leave the building until they played him in a quick game of one on one.

A day after landing at Will Rogers Airport at 4 a.m. to conclude the 2021-22 season, a would-be bleary-eyed Thunder came into their end of season interviews as chipper as can be.&nbsp;This Monday, during his own end of season media availability, Thunder General Manager and Executive Vice President Sam Presti was asked why he thought the players brimmed with such optimism.

“If you look at the transcripts from the last 14 years, I always felt like we’ve had a good room like that,” said Presti. “(The players) are very emblematic of what we all say we want in sports. I love being around them. Optimism, to me, is saying we can get this done.

“There were examples this season of the way guys supported each other, especially guys who were competing for more minutes,” Presti added. “To me, that’s very impressive. There’s a maturity among this group of guys that is refreshing in that way.”

There are plenty of reasons for that optimism based on what happened between the lines throughout the season. Gilgeous-Alexander was poised in crunch time, stepped it up on defense and refined his craft as a game conductor. Rookie Josh Giddey unfurled some elite talents as a playmaker and distributor, as well as some eye-popping inbounds passes. Aaron Wiggins ascended from a two-way contract to a full-time roster spot thanks to a commitment to defensive fundamentals. Mann learned to scrap and to get his shot whenever he wanted. All of that individual growth, however, came within the Thunder’s team concept and overarching goals as a unit.

On offense, the Thunder began playing in what Presti called, “less patterns, more rhythm”, highlighted by a 7-minute stretch in a January game at Dallas, where the team was in a flow state – rolling like a wave from one end of the floor to the other in complete sync with one another. The progress was demonstrated not necessarily in the results on the scoreboard, but how the Thunder was playing on offense. Over 90 percent of its field goal attempts came from behind the 3-point line or in the paint, as the Thunder ranked in the top five in 3-point rate, paint attempt rate and layups made per game.

“We’re closer to being the team we want to be this season than we were last season, but we’re still really far away from ultimately getting to the level we want to be at,” Presti said.

Efficiency can come on the defensive end of the floor as well, and the Thunder showed it has the chance to be strong in that department when whole and more seasoned. Even with the youngest roster in the league, the Thunder hovered in the top 10 to 15 in defensive rating for nearly the whole year, especially when defensive ace Lu Dort was in the lineup. Darius Bazley emerged as a defensive Swiss army knife and the Thunder’s second-year 7-footer Aleksej Pokuševski found a role as a rebounder and disruptor in the lane.

For the season, the Thunder ranked 2nd in fast-break points allowed, in the top 3 in contested shots and top 5 in free throw attempts allowed per game. By getting back on defense quickly and protecting the paint as top priorities, the Thunder was able to get out, get a hand up and force missed jumpers, as OKC held opponents to under 40 percent shooting from three in 60 out of its 82 games this year.

“We have the bones of a very good defense. We were in the top 10 defensive rating prior to Lu (Dort) going down and then losing guys left and right,” said Presti. “That doesn't mean we'll be a good defensive team next year. We have to go back to the drawing board and rebuild the defense the same way we did.”

As Presti noted, just because the Thunder took strides forward this season, it doesn’t mean anything will be guaranteed next year. In fact, he invoked the Oklahoma state motto, “Labor omnia vincit”, which means “hard work conquers all” in Latin, as the approach the organization, staff, coaches and players took this past year and will carry on into the future. The goal in 2021-22 was to lay a foundation, and that was accomplished. With continuity, a culture where winning can happen and that Oklahoma hard hat approach, Presti believes that this year’s team started the organization down a promising path.

“That's the mentality of the team.&nbsp; We have a lot of hard work in front of us. We have to grind in and do it,” said Presti. “That's what the state is about. That's what the history of the community is about. That's what the basketball team here is about.”

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Presti's View on 2021-22

Every year as the season ends, Thunder General Manager and Executive Vice President Sam Presti meets with the media to deliver his view on all aspects of the organization, giving as much time as the local press corps desires. Around the league its abnormal for general managers to speak for over 90 minutes as Presti normally does, but to wrap the 2021-22 campaign, Presti graciously gave a window into the team’s thinking to the media and fans over the course of 2 hours and 13 minutes.

Beginning with a 31-minute opening address followed by a press conference that covered the past, the present and the future of the team, Presti answered every question until the media was left questionless.

Reminiscing on the 2021-22 Thunder season, Presti noted that not only did every player take a stride forward this season, but that even more importantly, the team improved as a collective unit. From compiling a top 10 defense when fully healthy to evolving on offense from a playstyle standpoint, highlighted by a 7-minute stretch in Dallas against the Mavericks, Presti had plenty to be optimistic about. Perhaps the most important reason for that sunny outlook is the players’ disposition – a camaraderie within the locker room from building something together matched with a relentlessness on the court.

“At the start of the season we talked about setting a baseline for the team. I think we accomplished that,” said Presti. “We had a productive year. We're further ahead than a year ago.”

As far as next season is concerned, Presti laid out a vision for internal competition, both among and between players that will be amplified by the continuity another year of offseason workouts, Summer League and training camp provide. The Thunder will have the opportunity to continuing to layer young talent into the roster, while also having decisions to make during free agency and with contract extensions, but all of those choices are building towards the team’s larger goal of sustainable success. Instead of watching the clock on when the organization will see fruit, Presti has the Thunder instead focused on setting its own pace.

“You can't have one eye on the clock and one eye on the destination,” Presti said. “We need to have two eyes on the path for us to be successful.”

That type of attitude isn’t an accident. It’s one borne of the Thunder’s birth in Oklahoma City. As much as the Thunder aims to be a leader in the state, it also aspires to emulate the values its people hold by generating a culture where a team can win. Presti called upon the Latin phrase Labor omnia vincit, Oklahoma’s state motto, meaning “work conquers all” for the mindset the Thunder players, coaches and staffers carry forth each day.

“That’s the beauty of Oklahoma. People here don't expect to be handed things,” said Presti. “They don't expect to have the yellow brick road like laid out for them. I think people here expect to work for what they get. I think they expect to do it together, unified.”

That’s exactly how the Thunder expects to get from being the youngest team in the NBA this past season to an arrival in the years to come. Presti is confident that when that happens, Oklahomans and Thunder fans around the world will rejoice, but particularly those who “bleed blue” and remember the path the organization took along the way and the legacy of the players each left.

You can find everything you need on the three main topics Presti covered this week at okcthunder.com:

Wednesday – Pressing Ahead into the Offseason

Thursday – The Thunder’s Oklahoma Spirit

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Bleed Thunder Blue All Week

By Paris Lawson | Broadcast and Digital Reporter | okcthunder.com

At the start of the 2021-22 season, the Thunder opened the first week of training camp inside of its old practice facility. With a team full of new faces and a blank slate opportunity ahead of them, the two-a-day practices were designed to set a solid foundation for the group to build on while also reconnecting to its core organizational values.&nbsp;

Six months later, having logged 82 games worth of experiences and lessons, the Thunder convened as a group one last time before the offseason – this time to reflect on how they built on that foundation.&nbsp;

“We're proud of the organization's origins and the teams and players that have been here before and we think tapping into that is an advantage for us, but we're also a new iteration and a new cycle of the team and we need to chart our own course,” said Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault. “I think this season was another positive step in the right direction, environmentally, stylistically, programmatically and with the development of individual players.”

With the youngest roster in the league, the Thunder prioritized opportunities to its young players throughout the year. All of OKC’s rookies logged valuable and extended playing time on the floor to the point where the Thunder led all teams in points per game by rookies. Even returning players were given the opportunity and runway to expand and add to their games.&nbsp;

Throughout the season, the team celebrated each developmental win and banded together when facing a hurdle. When a player stepped up in a ‘Moment of Truth’ to block a shot or take a charge, the bench clamored in encouragement. In tough losses, there were no fingers pointed but rather introspection and added motivation. The result of that environment: a close-knit group who remained present in the highs and lows of the season.&nbsp;

“We had fun this year. I think that's the most important thing,” said Gilgeous-Alexander. “We got closer on and off the court, and I'm excited for the future of this team for sure.”

“Super young team, so everyone was super-duper close,” said Thunder forward Darius Bazley. “Everyone was super proud of everyone else's success in different parts, whenever they had some. It was really fun to just go out and compete and get better with everyone every day.”

That competitiveness made itself apparent in multiple ways throughout the season, but perhaps none greater than the resiliency in the face of a large deficit. The Thunder’s no-quit attitude was responsible for 16 comebacks of 10 or more points which ties for the third most of any team in the league and eight comeback wins of 15 points or greater – tied for the most in the league.&nbsp;

One of OKC’s most memorable comebacks took place in October against the Lakers which resulted in the one of the largest come-from-behind victories in OKC history. The youngest team in the league, facing the oldest, rallied back to win after falling behind by as many as 26 points.&nbsp;&nbsp;

“It just shows the toughness and the grit of our team,” said Thunder rookie Aaron Wiggins. “When we're all on the same page and competing together and playing like that, any deficit we face we can come back from.”

That competitiveness also showed up on the defensive end – an area where the Thunder hung their hat each night. When operating at full-health, the Thunder held a top-10 defensive rating in the league despite oftentimes being the undersized and less-experienced team on the floor. What the team lacked in size and experience, they made up for in feistiness and competitiveness.&nbsp;

“The biggest ingredient you have on the defensive in the floor is the level of competitiveness that your team has, and I thought one thing that you can't deny about our team this past season is how consistently we competed,” said Daigneault. “That's the thing that we're most proud of.”

“One of the main things we said at the beginning of the year was to compete at the highest level every night, and that was just the standard we had for the whole year,” said Thunder defensive ace Lu Dort. “The whole team really was digging into that and came to compete hard every night.”

Offensively, the Thunder set out to establish a sustainable style of play that transcended individuals in the lineup. That meant playing through the paint, playing fast and moving the ball to generate the highest quality look on the floor. By the end of the year, though the Thunder’s lineup took on various iterations, the style of play remained intact.&nbsp;

“The most encouraging thing is stylistically, on both ends of the floor, we ended the season more actualized than we started it,” said Daigneault. “That's where we need to be right now with such a young team and guys that are growing and declaring themselves.”

In addition to solidifying its playing style offensively, the Thunder saw individual player improvement throughout the year. Players such as rookie Tre Mann, for instance, who entered the league with a high-level shot-creating ability but needed to adjust to the size and length of NBA defenders. By the end of the season after spending time in the G-League with the OKC Blue, Mann logged four games scoring 25 or more points.&nbsp;

Between the individual player development this season, the establishment of a sustainable playing style and the positive environment within the organization, there’s a collective optimism among the group for the future of the team.&nbsp;

“I'm excited about seeing what it looks like when we come to the gym in September and I think training camp in particular, just looking at who's on the team, knowing we're going to be layering in more guys. I'm pretty excited about the level of competition,” said Daigneault. “That level of competition inside your roster is an indicator of having an improving team and that's a good thing.”

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Thunder's 2021-22 Season 'A Positive Step in the Right Direction'

During the NBA season, a Saturday in between Friday and Sunday games is typically a prime practice day. Just before the Thunder loaded up on the team busses, however, the team dropped a surprise on them. Instead of suiting up for a final practice of the season, they were informed they’d be heading to Wake Me When I’m Free – a pop-up museum honoring Tupac Shakur in downtown Los Angeles. 

Shakur, who went by 2Pac as a musician, was a poet, actor and civil rights activist who had massive cultural influence in the 1990s prior to his murder. He was only 25 years old when he passed away, but his wisdom shined through in his words, which were displayed across the walls of the museum in a variety of forms, but most powerfully from the pages of his own hand-written notebooks. 

In an extremely short period of time, Shakur left his mark on the music and film industries in addition to, as the best artists do, holding a mirror up to his own society to show his fellow Americans the triumphs, struggles and frustrations of those who didn’t have a microphone and a rapt national audience.  

“He did a good job with his platform, using his platform the right way to get an awareness out there, trying to be a positive influence,” said rookie Tre Mann, who had just been listening to 2Pac’s music the day before and felt meaning behind the coincidence that 24 hours later he’d be getting an in-depth view into Shakur’s life.

Thunder players streamed into a bright white room with artistic representations of some of Shakur’s most meaningful tattoos to begin the tour. Wearing headsets and remote controls around their necks, Thunder players then weaved their way through the museum, which demonstrated the winding road that was Tupac’s life – the son of a civil rights activist, his childhood in poverty, his artistic genius as a teenager, eventual rise to mainstream prominence, his imprisonment, death and lasting societal impact. 

All season long, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been wearing vintage 2Pac t-shirts into arenas prior to games, so the visit to the museum was a unique opportunity for him to dive deeper. 

“At first I just like the T’s and the more I got into it, I learned so much about him and kind of turned into a fan,” said Gilgeous-Alexander. “He was so intelligent. That's what I didn't know before. He was this super smart guy, super creative. It was just cool to see that side of him that I didn't know.”

While Thunder assistant coach Mike Wilks and veteran Derrick Favors bopped to Shakur’s debut hit with Digital Underground “Same Song”, Darius Bazley gazed closely at Shakur’s poetry. The display of Shakur’s hand-written poems included a particularly poignant one called “And 2morrow”, which ends with the lines: 

To know I fought with all my heart to keep my dream alive

As the Thunder ends its season in Los Angeles, with an offseason ahead to get better individually and collectively as a unit, the team can look back at the year with a similar pride in the way they all pursued their NBA dreams this season. As a result, Saturday’s surprise field trip was a perfect bonding experience to send the group off into the summer with both inspiration and togetherness.&nbsp;&nbsp;

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End of Season Surprise Pac’s a Punch

<a href="https://www.nba.com/thunder/live">LIVE NOW | SAM PRESTI END-OF-SEASON MEDIA AVAILABILITY</a>