Podcast: The Presti Call
Is there trouble in paradise?
Ryan and Cray have a vent session about Sam Presti's vent session about the Lu Dort trade. Or was this all a big misunderstanding?
- Presti's pulpit: The Oklahoman
- Blaming owners: What's the end game?
- Why Dort critics think we're overreacting
- Why they're wrong: instability can (and has) slam shut a championship window in OKC
Show links:
- Our reaction post to the Dort trade
- Round-up Bolts after the deal
- Dynasties Ain't Cheap: OKC's Cap Crunch
- The Second Apron Storm
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The Conversation: Excerpts and full transcript
Why the Presti interview alarmed us more than the Dort trade
Cray: To me, the biggest takeaway—regardless of the trade, the player, the plan or the draft picks—is that the Thunder GM went on the record and said ownership is intentionally, specifically dodging taxes. Not the apron, not the cap squeeze in future years, not the rotation and players. To me, the Oklahoma City Thunder are blatantly, straightforwardly saving money on a championship contender if you take Sam Presti’s comments at face value.
Ryan: Based on the last seven days, I think what you just said is more than fair. If you’ve been paying attention, that is a fair assessment.
Cray: I was prepared for this to be nostalgia-for-Dort mode. But we’ve raced beyond the goodbye to the player. We had that period with Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe. Regardless of whether you thought those deals were smart or foolish, the fans could say they had been a great part of the championship culture and reminisce over those moments. We had that with Dort for about four hours. Then Sam gave his comments, and that has become the story.
Why the Dort trade made sense
Ryan: As we’ve said countless times, Dort’s ultimate value is guarding the best player on the other team. The best player on the other team starts. There’s no way to maximize Dort’s value as the seventh, eighth or ninth man playing 15 or 20 minutes a game. For reference, he played about 26 or 27 minutes per game last year. There’s no way to maximize him as a player if he’s not a starter.
Cray: That's the widest consensus. Even huge Dort fans are saying the starting thing was over. It’s Cason’s time, and it’s not Dort’s time anymore.
Ryan: Now go to the other side, Lu Dort’s side. He’s going into a contract year, playing for $17.7 million this coming season. In no world would someone in a contract year take a minutes cut and a role reduction. It would make no sense for him, just as it would have made no sense for Josh Giddey to do the same going into his extension year.
What's the endgame?
Ryan: That is a genuine question I have: What was the win? What was the win of Presti giving that interview and inferring that they might not be on the same page? How could that be good?
Cray: A lot of people are saying we're overreacting because this was just a move to dodge the second apron, and Presti spun it because he had to. I’m sorry, but it’s not the apron. He's repeated before, during, and after these moves: this is a tax decision, not an apron decision. Regardless of the decision, the moves, the roster or the player, it’s an alarming PR tactic at worst and surprising at best.
Ryan: And he could have said what he said yesterday to Clay. This could have been a phone call. It didn’t have to be public. I just don’t know what the win is for projecting that they’re not on the same page.
When Presti was told "no"?
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