TBU Podcast | Ep. 31 – Crack the Code | OKC Thunder

TBU Podcast | Ep. 31 – Crack the Code | OKC Thunder

we can crack the code or we can pick the lock and we need to crack the code because if we can do that we can show up again and again even with um you know the unexpected adversities and curveballs that we’re going to get thrown um we have to know the have to know our own formula we have to know how to repeat our success and it won’t be something that uh is the same each year you know but if we have the that Mutual commitment and we have the awareness that we have so much to learn we have to be extremely humble about what we’re doing I think we we’re headed in the right direction welcome into the Thunder basketball Universe up to this point in the off season we’ve heard from all of the Thunder players we’ve heard from Thunder head coach Mark dagel but one person that we hadn’t heard from was Thunder general manager Sam presty and we have now gotten the chance to talk to him truly the end of season EX the interviews are not complete until you hear from Sam prey that’s right he really does a nice job of not just putting a bow on the season that was but setting the table for what’s to come and each year you know these sessions are a little bit different in the sense of like how philosophical they are versus how you know kind of bread and butter they are and and some of those basic things that people need to know about the team and the direction and you kind of get a little bit of a mix of that throughout uh the course of these sessions Sam’s uh this year was about two and a half hours long and he he’ll sit there and he’ll answer every single question um he you know will have a little bit of a statement this time he saved that for the end where he really is able to kind of speak to the fan base he understands you know how much passion and pride exists here in Oklahoma City um and so he wants to kind of be able to deliver a message to them in addition to uh the the questions that he answers to the media well we’re recording this on Wednesday May 29th that means Sam spoke yesterday and as you mentioned at length yesterday about two and a half hours and answered a bunch of questions and there was so much to take away but one of the biggest themes you heard it right there off the top and it was probably one of the the quotes that stuck with both of us the most and the one that he kind of repeated throughout his entire press conference and that was this concept of cracking the code versus picking the lock and this Thunder team this organization wants to be one that cracks the code yeah and I think what he’s saying here is you know this amazing season this remarkable season historic season and postseason run is over now and this Thunder team made an appearance in the playoffs they were the youngest team ever to earn a number one seed in in a conference youngest team ever to win 57 games they won a first round series 4 nothing uh but ultimately the challenge only gets harder it only gets more stiff stiffer and more complicated from here because of external Forces teams really loading up and trying to deal with the problem that is the Oklahoma City Thunder and so what OKC needs to do is not be you know a onetick pony to some extent and say okay we were able to do that one time to really prove it now they’ve got to go out and try to replicate that success next season and that is going to take a level of humility and maturity and I thought that this was a great way to sort of set the table heading into the summer because there’s so many people for good reason because this was such an exciting year who are ready to say okay the Thunder is now this fully formed thing and this is what they’re going to be like they’re going to make these types of postseason runs every single year from here on out and Sam having done this for a long time now recognizes the realities of having to put one foot in front of the next each year and you’re not just you know handed that uh one of the phrases that he uses later on is uh there’s no silver platters here in Oklahoma City being a small Market one of the smallest you’re not going to be able to just Walt into another 57 win season next year you’ve got to be able to actually understand who you are to do all of that again in circumstances that are going to be different and as you mentioned it takes patience it takes intentionality and as this organization has done through its entire run here in Oklahoma City doing it without cutting any Corners you really can’t short step the process here and Sam is very very intentional about laying that out from the outset even at this point where this team has you know acquired some success this season he’s very adamant said it several times throughout the interiew or throughout the press conference that that promises you nothing for next season and so you have to have the same approach you have to have that same intentionality and patience going into the next season so as we spoke so so long with Sam prey during this interview we have a couple of quotes that stood out to each of us as well we’re going to do a little SE section of you can Shay that again with Mr Sam prey Nick I’ll let you go first what was one of the quotes that stood out to you the the quote that I really liked was we have a lot of guys who are ambitious but don’t have an agenda and he kind went on to say um you know we don’t want people who want the wind at their back all the time you know and I think what he’s saying there is um we want guys who are going to be willing to um do what’s right for the team and do what’s right for the team no matter whether things are going well for them personally or not I think he brought up a couple of guys as an example of this he used Chad as an example that guy eats lives breathes sleeps basketball right this guy is just all about the game and is very ambitious very ambitious no one can deny that about Chad but he has no agenda outside of what the team needs what this team’s goals are together and that is a that’s a very fine line especially for young players to walk where you want to be great you want to do great things but you you have to recognize in order to be successful on a team with a team you have to put those you know individual Ambitions aside and focus on the Ambitions of the team and that’s exactly what he was talking about yeah and you think about a player like Cas Wallace who’s another one that he brought up of being a totally AG genderist player he’s just making the play that’s right in front of him that can be a micro factor of just like how you actually execute within the game can also be a macro factor in terms of how a guy carries themselves how the guy you know is hangs around the team how they operate within the team going back to your point on jet he mentioned just in the talent sort of scouting process when he went to watch chat at Gonzaga with you know more veteran team around him he was this you know young freshman highly prized uh Prospect and Chad acted like he was the 15th guy and he was just you know one of the one of the guys on the team and that said a lot to Sam about how he would integrate into a professional environment it kind of brought me back to if you remember at the start of the season I believe Sam brought up this idea of a mixing board and how everyone can’t be cranked up to you know 10 and 11 at the same time because you can’t hear anything it sounds terrible some guys have to be turned down so that other guys can be turned up there are just so many different you know levels essentially but it all requires these guys to make sacrifices all these guys to make sure that the goal and the focus is on the team not on themselves but to make sure they’re bringing their best self to the team and that’s where the ambition comes in because all of these guys very very ambitious really really adamant about improving getting better developing focusing on that sort of ambition within themselves but to make sure that the whole goal is always about the group and this is one of those good problem so don’t view this as a negative but that job the mixing board job gets even harder next season when Jay dub is in year three Jay will is in year three Chad hr’s in year two I mean these guys who are still finding themselves as players you know Josh gidd is in his in his fourth year as well like these players who are still learning their games are sort of sort of sorting out what type of player they’re going to continue to be and that’s why Sam says like this year’s team is over we have to be ready and kind of be ahead of the team on what this group is going to be like next year because they’re all going to evolve and change it was a really good quote that you chose like I kind of forgot about that one before before our podcast so that was a really good one that you chose um here is my shay that again from this press conference Sam said sometimes when you don’t know where it is you’re headed or what the final result will be it helps you know where you’re you are and I think we’re in a good place I really like this quote from Sam um this was towards the end of his press conference um he gave a very long kind of list of thank yous and kind of closing thoughts at the end of his press conference and this was one of them and it it require it was it stood out to me because it it was the level of humility that we’ve always seen from Sam of like look I’m going to sit in this very same seat in September and I have no idea what things are going to look like come that time but if I look at where we are right now if to use coach dagn not’s term if I am where my feet are right now and I look around I really like where we’re at and knowing the the motivation of each of these guys to go out in the summer and get better knowing that you know we’re in a really good spot whe whether it’s new additions whether it’s these guys just coming back better players this will be a very different looking team I don’t know what that looks like but I like where we’re at right now and I like the direction we’re heading I just really like that quote I I love it too and I think just orienting yourself and understanding who you are and where you are is massive I mean yeah it’s no surprise and I love the quote that you picked because I think it’s really spoton in terms of like understanding the Thunder organization and thunder thinking yes they lean into the analytics and they want to know every fact that you can possibly know but if you listen to Sam prey and Mark dagal talk they are really into social science and the understanding of human beings the understanding of people and one of the things that you have to know about yourself as a human being to feel you know poised feel ready to attack new challenges is to know where you are and you can’t be like flying willy-nilly uh without having a true understanding of what you have he talks about this in team building as well like you know it’s it’s one thing to say this is what we need it’s much more important to know what you have exactly and that’s and that’s really rooted in in a lot of what you pulled out there so great quote there it was great stuff from Sam and I I I love the the perspective and Coach dagnal does this as well we hear it from Sam of just like we don’t know everything like you can you can get as much data and information as you possibly want you can take in as much information from as many different sources as you want but at the end of the day we really have no clue we can’t see the future that is a fact and he brought it up he was telling a story about I believe scouting and he at some point he just kind of said look we’re all guessing at the end of the day we’re all guessing and so it’s just about making sure that you recognize where you are what you have and going out and just putting one foot in front of the other like you mentioned so that was kind of the the the tone of the the whole press conference in in my opinion of just like answering a lot of questions but there were a few really kind of bigger takeaways that we wanted to talk about the first one that I wanted to bring up is this concept that he that Sam brought up that said the best players are secure players and I love this quote from him and the guy that he brought up when he was talking about it was Shay and he said Shay is a secure player and the context of all of this was you know Sam has now been at the helm here with the Thunder Organization for almost two decades and he’s been doing this for a very long time he’s seen a ton of success even before he got to to this organization in San Antonio and he’s seen some really high level players some Hall of Fame level players the Thunder has some guys now in Shay and you know you can add whoever whichever names to the list that you want to on this who have aspirations when we talked about players who are really ambitious they have aspirations to be in those types of conversations Down the Line This is still so very early in the process for all of them but the the context is you know which types of you know what separates uh these great play from one another and he was saying it’s the secure players it’s the guys who are confident in what they’ve built and not looking over their shoulder wondering if someone else thinks that what they’ve built is cool or what they’re doing is cool it’s somebody that understands like hey I’m doing this my way because I like to do it my way and we’re we’re doing this way as a group because we think it’s the right thing to do not because of what other people might think yeah all of these guys as a collective they’re all running their own race and this is something that is required of a very young team that wants to do great things we heard the word uncommon a million times and so if you want to be a young team to do great things you got to do things a little bit differently you can’t be looking over your shoulder left and right seeing what other teams are doing what other organizations are doing you got to run your race and on a Gran granular letter level with Shay Sam pointed out that look Shay is really proud of what he built here like you sleep better in a house where you put up the beams yourself and I thought that was a really good analogy but to his point Shay’s been here since day one of all of this of the the restarting and and the the restructuring here and Shay has been a part of all of it he’s seen it all and looking around he I feel like Sam is saying like he’s really proud of where this team is at now and the hand that he had in it yeah Sam even kind of had to remind everybody like I I know that we we didn’t draft him but it really feels like Shay started his career obviously Shay had an amazing 82 Game season his rookie year with the LA Clippers but after he came to the Thunder things were just you know different around here in terms of the trajectory of the team the responsibility that was handed to him the Arc of Shay career and the Thunders Arc are really in lock step The Arc of Mark dnel and Sha’s Arc and and the Thunders Arc very uh much in that same um you know pathway right now and so that’s uh it’s been a really cool marriage and I think that’s something that that Sam hinted to as well is like what you need from a star player and an organization uh is what we see around the league in some really you know solid stable places is almost you know as deep a commitment as you can possibly have to one another to say like hey we are in this we are in it for the long haul and the Peaks and The Valleys that we’re going to go through I think Sam even said sickness and and health and and guess what that’s coming all of that is coming the health is coming you never know what point in the timeline that you’re on on that you know um certainly the Thunder had great physical health during the season this year so that was something to to really be grateful for um and and so you just never know what those things might be that you’re going to bump up against or you know go down the slide on and and just be along coasting for the ride on and so um these are the things that really stand out to Sam about these players that have been able to make those types of commitments be solid in them and then carry forward uh success with an organization and obviously we’ve seen the Improvement that Shay has made from his first season with the Oklahoma City Thunder to where he is right now finishing second in MVP voting leading the league in steals I mean the the the accolades go on and on and on and so it’s really really encouraging to think about the continued growth and the continued Improvement knowing who Shay is as a player and the type of person he is how driven and motivated he is really really encouraging for for the future for SGA and this team as a whole another person that you mentioned coach dagnal another guy with a bunch of accolades this season because he finished as both the coaches association Coach of the Year voted on by his peers and also voted on by the media NBA coach of the year and I loved I loved what Sam had to say because he he was obviously asked about coach and you know a guy who’s also been with this you know team through all the ups and downs in the trajectory from the very outset and Sam said you want a coach that loves players not coaching there’s a very big difference there and Nick I want you to help decode this a little bit because what I think we all know about Coach dagnal he’s a great teacher right he’s very great you know interpersonal communication very good at explaining things and um getting players to buy into things but when he says you want a coach that loves players not coaching what exactly do you feel like Sam was getting that there I I think this goes to one of the th philosophies and something that Mark D talks about a lot which is we walk alongside our players we don’t tell them what to do we don’t seek compliance from them we don’t uh want obedience from them we are here to help them live out their dream and in doing that what all of these players dream of is being the best player that they can possibly be and winning as much as they can possibly win that is at the heart what a competitor and an athlete is all about and so uh you want to you want to love those people that you’re walking alongside if you’re going to be on this journey doing that you you really want to love them and not love uh the fact that you get to Point them in the direction that you want them to go um he he had kind of a a little moment there before he said that quote what what do you think was maybe swirling around in there just from understanding their relationship I I think looking at coach dagnal and recognizing his history hisory with the organization his first ever you know forray into the NBA was with the Thunder organization with the g-league you have to remember that I mean Nick you were the first guy to talk to him probably in the organization way back when and during that time I I feel like Sam recognized this about Mark because if you’re going to coach a g-league team you have to be as about as appreciative of a player yeah as anyone right it’s it’s less about the X’s and O’s and more about recognizing all right these guys are fighting for their NBA lives you have to point get them all pointed in the same direction and pulling in the same direction and that takes a very very special and unique person and I’ll never forget this when we were talking to Mark it was might have been last year honestly and someone asked you know how did the g- league help you in the NBA and his response was recognizing that these aren’t just players they’re people and one thing that weighed exceptionally heavy on me was like roster Cuts because in the G League you cut a guy and that’s it for them that’s probably the end of the line that’s probably the end of the line you were holding their NBA and basketball careers in a way in your hand and you can’t be flippant about that you you can’t be you know you have to be very intentional about that and so that’s something that I feel like he’s carried with him that intentionality that um you know appreciation for a player and their individual dreams their individual goals their individual aspirations and people that are you know relying on them they all have their own worlds that they’re dealing with and to your point I think he’s learned that in order to best get these guys pointed in the same direction you have to you have to walk alongside them with everything that that’s surrounding them Sam talked about pride and passion a lot in in this talk and we’ll get to that as it relates to the fans but he used the word passion about uh somebody else right before he said said this quote about Mark dnel and uh it was about Bill Walton and he was asked about Bill Walton who recently just passed obviously Hall of Fame basketball player incredible broadcaster as well and um Sam said you know he didn’t know Bill Walton but he was just sort of thinking about Bill while he was on a run and he he said I’ve never heard anybody articulate their passion for basketball better than Bill Walton and it was sort of in the Comedown from that answer as you know he was saying bill won had a chance to play for John Wooden and you know wooden was um somebody that was a great example of the difference between a teacher and a coach and it was just sort of the quote that he had about Mark was this really nice Koda to this whole thing about Bill Walton and John Wooden and um it was not prompted you know he had already he had talked about Mark at a different stage of the proceedings um and so I thought that was cool that he kind of offered that up on his own and I think that helps explain why we’ve seen coach dagnal have this U that he’s had in his time with this organization and why the players have rallied around him why you see Jay dub wearing a mar dagal t-shirt while warming up these guys are just they they really appreciate everything that he brings to the table and I think that he reciprocates all of that back to the guys and it’s a really good relationship all the way around up and down the organization another big takeaway and this came off a question that I asked um but Sam said look it all comes from the players they’re joyful they’re optimistic and fun to be he also went on to say you don’t have to lighten up this group no they they’re already they’re already have plenty of a pep in their Stu yeah they’re totally fine there have been you know teams where you have to go out there and kind of like try to break the ice a little bit these guys no they’re already joyful happy and you know excited to come to work every day and that was off of my question of just like what his perspective was yes of the chemistry of this team then I loved his answer because he was like look every team’s different and like every year is something different there’s been the stash Bros there was you know Thunder you and this year it’s all about the Barking you know so like every year is something but the best thing about it is that it all comes from the players yeah he said you know I it doesn’t matter to him what the kind of the tenor and the personality and the tone of the team is as long as it’s authentic to them and it’s coming from them it’s not top down I mean we we think about culture it’s bottom up not top down imposed from on high and so I think Sam has really gotten a nice grasp on um being able to set an environment for the players to create their own culture if that makes sense and there’s of course some you know guard rails to make sure things don’t get too silly and don’t don’t get too serious he shared some stories about those things that you know are massive tangents and rabbit holes that we probably won’t go down um but it involves him dressing up in some of Russell Westbrook’s clothes Gold Lion Medallion was included if you want to hear it it’s all on YouTube on the OKC Thunder YouTube Channel please if you want to hear it just go go listen to it but but basically the the feeling is you know this has to come from the guys and it did this year and that’s why that’s why it permeated to the fans the way that it did that’s why our Arena and social media and everything was so captured by it was because it was completely organic and it was not um you know some top- down imposed thing uh that’s what made all of this so special that it just sort of bubbled up from underneath I I just it made me smile because in all every single end of season interview with each of the guys when they were asked about just kind of you know how fun was it this season they would all start beaming they would all start smiling and they would basically say it was a joy to come to work every day yeah and I just that’s so tough to accomplish when Stakes are high when so many different you know people with different Ambitions are involved you know but as we mentioned this is very uncommon group group and I think when all of these guys set those individual Ambitions aside and focused on the group focused on the team that’s where you get a lot of this stuff and it helps that you know a lot of them are around the same age as well yeah for sure that probably helped a little bit basically the the vast majority of the rotation in the postseason are all 25 and younger exactly um it’s just remarkable that these guys and I I you know just cannot believe that there’s still this Runway that exists and I think that’s um to Sam’s point it’s not guaranteed that we can just have this happen again they’ve got to replicate all of this including a culture that bubbles up naturally that might look different than this year so if there’s not barking next season or there’s not you know X Y and Z that doesn’t mean that there’s something wrong it just means that this group has um morphed and matured into maybe something a little bit different or maybe they morph into something even sillier we just don’t know we have no idea what to expect and can’t prescribe it we can’t predict it exactly you just have to let it unfold naturally as it happens a couple more takeaways um one of the bigger ones that I I wrote down uh was when Sam pointed out that we lost 58 games two years ago and we won 57 this year that in itself kind of gave me pause and was like oh my gosh we this team has come a long way over two seasons which is incredible but he went on to say I’m so I’m not surprised that we’re not a fully complete and perfect team like it was it was he almost said that as a caveat of like well yeah we’re not fully formed right now and things aren’t solidified and and cemented and set in stone and there’s still room to grow but that is a massive jump over two seasons yeah and the plan was never for this to be a microwaved situation and yet somehow this happened extremely quickly that the Thunder went from being a 58 loss team to a 57 win team uh once again those seven wins are washed away the Thunder’s got to go out and do the work not just with their players and development within the team but the front office has flexibility this summer they have options this summer to solidify what the this core of the team will look like this season and potentially Seasons ahead and so um this is an opportunity for the Thunder as you’re pointing out um to try to to get closer and closer to a complete team knowing that they’ll never have a perfect team exactly having the humility to recognize that and this leads me to another takeaway here and it was looking forward kind of going into the draft recognizing that Thunder has the 12th pick in this upcoming draft and of course you’re talking to the general manager of a team so a question’s going to come up of like you know what are you looking for what do you want and Sam’s response was when it comes to the draft we’re looking for the best fit for us right that is team organizationally like everything about it we’re looking for the best fit for us and I thought that was a really good kind of step back rather than being like ah we we might want a big we might want a a guard we need like a quick like you know it’s like or or even like we need somebody that can play our style of play right like he didn’t even mean it that way he meant it more like who fits into what we want to be about as competitors what we want to be about as people inside of this building what we want to be about as Citizens um he didn’t even get into like skill sets or anything like that no nothing like that and he also earlier I believe in the press conference he pointed out look if they’re not resilient we’re not drafting them you know like we have a we have a whole team full of super resilient guys who are all about the team and that’s because that’s who we look for that’s that we have a certain type of guy that we’re looking for in the draft and that’s the goal coming out of any single in every single draft is not just finding the best player but finding the best fit for the organization yeah and the has the number 12 pick in this draft that’s extremely rare for a team coming off the having the second best record in the NBA to have a lottery pick um and so this is quite an opportunity that pick doesn’t just represent a chance to draft a young player but also represents an asset to be used yeah the Thunder have a number of assets that can be um utilized in Myriad different ways they can trade up they can trade back they can trade out they can trade uh for you know someone they can stay and pick 12 like this presents an opportunity to find someone that is the best fit I I want to get a little bit of your perspective as a former player Paris of like you played High School College a with friends were there people that you like Sam made a point to say like we’re not going to get the most talented person but like can you think of players that you played with or against that you were like yeah they’re really talented but they can’t play the way that we play or they can’t like fit into our into our team totally totally and I think I could think of several examples but okay name them right now them um moral of the story is like especially in college you would see because recruiting is just such a big thing that’s where you can like that’s where team building like starts to become like an actual thing right and so you could tell the coaches that were like I just want to accumulate as many good players as possible and those were the teams that you looked at them while they were warming up and you were like oh my God gosh that’s really that looks like that team is going to be like really good yeah but they would always finish very mediocre at by the end of the season and it was just because it was it never jived it never it was never about the team it was always about the accumulation of as many good parts as possible and um just to brag on my school a little bit I mean you don’t you don’t have to give me much of a window to do this but shout out to Belmont because I think our group the reason why we were so successful was because everyone was bought into the team everyone was bought into what our coach was saying and the ultimate goal and like I didn’t play a ton you know like I didn’t start every single game but that was because we were successful and like if I demanded more if I tried to like why am I not playing more why am I not you know and that would have disrupted everything and so I think it’s all about it the success historically always comes from having the right people people versus just the best players it’s a very very like distinct line in history of just like you know the the best fit is always going to be the best option yeah and so this is another opportunity then to try to add another person into this group and another chance for you know things to shift um as we talked about earlier like that mixing board thing totally whoever this is if they pick somebody at 12 or if they you know bring somebody in through free agency or whatever like all of those little buttons on the dial change a little bit um and but once again it’s not all totally imposed from on high it’s like the team organically kind of figuring that stuff out too because you know these players are all going to get better just like this year you know Lou Dort took a little bit of like a a tightening of his role which really allowed Jay dub and Chad to to flourish exactly and so it it’s a very it’s a very delicate puzzle that has to be put together but something that historically Sam prey has been very very good at orchestrating and making sure that everybody has kind of the the right pieces put together yes okay the last thing I want to talk about and there’s there’s a lot of things so like we’re not hitting every single thing in this press conference we’re not going to go two and a half hours so yeah we could we could but so just for your your sake our producer Bishop is very pleased the way smil not going for 2 and a half hours so um if you want more information please go to OKC thunder.com check out Nick’s article he wrote a great article that kind of succinctly recapped everything that Sam talked about and then if that’s not enough and you really do want to hear two and a half hours it’s all on YouTube you can go and listen to it on the OKC Thunder Channel and it’s all there uh from from start to finish but the last thing I want to talk about and it’s something that we we hinted at a little bit earlier in the Pod there are no silver platters in OKC this was part of Sam’s closing thoughts here he said there are no silver platters in OKC we’re going to have to take it and this was kind of in context of you know we don’t know what next season holds and we don’t know what’s next but we do know we’re going to have to work for it yeah and we’re have to be very intentional about going and getting it yeah you have no idea what circumstances are going to be thrown your way what things that broke your way this year aren’t next year what things didn’t break your way this year are going to break for you next year um you have to be ready and fluid enough to handle all of those things it’s why we’ve seen the Thunder as an organization take the tack that they’ve taken in terms of um expanding options as opposed to Contracting them um keeping guys you know engaged and in the rotation um inside the team keeping them you know pumped with minutes at the in the G League level if you think about a guy like Usman Jang um you gota kind of have that approach to be ready for anything and the resilience is all that’s behind it because um this team understands that in this loaded Western Conference I mean everybody is coming for you every single night exactly and so there are no uh gimmies in this league and this is a this is a lunch paale organization and and part of a lunch pail city that is ready to roll up its sleeves get to work and is not going to shy away from anything that is going to be required to make sure that they’re setting their now themselves up for Success next season so a lot to look forward to next season a lot to digest from Sam’s press conference but some really really good stuff in here um and it it makes you really excited for the draft for summer league for the the upcoming training camp I mean like really the the future is very very bright in Oklahoma City before we before we go we do have to give you what’s coming up there are a couple of really cool things coming up let’s start with the podcast okay let’s start with the podcast so keep keep an eye out on the Thunder basketball Universe podcast all the channels wherever you’re listening to your podcast because we’ve been working on some some really cool stuff a really fun project coming down the line and you’ll see it here shortly it’s it’s kind of a group project within the the entire Thunder you sort of Broadcast Digital team um and we’re going to be delivering some some I guess mini pods for you that are player Centric so really um diving into uh what made each guy successful throughout the course of the Season some key um moments from their year and also looking ahead at what’s on you know what’s coming up for them what what we can look to in the future for them because these are all developmental players no matter what the age of the guy they are still Developmental and so um the these are really nice like kind of bottle episodes and deep Dives but there’s a good string of them that are coming to you oh man it is it’s going to be really really awesome you’re going to get a chance to hear every single one of them soon stats quotes highlights I mean really everything and you get to hear from the guys too a lot of this is centered around what they said at their end of season interviews I know we did that uh podcast after end of season interviews but you can only recap so much of an eight hour session of players streaming through the room this is an opportunity to really dive a little deeper into each one of these players that made this past season so special and are obviously primed to continue to make what’s you know really brewing and OKC so so nice and special yeah this has been a really fun project so keep an eye out on the Thunder basketball universe kind of Channel there on YouTube to see those episodes coming soon your way the second thing we want to talk about it’s another project we’ve been working on we’ been booked and busy this off seon you think once the broadcasts are done that we’re just off doing whatever head out you think we just go to a beach somewhere no we are here working for you we’re smiling this is all good stuff so the big project that we’ve been working on is another OKC Thunder films project and this one titled bismack bismack I wonder who it’s about uh I think this guy he’s pretty tall pretty tall bismack biombo uh we got some exclusive access with bismack um some incredible footage and an opportunity to tell a pretty legendary story um this is a guy who um had to make an extreme risk and sacrifice he’s the oldest child in his family leaving his whole family in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to start this journey um in the incredible Saga of you know his father sort of you know helping him and encouraging him to get out of the country to pursue his basketball dreams the winding road that happened uh throughout the course of his journey his father being such an important touch Point uh throughout the the entirety of this path uh tragedy you know strikes the family and uh bismack decides that he’s going to pour his time his life his heart into um giving back to to his home country in a way that honors his family and so um we get to tell that story and I think you guys are really going to love it June 7th is when it debuts at dead center Film Festival here in Oklahoma City at Harkin Theater downtown so um you’re not going to want to miss miss that uh for those of you who are not in Oklahoma City we’ll have this for you online uh everywhere you you want um in in the days that follow June 7th so be on the lookout there we’ve been working super hard on this project bismack has been absolutely amazing at kind of you know re revealing all of this in every aspect of his story which is fascinating truly from the time he was born to now and that is an Easter egg you will have to watch the film to really understand that but truly it’s it’s such an inspiring and just an heartfelt story that you’re going to want to watch so be on the lookout bismack Deb dead center Film Festival on June 7th and we are so excited about it we’ll be there so come out come out and see us that’s right that’s right but until then that wraps up today’s episode thank you so much for watching and listening be sure to like rate and subscribe wherever you get your podcast thank you so much to our producer Matt bishop and until next time Thunder up and catch you later

The TBU crew breaks down Thunder Vice President and General Manager Sam Presti’s end of season press conference where he reflected on the 2023-24 team and talked about what the organization will have to do in order to sustain future success. Paris and Nick also take a short look at what’s ahead in the Thunder Basketball Universe.

4:40 You can Shai that again
11:30 Key takeaways
34:18 Looking ahead…

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