Media Availability | OKC Thunder vs Charlotte Hornets | Las Vegas Summer League | July 19, 2025

Media Availability | OKC Thunder vs Charlotte Hornets | Las Vegas Summer League | July 19, 2025

What are some key takeaways from this year assembly tournament? I thought, you know, the guys made a lot of progress throughout the time and that that’s promising. I thought that their kind of like collective effort they put into being a team was something that I think really stood out amongst kind of a difficult environment. I thought the guys got better as it went on. So, there’s a lot of positives to take away. Can you talk about the growth of this year’s team compared to when they started to just Yeah, I think there’s a lot of growth in a lot of different areas. I think individually guys got more confident. I think they kind of found their aspects of the game where they can really make an impact. I think we saw that through the first four games in um here in Vegas and I think collectively they really kind of bought into the idea of being a team and we made progress. I think we felt like a team here at the end. What is your assessment of Nicola? Yeah, I thought it was a real positive step for him. You know, he’d been out for a long time with his injury. I worked pretty closely with him as he was coming back from his return to play. I thought he showed that he he he kind of made a lot of progress getting in the paint, creating advantages, passing it, playing on the ball, playing off the ball. I think all those experiences are going to really help him. I think it’s a good building block where he had a year off, he kind of got to play, get reaclimated, and then get ready for what he’s got coming next. Yeah, of course like the expertise is like like you said like getting teammates again but you know you have obviously like the team such a such a competitive like back with the guys on the bench. How like how good he Yeah. I think one of the things for him is to like just stay in the moment and just continue to prove as he goes and understand that we have a we have a competitive team and a lot of guys that play hard and that’s kind of what it takes to to break through and I think for him he made a lot of progress throughout this period. I think he made a lot of progress last year and some of that showed with the play that he had while he was here. So I think he’s got to continue. I think that’s one of the things we try to preach is just continue to stay in the moment and get better every day, grow through the experience. I think he grew a lot through this experience of playing in summer.

Hear from Coach Connor Johnson after the Thunder falls 80-109 to the Charlotte Hornets in the 2025 Las Vegas Summer League Semifinals.

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