The Thunder GM Sam Presti did a radio interview in OKC and he touched on a variety of subjects.
Presti, Thunder Trend Toward NBA Championship One Step at a Time | Sports Radio Interviews
I have excerpted a few choice quotes here, but please be sure to read the entire interview.
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On Russell Westbrook dealing with public criticism:
"You're only human if you know it's there. Once you get to this point in the year, there's only a couple teams or a couple series playing and that's part of it.
One thing we really learned about Russell through that process, or one thing that was confirmed, he's an incredibly resilient person. ... I think the other thing we learned is he's really only focused on the things that he can control. ... I think he deserves a lot of respect as a second-team all-NBA player, a 22-year-old point guard in the Western Conference Finals, in being self-critical."
On the Kendrick Perkins trade:
"Obviously when you make a trade like that you're making it for a lot of different reasons. ... It was a chance to not only get a player who understands the finer points of the games, understands how high-performing teams work, especially the defensive end. But to get someone like that, at that position, at 26 years old, was something we were very excited about. ... We know and we knew when we made the trade that he was on pace in his recovery but he wasn't going to be 100 percent. ..."
On the upcoming draft:
"Obviously we're going to pick 24th this year. We do not have a second-round pick. ... We're going to see what we can do with that selection. The pick can be used in any number of ways. Obviously we can take a player, we can trade it for a player, we can trade it for a future pick...."
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