Recap From Thunder Media Day
The Thunder enter a new season carrying the lessons of the past, the loss of familiar faces and the uncertainty of a changing roster as they search for what this next version of Oklahoma City can become.
OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma City Thunder enter this season with the memory of where the last one ended and the reality of how much has changed since.
Their playoff run fell short of the goal they had spent the season chasing, and the summer brought another kind of change as Lu Dort, Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins left a group that had spent years growing together. Now, as the Thunder gather for another season, they are faced with the challenge every young team eventually encounters: taking everything they learned from the past without becoming trapped by it.
They aren’t starting from scratch. Instead, they’re starting again.
The departures were difficult to separate from the people behind them. Dort, Joe and Wiggins were part of the fabric of Oklahoma City's rise, and their absence changes more than a rotation.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander captured that feeling when he talked about seeing familiar faces disappear from the room.
“It feels like they are not even gone,” Shai said.
“Like it feels like we are going to see them in a few minutes at team pictures.”
It was a revealing way to describe the NBA's constant movement. One day someone is beside you every day, and the next, the routine remains while the person is gone.
That’s the part of roster turnover that numbers can’t explain. A player can replace minutes. A coach can replace a role. A front office can replace production. But there is no transaction for years of friendship, competition and shared experience.
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