Sam Presti has a GOLDEN Opportunity...

Any thought to bringing Russell Westbrook out of retirement? Yeah, like I said before. Sam Presti and the OKC Thunder, they have a golden opportunity right in their faces to bring home Brody, a franchise favorite player, a former league MVP. Russell Westbrook actually called it quits this past offseason, retiring from the NBA after 18 seasons. But the question arises, with not one, but two severe injuries to starting players, Is Sam Presti going to make the call to Russell Westbrook? Will we get a Russ reunion in OKC? That is what we are talking about here today on Thunder Digest. A crafty reporter brought the question to Sam Presti in the press conference announcing the injuries of J-Dub and Kacen Wallace. And now I'm going to craftily bring to you the idea of subscribing to Thunder Digest. The idea of getting all of your Thunder content all in one easy, convenient place. Pre-games, post-games, live game, watch-alongs, breakdowns like this on all your news. All of it, all in one place for me and Ryan. We're trying to hit 11,000 subscribers by Thanksgiving, and we have 29 days to do so. So if you're not subscribed, make sure you change that and join the Best Thunder community on all of social media. And if you are subscribed, thank you so much for sticking around, tuning into the videos, and being a part of this family. And we're jumping right into today's video because Sam Presti, he leaves the Westbrook question open in his most recent press conference. The possibility is alive and well for a Russell Westbrook reunion, him finishing it out with the team that drafted him. Well, technically the Supersonics drafted Russ, but you know what I mean. I mean him finishing it out where it all started. Russell rightfully retiring in OKC where he is really still the king of basketball, done so much for this team. And with these injuries to two key Thunder starters, J-Dub and Kaysen Wallace, he is now being thrown around as a potential solution. To keep OKC afloat. And I see the vision, the playmaking, the veteran leadership, keeping the fans engaged would be huge as well during this time for the Thunder, where they are down two very important men. But when you take a look at the press conference where Presti was talking about a Russ reunion, the bulk of it was focused on J-Dub and Cason Wallace and their injuries. Jalen, he's got a fractured fibula, dislocated ankle on the left side. We'll have a timeline for everybody once... We get through the surgery. We also got some tough news on Cason Wallace last night. He has a left labral tear, a surgical situation as well, timeline. We're going to have to get to that again once we have the surgery. We're going through the process right now. Those two guys in our thunder thoughts and prayers, zero doubt about it. The rest of this season is for those guys, but we still got to play the rest of this season. There is still 77 games of basketball that need to be played, including tonight. We're going to have a post game up for that, by the way, so make sure you catch that. But when we're talking about how the Thunder are going to stay atop the Western Conference for a fourth season in a row, how they're going to stay competitive in the playoffs, well, they're going to have to bring in some firepower to replace two very dangerous guys. Sam Presti talking about Russell Westbrook getting pulled out of retirement as a possibility, asked by a reporter, and his big takeaway from it is that he hasn't thought about anything relative to that roster spot at the time and was not dismissive of Russell Westbrook Coming to the Thunder. However, the bulk of his thoughts were with the two injured players, rightfully so. But that Westbrook door, it is still open. You can see it on your screen right now, Sam Presti's quote. And here is the full answer that he gave to the Westbrook question. Any thought to bringing Russell Westbrook out of retirement? Yeah, like I said before, I haven't thought about anything relative to the roster spot. I understand the question. Thank you very much. All I'm really focused on right now is Players, getting them the right support, and then helping everybody with our group. So the big takeaway here is that Presti hasn't given any specific person thought for these open roster spots that OKC now has to fill, and I do believe him with this. He said he was by dub in Kaysen's families in the hours slash days that followed their horrific injuries, and a stand-up guy like Presti, what else would you expect him taking care of his people? But when it's time to bring those new people in the door and get back to winning those basketball games like tonight, well, there's no much better place to look than Russell Westbrook. And his signature catchphrase is, why not? So why not bring back Russell Westbrook, a player who not only is synonymous with the Thunder brand, can provide that veteran leadership, can replace some of the offensive firepower that you're going to be missing. And if you get a rotation that, you know, even though it's now down and injured, could look like something like this, right? Shea, your starting one guard, with Russ backing him up off of the bench, and then you move A.J. Mitchell to that combo guard in the starting lineup, able to put the ball on the floor as well. McCain can move down to the three as your certified sniper, and you got Chet and Hart still healthy. So, adding Russ here gives you another ball handler offensive initiator that you can slot Mitchell into the starting lineup without worrying about where your bench scoring is coming from, an idea that I really like. Bringing Russell Westbrook here for those reasons just on the court. Fantastic. And then obviously off of the court reasons, morale reasons, OKC reasons. We know why we want to see Brody back in OKC. And Sarah said it best. We lost three players in one game with, well, now two out basically for the season. We have two first round picks that never play in Sorber and Topich. All the Thunder fans are heartbroken for a young man in his prime taking out for another season. Two young men taking out for the season in their prime. The Thunder needs to fill that open roster spot and make some decisions about filling out the bench. We will not be in line for the playoffs, which, I mean, it's crazy now to think about with the success we've had recently, but it wasn't too long ago, but half of a decade where OKC was fighting in the play-in. They were just a middle-of-the-pack, ninth-in-the-Western-conference-type team, and we do not want to be relegated back to irrelevancy, so if we could get someone like Russell Westbrook back, who retirement changes the equation, it would be very big moving forward for this OKC team, and when And when you take a look at Russell Westbrook, This offseason, it was the middle of August when he said, sometimes you don't even know when you've already watched the end. You had to be there, and now it's over. We're hoping that it's over is not final from Russell Westbrook, who had a historic 18-year career in the NBA, in which he was drafted fourth overall by Presti back in 2008. He was, I think, Presti's third draft pick with the franchise, which is crazy. He won the MVP award for OKC with that insane, historic... 2017 campaign, averaging the triple-double, so many great Thunder memories. I might have had more fun watching that 2017 season, literally, than, like, last year. Maybe not the year we won the chip, but watching Russ just take over after KD cupcaked out was phenomenal. And then, this past August... Russell Westbrook retired after 18 seasons. Rest in peace to Brody, but hopefully we can pull enough to reverse this because the big thing to keep in mind, guys, is that Russell Westbrook chose to retire. It wasn't because he didn't have offers. He actually had two offers from the Kings and the Wizards to come back and play this season and decline both of them in favor of retirement. So they'll have to convince him to come out, but that shouldn't be that hard because Russell Westbrook has said in the past, I also see myself returning to OKC just like Dame and CP3 Coming back to their former teams, he hopes to retire in OKC. This is something he said in the past. He loves the fans here still. He knows we have love for him still. Brody is Thunder basketball embodied, right? And when you talk about greatness in Thunder basketball, he is one of, if not the greatest player in franchise history. I think SGA's second MVP and, you know, bringing home the first chip does put SGA slightly over Russ. But, I mean, I can't hate on anybody picking my favorite player of all time. Kendrick Perkins, his former teammate, saying, Not only should Russ have his jersey retired in Oklahoma City, he should have a statue out there as well. Because after SGA, Russ, in my opinion, is the second greatest Thunder of all time. And I'm right there with KP. I got Shea one, I got Russ two. And what he brought to this city, it is essentially unrivaled and unmatched in a kind of vibes sense, what Russell Westbrook was able to do and how he was able to put on, bring that spirit, just absolutely balls to the walls night after night. And it paid off. SGA himself, the only player that a lot of us would place over Russ in terms of our franchise's greatest players, SGA said, Russ is like Oklahoma's baby, so I don't think there will ever be another. He was their first guy. He's a pioneer for what we stand on as OKC fans, and SGA, he is completely right. Russell Westbrook literally embodies the Thunder spirit so well, and his greatest games, I mean, if you take a look at these, there's a reason that this guy was running the league, grabbing MVP awards in his prime. He won't be prime Russell Westbrook coming back to us. But when you take a look at how this guy in his prime was able to take over and just dominate, lay down teams in games, right? A guy who ranks first in basically every metric in franchise history, right? We're talking about a guy first in minutes, points, assists, rebounds, steals, and he's top 10 in blocks, threes made, basically every single countable stat in OKC, Russell Westbrook's up there. And he knows that the fans, they're with him, right? That's like home for him. He's got love for everybody over here. So if this is a place. That offers him a sheet to come back. I have no doubt that Russell Westbrook will come back to OKC on a bet minimum. The reason I think he retired from the Kings and the Wizards was he doesn't see himself winning on either of those two teams, right? He said he's not a ring chaser in the past, which I do agree with. But also, you know, kind of playing for literally the... Third overall pick is a little bit different than ring chasing, in my opinion. There's a nice gray area in between. And Russell Westbrook, if he's able to come back and not obviously he's not going to produce right like we saw him during his 11 year tenure here, 23 points a game, seven boards, eight assists, two steals like that. That time's a little bit past. But you take a look at what he's going to bring, which we're going to talk about in a second to this team coming in. I mean, he's able to make an impact when as a player, the veteran leadership in the locker room is going to be a voice we need. to steady us the rest of the season with the unsureness of losing two starting caliber players, really navigating another injury riddled season like we've had in the past. And Russell Westbrook throughout his time in OKC has accomplished about everything that you could possibly under the sun. MVP, eight-time All-NBA, eight-time All-Star. He was an All-Star game MVP. He won scoring titles, assist titles. He literally did everything you could do in an NBA uniform for OKC. So guiding our players through the rest of this year will be a big thing that he can do. And I mean, we take a look at these vintage Russ performances, right? He was able to do everything on the court, literally in his prime, 57 points, 13 boards, 11 assists, 40% from three, 90% from the line, three steals in 42 minutes. Like this guy in his prime could do literally anything on a basketball court. So bringing in someone so flexible, so just adaptable into a team that is going to be going through a transitional phase, undoubtedly with these guys out, they're gonna be figuring out how to play. It's going to be big if you can bring in a guy like Russ who's going to help you rebound on some nights. He's always going to be a consistent playmaker on the court. You know, offensive. Offensively, he can get to the rim, apply some pressure that you're going to be missing with a guy like Dub going down and just everything on the court he is capable of doing. Obviously, there is setbacks that come with playing Russell Westbrook on the court. He's turnover prone, takes some bad shots sometimes. We know about the downside, right? But you also cannot deny this dude can do everything. And with a team now depleted like OKC. It is very valuable to have a guy that you can plug and chug in so many different roles, can handle the ball, can initiate your offense. And there's obviously he isn't going to be prime Russ. We can't expect him to come back and drop a 30-point triple-double, obviously, right? But he can still help Oklahoma City, in my opinion. Could Russell Westbrook still help Oklahoma City? The answer is yes. His strengths are elite playmaking, right? He can still do that. In his last couple games in the NBA, which before he just retired, he was averaging Nearly double digit assists over the last stretch of games he played, averaging 9.8 assists through, I think, seven, eight games to close out last regular season. The guy can still pass the ball at an elite level, and his assist rate reflects that he can run an offense off of the bench for the Oklahoma City Thunder if they need it, which it's looking like they're going to need it at least until Topich comes back and starts consistently playing basketball, which I have no idea when that's going to be. Make sure you're subscribed so you can catch whenever we figure that out as well. But you take a look at Russ's weaknesses, obviously the turnovers, even at his peak of his powers, the turnovers, always a problem, always there. And now being a little bit, you know, older, less energy bar, you know. to go both ends. I feel like his defense is slipping a little bit, but the Thunder are able to cover up for that. This is the best defense in the NBA. No doubt about it, in my opinion. And having one, you know, not elite defender out there, you can get away with it if he's providing real deal creation, which I think Russ has the opportunity to come and do for the Oklahoma City Thunder to be a real deal playmaker, get other guys involved. And like I said, it finally pulled up 10 assists in per game, basically, towards the end of his career. And then he rounds it out, retires. And he still clearly had plenty of gas left in the tank, plenty to still give. So with that in mind, I asked Thunder fans, do you want Russell Westbrook back in OKC? With these injuries to the roster, with, you know, us hitting essentially a code red four games into a season when we're 4-0, which is so strange to be in a place as a fan. But do you want to see Russell Westbrook be brought in as a possibility to amend this? A, yes, bring that man home, or B, keep the current plan, which is, you know, sticking to the young roster, developing the players. Maybe Bennett Sturtz steps up and takes a lot of the... Secondary offense time as a ball handler instead of Russ. We're going to see because we have to survive. We're taking a look at this Thunder team now. Being as injured as they are, we just got to survive and pray no one else has any serious injuries this season. If someone else has a serious injury this season, I mean, one, we got to go to a voodoo doctor and get this bad witchery taken off of us. And two, we might as well start prepping for next season and deciding who we're taking with this Clippers pick. Because Kaysen pulls a miracle and can beat the nine-month timetable to recover. The chance is still there for that, but we just need rookies to step up in the meantime. The question is, can Thomas Sorber be anything? Shea, he's going to have to have an all-time great season for us to remain competitive right now. It's not likely, but it is not impossible. This comment, I completely agree with. We can't rule anything out yet. I think a deep playoff run is still possible for this team. As long as you have the MVP SGA at the helm and healthy, I think anything is possible for this team. But like we said, we're going to have to give ourselves the best chance to do that. And I think signing a guy like Russell Westbrook, that might increase your chances, right? A dynamic guy off of the bench who To provide so many different elements to your team. I think it's worth a shot and at least worth some good consideration from Sam Presti. Someone brought it to him today or yesterday during the press conference for J-Dub, Case and Wallace. We hope those guys get better and we hope we remain competitive in the meantime. Meaning we hope Russell Westbrook makes his return to OKC. At least that's my thoughts on the matter. I would love to hear what you guys think down below in the comments. So make sure you drop your opinions on today's video on our Russell Westbrook reunion down there. And in the meantime, while you're down there, make sure you subscribe to Thunder Digest. We're trying to hit that 11,000 subscriber goal, bringing you guys all of your OKC stuff. So just turn on that bell and you won't have to worry about getting any Thunder news from anywhere else but me and Ryan. We're going to bring you guys a postgame video from tonight's action. We tip off in about. Four hours time as I'm recording this. And we're hoping to go 5-0. Keep moving through these injuries. Keep this ball rolling and keep pushing. Russell Westbrook, we hope to see you here soon. I hope to see you in my next video. And until then, peace and love, my friend.