Optimism for Roberson, Westbrook returning ‘early in the year’
At his preseason news conference on Thursday, Thunder general manager Sam Presti said Andre Roberson will be a noncontact participant to start Thunder preseason.
Presti said Roberson is back on the floor and will go through non-contact parts of training camp, which starts Sept. 25. There is no exact time when Roberson will get back to contact.
“He’s doing a lot more this week than he was last week," Presti said. "He’s through the hardest part of this recovery process.
"We don’t think we will be without him very long."
Roberson is close to eight months removed from rupturing the patellar tendon in his left knee. Roberson also underwent arthroscopic surgery on the same knee on May 29.
In August, Roberson told media in San Antonio that he's hoping to be himself in December before Christmas.
Presti added that he feels good that the Thunder will have both Russell Westbrook and Roberson back at some point “relatively early in the year.” Westbrook underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee last week and is expected to be reevaluated in three weeks, one week before the Thunder tips off against Golden State in the regular-season opener Oct. 16.
“We’d never push Russell, or any player for that matter, on to the floor because of a specific date," Presti said. "He’s going to be reevaluated. It was a pretty minor thing he had to have done. And he’ll be back. We'll see how that reevaluation goes but then you have to work through rehab to non-contact, contact, and then you've got to get back to the level that you play at normally.”
Who starts at power forward?
With Carmelo Anthony in Houston, the Thunder has a vacancy at power forward alongside Steven Adams. That vacancy figures to get filled by either Patrick Patterson or Jerami Grant.
Patterson started three games last season and Grant started two. With Presti’s desire for more shooting, Patterson appears to be the better solution to open up floor space alongside projected starters in Adams, Roberson, Westbrook and Paul George.
Of those four, George was the only one to shoot above 30 percent from 3-point range last season. Westbrook, Adams and Roberson were a combined 105-of-364 (28.8 percent) from 3 last season.
But when Presti was asked if Patterson had to start for the sake of spacing, he deferred the question to coach Billy Donovan.
“We have to let Billy make those decisions,” Presti said. “He's in charge of what happens once the ball is tipped up and once we are competing. He makes all the decisions relative to what happens between the lines.
Grant was much-improved on offense last season, posting a career-high 53.5 field goal percentage, but shot just 29.1 percent from 3-point range.
“I know he likes both players, Jeremi and Pat, so it will be interesting to see what he does there.”
Starting doesn’t equate to playing the most minutes. Grant will still likely play more than Patterson, particularly since Donovan was able to find minutes for Grant at center as well last season. “He found way to create value, playing him at the five,” Presti said of Donovan playing Grant at center. Grant may also play more minutes at power forward with the addition of Nerlens Noel, who projects as Adams’ backup this season whereas Grant was Adams’ primary backup in smaller lineups.
“I'm interested to see how it comes together,” Presti said. “I do think that there's a lot to work with. There will be some decisions that have to be made, but that's why he's the head coach. I think he'll do a great job with it.”
Presti family welcomes twins
Westbrook’s wife expecting twins wasn’t enough. Presti beat his point guard to the delivery room.
Following his news conference on Thursday, Presti closed by revealing that his wife, Shannon, had twin girls Wednesday night. “Millie and Elise are their names, family names,” Presti said. “We’re thrilled and excited.”
“I'm pretty happy as you can probably tell, but I did want to make sure that I acknowledged that, but I knew that wasn't the first thing you guys wanted to hear about.”
The Prestis already had a 3½-year-old son, Nicholas. Earlier this week, the Westbrooks revealed via a Thunder-produced YouTube video that Nina Westbrook, Russell’s wife, is expecting twin girls.
Tip-ins
Presti on Schroder’s pending battery charge in Atlanta: “I wouldn’t expect it to be a distraction for the team in any way or for him. He’s handling it with the appropriate parties.” ... As a part of the Thunder’s partnership with OU Medicine, the name of the team’s practice facility has changed as well to “Thunder ION powered by OU Medicine.” ION stands for “Innovation Optimization Network.”