During his preseason media availability, Oklahoma City Thunder general manager shot down the possibility of trading Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who’s been in the rumor mill recently following Donovan Mitchell’s departure from Utah.
“The only reason we’re talking about it is because another player on another team got traded. And the machine — the aggregation machine — is empty now, so we need a little more content…
“Like I said, that’s the price of admission. It’s not a penalty. No one is out to try to disrupt the Thunder or create problems for the Thunder. It’s just this is the business we work in. You shouldn’t be surprised by that because there needs to be content. It’s a business. We need attention. The attention drives advertisements. Advertisements drive salaries, and that’s how it works.
“We have to be able to perform irrespective of that. So I just think I’m level setting that to say if Donovan Mitchell was not traded already, you wouldn’t ask me that question. So therefore, I don’t think they’re related. You know what I mean? I don’t think how we feel about Shai has anything to do with that. You’re doing your job. I totally respect it. I’ve got to do my job and point that out.
“We love Shai. He’s going to be such a good player. He’s got so much room to improve. And he’s already really good.”
Gilgeous-Alexander has been the center of trade rumors because his player profile fits the status of someone who wants out — a 24-year-old scoring maestro who is on a rebuilding team likely to endure another bad season.
Gilgeous-Alexander is also entering the first year of a five-year, $172 million deal with no opt outs. But just because someone is contractually locked up with a team doesn’t mean they still can’t be unhappy and want out.
But it sounds like that’s not the case for the Thunder as Presti made is pretty clear Gilgeous-Alexander is part of the long-term future.
“Shai is just entering his pre-prime years. Josh, Chet, some of the other guys we have, are still a few years away from getting to that point,” said Presti. “But at some point here in the near future, you’re going to have those tenures overlap, so to speak, and that’s extremely exciting.”
Of course, things can change in the NBA quickly. But for right now, it seems like all parties are content with the current situation
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