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NBA returns: Thunder delayed rebuild is huge relief in light of return-to-play plan

Sitting in front of a screen dotted with Thunder logos, Sam Presti looked around the small room jammed with reporters and cameras.

Yes, sitting shoulder to shoulder was acceptable then, back in the good ol’ days of July 2019. Neither coronavirus nor social distancing were part of our lives, much less our lexicon back then.

Words that had become part of our vocabulary, though: reposition, replenish, rebuild.

Those were the buzz words coming out of Thunder HQ after Paul George, Russell Westbrook and all hope of having a competitive NBA team left town. Presti even wrote an op-ed for The Oklahoman saying as tough as those days seemed, there were harder ones ahead.