The Thunder have no plans to deal Reggie Jackson if the two sides are unable to reach a contract extension by the October 31st deadline, GM Sam Presti says in an article by Royce Young of ESPN.com. Presti expanded on that thought, saying, “We don’t look at [Jackson] as anything other than a core member. We want to invest in Reggie. There’s not a lack of clarity in that regard. Figuring out how best we do that is my job. And I’m going to do everything I can because I believe that he’s a great example of a lot of things that we try to do here. He was drafted, he’s been developed by our coaches and our support staff and the next step is to keep him with us for a long time.”
Here’s the latest from the Northwest Division:
- The Timberwolves officially announced the hiring of Mike Penberthy as the team’s shooting coach. Penberthy played parts of two seasons for the Lakers, averaging 4.9 PPG for his career on 41.5% shooting. His primary focus will be to continue working with Ricky Rubio on improving his outside shooting, according to the article.
- As for what Penberthy brings to the organization, coach Flip Sanders told Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune, “I don’t even want to pigeon-hole him as a shooting coach because i think there are other things he’ll be able to help us with. That will be his main emphasis. Ricky enjoyed working with him, even though it was only for a week. I think if Ricky had a chance to spend a month with him or six weeks, I believe we could have seen some good changes. We’ll let his role evolve. It’s important for him to see how we want to play and where guys are going to get shots and how he can incorporate that into our shooting.”
- With training camps set to begin each division has a number of questions heading into the new season. Nate Duncan of Basketball Insiders looks at the issues facing teams in the Northwest Division.
- The Thunder have big expectations this season after making it to the Conference Finals last year. GM Sam Presti spoke with reporters today regarding Oklahoma City’s 2014/15 campaign and NBA.com had the highlights.