Thunder Not Putting Timetable on Russell Westbrook’s Return


Unlike Kevin Durant, OKC Thunder GM Sam Presti won’t say when he expects star point guard Russell Westbrook to rejoin the team on the basketball court. Per the Oklahoman: “Q: With Russell’s situation, how involved do you expect him to be in training camp? A: ‘He’ll be able to go through the parts that he’s cleared for. I’m hesitant right now to say exactly what he’ll be able to do a week from the first day. But I will tell you that he’ll be going through parts of camp starting on the first day. With that being said, when you’re dealing with rehabilitation, it’s a day to day thing because you’re constantly retraining the body to do things it has not done in a while. So there’ll be some good days, probably some setbacks as well, but he’ll be able to do a lot out on the floor early on. Once he’s meeting those thresholds and meeting those benchmarks, that workload will increase.’ Q: Are you surprised that it’s taken this long for him to be cleared? A: ‘First and foremost, the most important thing is he’s healing properly, and all signs point to that. We were very hesitant to give a specific timetable because when you’re dealing with injuries, recovery time, everybody’s different.’ Q: Is there at least the possibility that Russell will not be ready for the start of the regular season? A: ‘I wouldn’t say that he will be, and I wouldn’t say that he won’t be. Again, we’ve got to see how the next month goes. Beyond that, I’m just projecting on things that I have no business projecting on. We’re going to trust the medical team. Russell will be ready to go once he’s cleared. This is an important player for us not only this year but for many years down the line, and we’ll be operating with that in mind.'”