Sam Presti, Thunder staff watching Cole Aldrich closely in training camp

Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti is keeping an eye on big man Cole Aldrich during training camp following a less-than-stellar Summer League showing from Aldrich, writes Royce Young of DailyThunder.com. Presti talked about Aldrich after Monday's practice:

"He didn't play great. But the summer is there to get better and improve. It's what you do all summer long. It's not what you do for the two weeks or the five games. We'll see how he plays the rest of camp and the exhibition season. I put little weight into the Summer League but not now. I put it in at that time because that was the most important time was that time. But now that training camp has started, that's so far behind us."

Aldrich is battling Hasheem Thabeet and Daniel Orton for playing time behind starting center Kendrick Perkins. Aldrich had is own assessment on his Summer League performance:

"It was my first Summer League," he said. "The first game I played 35 minutes. I don't know when the last time I played 35 minutes was. It's just a time when you can assess yourself a little, and it's not about scoring points or doing spectacular things. It's about doing the little things - setting good screens, guarding pick and rolls, doing stuff like that that's really going to make a difference."