Sam Presti, the man behind the curtain
By Cale Michael
Just a year after people were doubting the long term success of the Oklahoma City Thunder, GM Sam Presti breathed new life into the franchise’s championship chances.
With the departure of their franchise player in Kevin Durant during the offseason, most people penciled the Oklahoma City Thunder in as a one trick pony that wouldn’t make the playoffs.
They didn’t shock the world when they went 47-35 and made it into the playoffs just to be knocked out in the first round by James Harden and the Houston Rockets.
Russell Westbrook took charge of the team on his way to a scoring title, All-NBA first team election and being named the MVP of the league. It gave Oklahoma City something to hang their hats on as they watched their former golden child lift the enemy in Golden State to a second NBA championship.
So going into the 2016-17 most people looked at the Thunder and expected a similar performance. That is until the arms race of the NBA began and the West began hoarding All-Stars.
The Thunder slowly fell in the offseason rankings as projections started showing them falling out of the playoff race and entering the lottery.
Enter the man behind the curtains, General Manager Sam Presti.
Presti made his break into the league as an intern for the San Antonio Spurs, where his most prominent credit is pushing management to draft Tony Parker in 2001.
In 2007, at the age of 30, Presti was hired as the general manager for the then Seattle SuperSonics. His first deal shocked many people as he traded All-Star Ray Allen for the draft rights of Jeff Green with the Boston Celtics.
This put in play several years of trips to the lottery and subsequent deals to take on bad contracts and stockpile draft picks in return. Sam Presti used those stockpiled assets to draft a slew of players that made the Thunder a contender for many seasons.
Now as everyone sat back and listened to the media drone on about the Celtics, Lakers or Cavaliers making a deal to bring in Paul George after he asked for a trade, Presti made an offer of recently extended Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis and made way with a pot of gold.
He took a look at the dumpster fire that was raging in New York before deciding to swoop in and whisk Carmelo Anthony away and left a care package featuring Enes Kanter at the doorstep.
You can look at the events of the summer and say Presti was lucky and the other GMs were desperate, but that doesn’t matter anymore. Even if George and Melo both leave during the offseason, Presti did his job.
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He managed to convince Westbrook that this franchise isn’t going to settle for trips to the lottery and he will be able to go to war with the intent to win every night. As evidenced by the 5-year, $205 million extension Westbrook signed, the trust between franchise player and GM is clearly there.
For this team Prest glued together in the past months to work, Westbrook will need to give more than he did last season. And, despite an even record of 1-1 things look promising. Melo and George will have to grow into roles where they can help the team in their own ways while players like Steven Adams and Andre Roberson will need to improve and continue supplementing the newer additions to the roster.
Fit aside, once everything is said and done, Presti might have a statue outside Chesapeake Energy Arena for ensuring Thunder basketball will still be competitive despite the hardships the team has faced.