To whom much is given, much is required.
The phrase originally uttered by Jesus Christ wasn't discussing basketball teams, but it certainly rings true for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Sam Presti and the Thunder front office have amassed an incredible warchest of draft picks and simultaneously built a young team that won the most games in the Western Conference last season.
They entered this summer with a lot of ammo, therefore, with massive cap space on top of a deep roster and a bounty of draft picks. That increased the expectations on the Thunder; how would they continue to improve on a team that is already dominant, but only made it to the second round of the NBA playoffs?
How did the Thunder do this offseason?
The Thunder could have opted for a massive swing this summer, trading for a superstar like Kevin Durant or clearing the necessary cap space to make a run at Paul George in free agency. They didn't do that, but they also didn't merely rest on their laurels as they did last season.
The Thunder seem to recognize that they are a true title contender -- the time for taking on bad money in trades or selling players for picks is over -- but they also seem committed to their current core of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren as the foundation for future success.
Their work this summer was improving the rotation around those stars, not chasing a veteran star.
How should the Thunder be graded for their offseason activity? Let's go through each significant move and give individual grades, then look at their offseason as a whole to give a final grade.
Here is the Thunder offseason report card, ranked from best to worst.
That means we start with an absolute coup of a trade.