Oklahoma City boasts 10 1st-round picks in the next 5 Drafts, an enviable war chest to replenish what is already a proven championship roster.
The NBA tends to be a copycat league when the latest and freshest trend has proven to be successful, but here’s a memo for the majority of its teams — good luck trying to duplicate the work of Sam Presti.
As the league transitions from the NBA Finals to the NBA Draft, there’s no better time to marvel at how the latest NBA champion was made — and will continue to be shaped by the general manager of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
He took risks, doubled down on his bets, made the most of his assets and not only survived two rebuilding phases, but saw his team thrive in the biggest way.
A case can be made for OKC currently being in the best overall shape, in terms of talent, youth, draft capital and financial flexibility, than any team in the modern salary cap era. Yes, that’s quite a declaration, especially for a one-time champ.
Still:
The Thunder just became the youngest champion in history since the 1976-77 Portland Trail Blazers.
OKC has a pair of All-NBA players in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams.
Gilgeous-Alexander is the reigning Kia NBA MVP and scoring champ.
OKC has as many as 10 first-round picks, including its own, over the next five years, along with first-round swaps.
The Thunder payroll was 24th this season and will fly safely under the tax radar next season, unusually meager for a defending champion, with multiple players on rookie contracts.
The amount of depth on the roster translates into multiple assets that can be kept or swapped.
There are NBA teams with developing talent and flexibility but aren’t championship-ready. There are title contenders with talent, but they lack cap flexibility. And there are playoff teams with talent and flexibility, but lack draft assets. Which is to say, there’s only one Oklahoma City.
Presti is the five-tool baseball player who can hit for power and average, catch, throw and run the bases. He has all the basketball bases covered for OKC, a team constructed to win now and later … and much later. That’s so tricky to pull off in a climate that punishes successful teams by placing speed bumps in their path in an effort to spread the wealth.
Coincidentally, these salary-cap handcuffs were clamped by team owners to discourage dynasties and benefit small-market teams. Well: OKC is a small market team that just may produce a dynasty.
There are three avenues available to build rosters — trades, drafts and free agency — and Presti aced all three over the last half-dozen years to fortify the Thunder.
This was made possible by OKC’s second, and in hindsight most important, rebuild.
The first rebuild was recovering from the James Harden sign-and-trade departure in 2012, fresh off an NBA Finals loss to Miami. OKC managed to place cohesive parts around Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, both MVP winners, and remain strong contenders. That project was mainly derailed by injuries to both players, causing each to miss playoff stretches while in their prime.
The second rebuild was far bolder and riskier — Presti dismantled a playoff team led by an MVP and an MVP finalist. This was 2019 with Westbrook and Paul George, who were together two years and just getting started.
But Portland guard Damian Lillard waved them goodbye in the playoffs on an epic first-round winning shot. Then Kawhi Leonard left the champion Raptors in free agency that summer to go home to LA, and signed with the Clippers only on the condition they pry George from Oklahoma City.
Presti saw an opening to rebuild from scratch and create a team in his vision. George went to LA, Westbrook to Houston. Still, it took Shai, packaged among a batch of Clipper first-round picks to OKC, developing into an MVP — nobody saw that coming after his one season in the NBA — to make this championship possible.
OKC was lucky, but Presti positioned himself for luck.
The No. 2 pick in 2022 brought Chet Holmgren. It took a lot more foresight to draft Williams, Aaron Wiggins and Cason Wallace outside the top 10. And the Thunder are still waiting on Nikola Topić, last year’s first-rounder who missed his rookie season with injury.
Finally, adding Isaiah Hartenstein (free agency) and Alex Caruso (trade) last summer was possible because Presti had enough assets and cap flexibility to execute those moves.
So, back to the topic of copycatting — what team can possibly duplicate all that?
Any hopeful must have great fortune in the draft, first and foremost. Those organic prizes are valuable because they’re cheap talent initially, and their rookie extensions give those teams the best chance to retain them.
It also helps to own a high selection in a deep draft, or the No. 1 pick in a generational draft. That’s why the reaction in Dallas to landing the top pick for the chance to get Cooper Flagg was seismic. Those players, if expectations are met, become championship cornerstones.
The more cheap talent, the better the cap flexibility, and the better the odds of being on the front line to sign free agents.
Aspiring contenders must also take educated gambles with their current roster. How many are willing to part with a No. 1 or 2 option and take a step backward for the chance of taking three forward? Should the Timberwolves, for example, who reached the conference finals the last two seasons, keep Rudy Gobert and re-sign Julius Randle and run it back, or jettison both and rebuild differently around Anthony Edwards?
There’s an excuse — the Wolves aren’t a good matchup with the Thunder, who aren’t going anywhere, and tying up long-term money in those players could waste a portion of Edwards’ prime.
Also, aspiring copycats should avoid the get-rich-quick schemes. That didn’t work out well for the Suns with Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, and now Phoenix is reshuffling a deck that suffers for lack of draft capital.
Other teams in unique situations:
Do the Sixers continue to trust the process with Joel Embiid?
What do the Bucks do about a team blessed with Giannis Antetokounmpo yet cursed by Lillard’s Achilles injury and no rising young prospects?
What about the Grizzlies with Ja Morant and the Pelicans with Zion Williamson, a pair of projected franchise players who have fizzled for different reasons?
The best comp for the Thunder are the Orlando Magic. They’ve gone the organic route with Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs and are busy adding talent around that core. Their coach, Jamahl Mosley, was a spectator in OKC for Game 7 of the Finals.
Then another logical choice — the San Antonio Spurs who, coincidentally, gave Presti his big break two decades ago. It helps to start with Victor Wembanyama, but the Spurs — who have the No. 2 pick Wednesday — are smartly adding a mix of youth and vets to create a stew that could last years.
It starts with a plan, and patience, and also involves a willingness to adjust when opportunities present themselves. One of the more underrated Presti moves involved the Al Horford salary dump. When Horford’s pairing with Embiid crashed in Philly, Presti, who had ample cap room in 2020, took Horford and a 2025 first-round sweetener.
Even better: Horford was later flipped to Boston for two future firsts.
Presti isn’t perfect; no GM can claim that. He traded Jaden McDaniels’ draft rights for Aleksej Pokuševski; the former is a defensive ace for the Timberwolves now, while the latter is out of the league. Still, the hits far outweigh the misses.
On the cusp of the 2025 Draft, the rest of the league witnessed the Oklahoma City blueprint pay off, and the reaction over the treasure chest of assets and the championship now owned by the Thunder is drawing a mix of jealousy and awe.
The challenge for those dreamers? Don’t hate, duplicate.
If that’s possible.
