Time to Thunder up? Unfortunately, after failing to win a championship with a trio of — Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden during the 2010s, the Oklahoma City Thunder are back in contention with a young and talented core.
The Oklahoma City Thunder organically built and grew their roster mainly through the draft and became a contender in rapid time.
This process was certainly studied as OKC had a vision, patience, proper development, and young potential, and the process made the rest of the NBA take notice.
This was over a decade ago, and the inability to win a championship with that core was a humbling experience. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden — all future MVPs, all in their early 20s, never brought the Thunder’s franchise their first-ever championship. All of those predictions of potentially being a future dynasty never manifested. That era of Thunder basketball ended ugly.
Just because OKC didn’t win a championship doesn’t mean that it was a complete failure. The franchise accomplished a lot and remained a winner for years. The Thunder made the playoffs — nine times — which resulted in a Finals appearance and four Conference Finals appearances.
Now, once again, OKC have organically built their roster: a team — with an MVP caliber player, two up and coming young stars, strong group of role players, a manageable & flexible cap space, and a treasure chest of draft capital.
Sam Presti continues to demonstrate that he’s a master of judging talent and asset management. Presti’s ability to navigate the modern-day roster-building challenges is second to none, which was first developed in San Antonio with the Spurs organization.
He started as an intern, then video coordinator, then scout. His rise coincided with the Spurs’ championship run in the mid-2000s. Concidence? I don’t think so!
The year before the Seattle SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008, Presti was hired as the general manager at the age of 29 and has been in complete control ever since.
Presti has elevated a small market team, made multiple franchise-changing personnel decisions — which has led to two of the greatest rebuilds in the history of the NBA. The only thing that’s missing is an NBA championship.
OKC was unable to capture their first ever championship during the Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, and Serge Ibaka era. The Thunder reached the Finals in 2011, lost 4-1 to Miami Heat and never returned.
A series of unfortunate events happened: OKC couldn’t pay everyone — which led to Harden being traded to Houston afterwards. Meanwhile, Durant, Westbrook, and Ibaka were given extensions but dealt with injuries at crucial times during their tenure.
Then, the infamous 2016 series against Golden State — they were unable to complete the job — as the Thunder blew a 3-1 lead. Durant made the franchise altering move to leave for Golden State and then Westbrook was ultimately traded.
While such experiences could end up destroying franchises, Presti has done an incredible job in reinventing this organization. OKC has only had two sub 40-win seasons post Durant’s departure.
Here’s why the Thunder are right back as contender’s:
• Damian Lillard Shot: After Durant’s departure, OKC was no longer a contender. Failing to get past the first round, post Durant. Damian Lillard hit one of the most iconic shots in NBA history — which officially made the Thunder go into rebuild.
• The Paul George Trade: Knowing the Clippers needed Paul George in order to sign Kawhi Leonard, Presti had leverage, and he absolutely made the most of it. He made one of the greatest trades in NBA history — receiving an absolute haul: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, five first-round picks and two pick swaps. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has developed better than anyone could have imagined. Turning himself into arguably a top-five player in the NBA.
• The Westbrook Trade: By trading Paul George. It was also time to trade Russell Westbrook. Once again, Presti made the most of the situation — getting Chris Paul, two first-round picks and two pick swaps from Houston to begin their rebuild.
• The Chris Paul Experience: Although, he was only there for a season, OKC overachieved (going into the 19-20 season, OKC only had a 0.8% of making the playoffs) and had a surprisingly good season with a record of 44-28 and were the 5th seed. Paul was pivotal for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s development and was a great mentor for him.
• The 2022 Draft: OKC was fortunate to land a top 2 pick in this draft. What’s more: OKC ended up with two foundational pieces in Chet Holmgren (No.2 overall pick) and Jalen Williams (12th overall pick from the Clippers).
Here’s a quote from Sam Presti that perfectly encapsulates on how he envisioned OKC arrived onto the NBA limelight:
“When we do get back to the postseason, we want it to be an arrival, not an appearance.” — Sam Presti
OKC certainly made it an arrival as one of the best teams in the NBA and are here to stay for a long time.
When you watch this Thunder team play — you’ll instantly notice how much fun and joy they have playing & being around one another.
Presti on numerous occasions has described this young group as very mature and unselfish, “ambitious but without an agenda. If we can maintain that we can be a very good team for a very long time.” — Sam Presti.
Here’s some tremendous insight from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — on his mindset and lessons learned from basketball and how it applies to life. His mindset and work ethic sets the tone for the culture in Oklahoma City.
Sam Presti has preached patience and has built this roster to have sustained long term success.
“We all want to be a part of something that can endure over a period of time,” Presti said. “We’re not running from the expectations. Whatever it is we want, is possible.” — Sam Presti
While, the new cap rules, will provide its fair share of challenges in roster construction — assembling “Big 3s” — or even keeping key role players. What will help OKC mitigate this potential issue — is having multiple future first-round picks and swaps that can be used to get players on rookie contracts.
OKC has laid the blueprint and set the standard on how to do a proper rebuild.
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