Sam Presti is the only NBA executive to draft three future MVPs, and he did it in three consecutive drafts. It was a stroke of crazy luck and an exercise in risk/reward, opportunity and foresight. By doing so, Presti guaranteed the short-term success of the Seattle SuperSonics, which was about to move to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The new franchise will operate in the league’s smallest market and will need outsized star power to maintain their finances and competitiveness. Presti drafted Kevin Durant second overall in 2007, Russell Westbrook fourth overall in 2008 and James third overall in 2009 · Harden. While that’s an epic accomplishment, Presti hasn’t drafted another player to earn All-Star or All-NBA honors, or any other player, since 2009. . While he deserves credit for getting the Thunder started, he’s been embarrassingly poor at finding talent since Harden.
But first, the good stuff. Durant won the MVP in 2014, Westbrook won the MVP in 2017 with the Thunder, and Harden won the MVP in 2018 with the Houston Rockets. This was one of the greatest scouts in NBA history, and he selected three players who not only became MVPs, but were among the top 75 players in NBA history and were sure to be first-ballot Hall of Famers. The three have a combined 33 All-Star selections, 26 All-NBA selections, 9 scoring titles and 5 season assist titles. However, even though Durant won two championships with the Golden State Warriors, Presti failed to provide the necessary support during the three years the three played together with the Thunder and Westbrook’s 11 years with the team. The team brings any championship. It was one of the worst losses in sports history. But look closely and you’ll find another one.
How it all fell apart
Now that we’ve acknowledged Presti’s historic run as a top-four pick in back-to-back NBA drafts, we can take a closer look at his post-draft performance. From 2008 to 2016, this team was too good to get picks in the draft lottery with Westbrook and Durant, so Presti sycophants (Thunder fans) Many of them) will point out that Presti needs to make major adjustments to win. But the Thunder have only reached the Finals once, in 2012, losing miserably to three superstars, and then two more. Even if Harden takes on a backup role and wins the Sixth Man of the Year award, he’s a superstar in waiting, capable of taking over games on his own. The future legacy of failing to resign Harden and trade him to Houston remains another foil for Presti.
From 2011 to 2017, Presti received a first-round pick in every draft except 2016. It took what a Thunder intern called a “big swing.” That’s important because he continued that losing streak in Thunder 2.0, missing out in the first and second rounds while trying to build around future MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Construction, he caught him in the biggest wool of the 21st century. Here are Presti’s first-round picks from 2011 to 2017.
2011: Reggie Jackson, 24th
2012: Perry Jackson, 28 years old
2013: Steven Adams, 12th
2014: Mitch McGarry, 21st
2015: Cameron Payne, 14th
2017: Terrence Ferguson, 21st
There are many busts besides Adams. I’m not going to waste my time going over every player Presti could choose, maybe a safer or better fit around Durant and Westbrook. But just look at a guy like Ferguson and you can see just how bad Presti’s eye test was in the 2010s. And it continues into the current reconstruction.
Lou Dort was the undrafted player Presti selected in 2020 and subsequently paid him a five-year, $82.5 million contract extension that included $65 million guaranteed. His biggest lottery whiff is 2021 No. 6 pick Josh Giddey. This season, Giddy is accused of having sex with an underage girl, and he avoids further problems when her parents refuse to cooperate. On the court, he averaged career lows in points (11.4), assists (4.4) and rebounds (6.1). Presti welcomes back rising star Chet Holmgren in 2021, who should fulfill his potential if he stays healthy. Presti also snagged the 12th overall pick in that draft, along with Jalen Wilms, which made his draft-day trade to the New York Knicks very strange. The Thunder traded three future protected first-round picks to the Knicks on draft day for the No. 11 pick and selected long-term project Ousman Dieng, who has opted out of the Thunder’s Rotate the lineup. In hindsight, this head-scratching move was unnecessary, especially considering those picks were originally acquired by the Thunder during the draft and then traded for Alperon Sengunen in 2021. Presti’s worst draft-day move was one he would regret.
Of the times Presti has entered the lottery (2007, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2015, 2021, 2022 (twice) and 2023), he has been selected seven times (Durant , Westbrook, Harden, Adams, Holmgren, Williams and Wallace)) and missed three games (Cameron Payne, Gidi, Dieng). This has been a fairly stable ratio over the past 15 years. But beyond that, Presti has been terrible when it comes to less certain options. Of the 18 times he chose (and kept) between the 15th and 60th picks, he hit just twice in his entire career: Serge Ibaka with the 24th pick in 2008 and Reggie Jackson, the 24th pick in 2011.
What draft-day trades has Presti made since taking the job? He has lost every one. Take a look:
2010 (lost): The Clippers received the No. 18 pick (Eric Bledsoe) in exchange for a future protected first-round pick. The Thunder later included the pick in a trade with Boston that resulted in center Kendrick Perkins.
2018 (Loss): The Memphis Grizzlies acquired the 2019 No. 21 (Brandon Clark) and No. 23 (Darius Bazley) picks as well as a future second-round pick from the Thunder. Bazley no longer plays in the NBA.
2020 (failed): The Minnesota Timberwolves traded the No. 25 pick (Immanuel Quickley) and the No. 28 pick (Jaden McDaniels) to the No. 17 pick (Alexey Pokusevski). )’s Ricky Rubio. Poku was laid off earlier this month.
2021 (failed): The Houston Rockets acquired the No. 16 pick (Alperon Sengun) from the Wizards and Pistons for two highly protected future first-round picks. Those picks will be packaged to select Deion in 2023.
2022 (to be determined): Dallas trades the No. 10 pick (Carson Wallace) for the No. 12 pick (Derek Lively). While Wallace is an elite defender and three-point shooter, Lively is exactly the kind of rebounding big man they need to back up Holmgren. The Thunder currently rank last in the league in rebounding.
The Thunder waived Poku earlier this month. Quickley and McDaniels both started for their respective teams. To make matters worse, Presti drafted Sangon, a current Most Improved Player candidate, in 2021, only to trade him on draft night for future protected picks in a trade with the Knicks Use Dion. Sangun is averaging 21.1 points, 9.3 rebounds and 5 assists per game this season. Sangon’s waste is not only Presti’s worst draft decision ever, it’s also one of the worst draft trades of the 21st century.
That’s not to say Presti isn’t one of the best executives the small market has ever seen. His acumen in building a team from the ground up is something few can match. The Gilgeous-Alexander trade remains the biggest scam of the modern era. But his talent in the draft was largely due to his two consecutive future MVP selections in the late 2000s. Since then, he’s become one of the worst players in the NBA at swinging around in the lottery, especially in the late first and second rounds to find players with decent careers. But as Presti’s fools like to say, “Fearful money doesn’t make money.” Well, apparently, it doesn’t win championships either.
