Sam Presti is the only NBA executive to draft three future MVPs and he has done so in three consecutive drafts. It’s a manic stroke of luck and an exercise in risk/reward, chance and foresight. In doing so, Presti guaranteed the short-term success of the Seattle Sonics at the time, who would soon be traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The new franchise would operate in the league’s smallest market and would need big-time star power to support it financially and competitively. Presti kept his promises by selecting Kevin Durant second in 2007, Russell Westbrook fourth in 2008 and James Harden third in 2009. Although epic, since 2009 Presti has not drafted another player who earned All-Star honors or All-NBA, or one of the league’s end-of-year awards. While he deserves credit for kickstarting OKC’s debut as a franchise, he’s been embarrassingly successful in finding talent since Harden.
But first, the good. Durant would win the MVP in 2014, Westbrook in 2017 with the Thunder and Harden in 2018 with the Houston Rockets. He’s one of the great scouting talents in NBA history, selecting three guys who will not only become MVPs, but named among the 75 greatest players in NBA history and surefire members of the Hall of Fame. fame in the first round. The trio shares 33 All-Star selections, 26 All-NBA team nominations, nine scoring titles and five season assist leader titles. But while Durant won two championships with the Golden State Warriors, in the three years the trio shared in OKC and Westbrook’s 11 years with the team, Presti couldn’t bring a single championship to the franchise. This is one of the all-time underachievements in sports history. But look closer and you’ll find another one.
How it all fell apart
Now that we’ve recognized the historic future consecutive NBA draft selections that Presti found in the top four, we can delve deeper into what he did in the draft afterward. During the Westbrook-Durant run, from 2008-2016, the team was too good to have a draft lottery pick, thus mere courtiers of Presti (of which there are many in OKC fandom) will indicate that Presti must take major steps to build a supporting cast for the protest. But the Thunder have only been able to reach the Finals once, in 2012, an embarrassing defeat with three, then two superstars. Even though Harden was in a reserve role, in which he won the Sixth Man of the Year award, he was a superstar in waiting and capable of taking over games on his own. Not resigning Harden and trading him for a future inheritance in Houston remains a Presti foil for another time.
From 2011 to 2017, Presti had a first-round selection in every draft except 2016. And instead of picking surefire complementary players who could connect around Durant, he took what Thunder interns call “big swings.” This is important because he continued this failed approach with Thunder 2.0, suffering misses in the first and second rounds while trying to build around future MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who he snagged in the biggest fleece of the 21st century. Below are the first round selections made by Presti from 2011 to 2017.
2011: Reggie Jackson, 24th
2012: Perry Jackson, 28th
2013: Steven Adams, 12th
2014: Mitch McGary, 21st
2015: Cameron Payne, 14th
2017: Terrance Ferguson, 21st
Aside from Adams, that’s a lot of bankruptcies. I won’t waste time going over all the players Presti could have selected instead, perhaps a safer or better fit in Durant and Westbrook. But just looking at guys like Ferguson tells you everything you need to know about Presti’s failed eye exam during the 2010s. And it continues in this current rebuild.
Lu Dort was an undrafted gem that Presti scooped up in 2020 before overpaying for him with a five-year, $82.5 million extension, including $65 million guaranteed. His biggest lottery draw was Josh Giddey in 2021 with the sixth pick. This season, Giddey was accused of having sex with an underage girl, and thanks to his parents’ refusal to cooperate, he avoided further trouble. On the court, he reached career lows in points (11.4), assists (4.4) and rebounds (6.1). Presti bounced back in 2021 with star selection Chet Holmgren, who will fulfill his potential if he stays healthy. In this draft, Presti also got the steal of the draft with Jalen Williams at the 12th pick, which made his trade to the New York Knicks so strange. The Thunder traded three future protected first-round picks on draft day to the Knicks for the 11th pick, taking long-term project Ousman Dieng, who was out of the Thunder’s rotation. This head-scratching move was unnecessary in hindsight, especially since these picks were initially acquired by the Thunder during their selection, then traded to Alperen Şengün in 2021. This fumble is Presti’s worst move during of the draft and he will regret it.
Of the times Presti has selected in the lottery (2007, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2015, 2021, 2022 (twice) and 2023), he has scored seven (Durant, Westbrook, Harden, Adams, Holmgren, Williams and Wallace). ) and missed three (Cameron Payne, Giddey, Dieng). That’s a pretty solid rate over the last 15 years. But beyond that, when it comes to less surefire selections, Presti has been atrocious. Of the 18 times he selected (and took) between the 15th and 60th picks, he only hit twice in his entire career: Serge Ibaka at No. 24 in 2008 and Reggie Jackson at No. 24 in 2011. Washouts like Mitch McGary, Ferguson and Theo Maledon all left the NBA in four seasons or less.
And what trades has Presti made on draft day since taking the job? He lost everything. Look at:
2010 (lost): The Clippers acquired the 18th pick (Eric Bledsoe) in exchange for a future-protected first-round pick. The Thunder then included that pick in a trade with Boston, landing them center Kendrick Perkins.
2018 (lost): The Memphis Grizzlies acquired the 21st pick (Brandon Clarke) for the 2019 draft rights to the 23rd pick (Darius Bazley) and a future second-round pick from the Thunder. Bazley is no longer in the NBA.
2020 (lost): The Minnesota Timberwolves acquired Ricky Rubio, the 25th pick (Immanuel Quickley) and 28th pick (Jaden McDaniels) for the 17th pick (Aleksej Pokuševski). Poku was discontinued earlier this month.
2021 (lost): The Houston Rockets acquired the 16th pick (Alperen Şengün) for two highly protected future first-round picks from the Wizards and Pistons. These picks would be grouped together to select Dieng in 2023. Dieng is out of the Thunder’s rotation.
2022 (to be determined): Dallas traded the 10th pick (Cason Wallace) for the 12th pick (Derek Lively). While Wallace is an elite defender and three-point shooter, Lively is exactly the kind of rebounder they needed to support Holmgren. The Thunder are currently at the bottom of the league in rebounding.
The Thunder waived Poku earlier this month. Quickley and McDaniels start for their respective teams. Worse yet, Presti drafted current Most Improved Player candidate Şengün in 2021 just to trade him on draft night for future protected picks that he would use in the trade with the Knicks to acquire Dieng. This season, Şengün is averaging 21.1 PPG, 9.3 RPG and 5 APG. The squandering of Şengün is not only the worst draft decision ever proposed by Presti, but one of the worst draft transactions of the 21st century.
That’s not to say Presti hasn’t been one of the best leaders in a small market. And his sense of building teams from the ground up has few equals. The Gilgeous-Alexander trade remains the biggest fleece of the modern era. But his knack for building throughout the draft relies largely on his future back-to-back MVP selections from the late 2000s. Since then, he’s been one of the worst in the NBA at making lottery decisions and especially to find players who even have decent careers at the end of the first and second rounds. But as Presti simps love to say: “Scared money doesn’t make money.” Well, apparently that doesn’t make championships either.
