LeBron James singles out Thunder for NBA draft success: ‘OKC does an unbelievable job’

LeBron James singles out Thunder for NBA draft success: ‘OKC does an unbelievable job’

In the debut episode of the “Mind the Game” podcast, co-hosts LeBron James and JJ Redick mentioned the Oklahoma City Thunder as one of the best drafting organizations in the league.

When Redick asked James why it’s always the same teams that draft well and poorly, the latter talked about his front-office building strategies for his aspirations of becoming an NBA owner.

“I tell you what, when I get my (NBA) team, the teams that draft well, those guys will be working for me for sure,” James said. “OKC does an unbelievable job.”

Considering the 39-year-old is in his 21st season in the NBA with the Los Angeles Lakers, his post-playing career thoughts have likely grown louder recently. James has been adamant over the years about owning a franchise.

If that plan materializes, it sounds like James will prioritize drafting well to build a young core that can sustain a long-term competitive window. Thunder general manager Sam Presti is very familiar with this approach.

The Thunder were a constant title threat in the 2010s due to Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook being homegrown superstars. It looks like another lengthy window of contention has opened for OKC with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams.

This isn’t the first time James has been complimentary of James. During the 2022 All-Star break, he called Presti the ‘real MVP’ for his ability to draft and build cores.

This seems like a game-recognizes-game type of scenario as both James and Presti are among the best in their respective career field.

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ESPN’s Zach Lowe: OKC Thunder trade deadline intel ‘all over the place’

ESPN’s Zach Lowe: OKC Thunder trade deadline intel ‘all over the place’

The Oklahoma City Thunder enter the 2024 NBA trade deadline as buyers for the first time, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll go all out for an addition.

The Thunder (35-15) are in first place in the Western Conference standings and have blossomed into contenders thanks to their MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the ascensions of Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren.

OKC’s biggest weakness is on the boards. It ranks near the bottom in most rebounding statistics: They’re bottom five in both rebounding rate and rebound averages. This means the Thunder likely need to target a backup big to help fix that problem.

But according to ESPN’s Zach Lowe on a recent “The Lowe Post” podcast episode, that might not be the case. He has heard different predictions around the league on what the Thunder could do:

“The intel — much as they would probably like it to be — is just all over the place on Oklahoma City. I’ve had people tell me, ‘Based on our conversations, we think they’re gonna be aggressive.’

And I’ve had other people tell me, ‘Based on our conversations, they’re probably going to stand pat and do the thing where they stand pat and just let it ride in the playoffs.’

They do want to see what this team looks like in the playoffs. It’s a young team. They do want to see how Josh Giddey reacts to playoff defense. … See how Shai’s foul drawing translates to the playoffs. … Just see how they react.”

With less than a couple of days until the trade deadline, one of the most plugged-in NBA media personalities is still unknown what the Thunder could do, which historically lines up with how quiet the organization is.

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Woj: OKC Thunder to play season out with current group ahead of trade deadline

Woj: OKC Thunder to play season out with current group ahead of trade deadline.

As the Oklahoma City Thunder continues to take the league by storm, pundits are beginning to get anxious about potential moves they can make to improve their roster this season.

Swimming in draft capital and young prospects, the Thunder are spoiled with potential trade assets to make any move a realistic possibility for them.

If the Thunder wanted to make a massive trade right now, they theoretically could. But according to ESPN’s NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski, they’d rather see what this young core can do first in the playoffs before making any drastic moves.

“I think they’re gonna keep letting this team grow and they are in a far different place than they were before this season. They knew they had a group that they believed in.

What you’ve seen now is each 10-game increment, they’ve gotten better. They are top five in offensive and defensive efficiency. Only Boston and Philadelphia are there.

They’re on a run where they beat the Celtics, Timberwolves, and Nuggets twice. They’re gonna keep letting this team grow. They have the players here. They have a group here that they can let get into the playoffs. Let them get through it.

They’re one of the three youngest teams in the league — San Antonio and Detroit are the other two; how are they doing? We’ve not seen a team and a group like this in a very long time. With a superstar like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and perhaps multiple All-Stars in the group around them. There’s nothing for this team to do at the trade deadline.

Now they want to go out and get maybe a big off their bench — they’re 29th in rebounding, something like that. But even their role players — Cason Wallace, Isaiah Joe — these guys may grow into great role players on a championship team.

So you look at a team that’s (23-10) and the rest of the league all over the place — underachieving; behind schedule. They’re the ones who have to scramble and make trades.

Oklahoma City’s gonna just keep letting this team (play). They may have the group here, they may not have to go outside this group to really get where they want to go.”

This pretty much aligns with what the Thunder have preached throughout the entire season. OKC isn’t known for making all-in moves unless they have to. Considering the stage their core is at right now, they don’t.

The smart long-term move is to see what Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams can do in the playoffs together before tweaking the roster for future playoff runs.

The fact the biggest NBA insider in the league is repeating this point further proves that fans shouldn’t expect an earth-shattering deal before this year’s trade deadline by OKC.

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Report: Sam Presti, Nick Collison spotted at UConn vs. Kansas game

Report: Sam Presti, Nick Collison spotted at UConn vs. Kansas game.

The highest-anticipated college basketball game on Friday was the clash between No. 4 UConn at No. 5 Kansas.

The top-five ranked showdown featured Kansas collecting a 69-65 win over UConn. The game featured several highly-touted potential prospects for the 2024 NBA draft, including Donovan Clingan, Stephon Castle, Alex Karaban and Kevin McCullar Jr.

Kansas came away with a 69-65 home win over UConn. The Jayhawks are now 7-1 on the season while the Huskies dropped to 7-1.

Such a talented game warrants a high turnout for NBA team representatives. That was the case as all 30 teams had at least one scout at the contest.

For the Oklahoma City Thunder, this included general manager Sam Presti and front office member Nick Collison, who played his college ball at Kansas, per Yahoo’s Krysten Peek.

While the Thunder’s first-round pick likely won’t be in the lottery, they have several other ways to get in that range — including the LA Clippers’ unprotected first-round pick and the Houston Rockets’ top-four protected pick.

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‘They can get anyone they want’: NBA exec believes OKC Thunder can make win-now moves

‘They can get anyone they want’: NBA exec believes OKC Thunder can make win-now moves.

The Oklahoma City Thunder (11-6) are off to their best start in recent memory and are just two games out of first place in the Western Conference.

Much of OKC’s fast start can be credited to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren. The guard-big duo have played like two of the best players in the league.

After an All-NBA season last year, Gilgeous-Alexander has picked up right where he left off. He is averaging 30.5 points on 53.8% shooting, six rebounds and 6.1 assists.

Holmgren has headlined this year’s rookie class with averages of 17.9 points, eight rebounds and 2.2 blocks.

With the Thunder looking to be one of the better teams in the Western Conference, an NBA executive told HoopsHype he believes they could go all in this season and make some win-now moves prior to the trade deadline.

“Chet Holmgren is a stud, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a top-five or top-10 guy in the league,” an NBA executive told HoopsHype. “They’re in line for a top-four seed and homecourt advantage in the playoffs. They can win a series. They have every pick in the world and contracts of all sizes. They can get anyone they want.”

In the article, NBA insider Michael Scotto suggested OKC has the salaries to create a trade package for someone making a lofty salary this season.

“Armed with a treasure chest of future draft picks, young talent, and movable contracts, several executives who spoke with HoopsHype believe the Thunder have the best assets to acquire any player in the league and could look to make a trade, given Oklahoma City’s hot start to the season.”

In all likelihood, the Thunder will stand pat for this year’s trade deadline. OKC has historically seldom made large in-season moves. As Thunder general manager Sam Presti said in his preseason presser, OKC will wait to see what it has with its young core before making any major roster moves.

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Gregg Popovich praises Sam Presti on constructing current Thunder core

“He and Clay (Bennett) have built just a class organization. Something that everybody in the league should emulate.”

A lot of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s DNA can be traced back to the San Antonio Spurs.

Both are small-market franchises that have enjoyed long runways of success due to synergy spanning from ownership to the front office to the coaching staff to the roster.

In fact, Thunder general manager Sam Presti notoriously had his start with the Spurs, where he spent eight years from 2000 to 2007 and worked his way up to assistant GM.

Presti was eventually handed the keys to the Thunder when he was named their general manager in 2007 and the rest has been history since.

Being a GM for that long for one franchise means you get to see several iterations of the team. For Presti, this means he’s currently overseeing his second rebuild after the first opened a contending window that spanned the 2010s.

When asked about the job Presti has done building up their current young core, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich was complimentary and mentioned how this wasn’t his first rodeo of roster building.

“Sam (Presti) is a pain in the ass,” Popovich joked. “He’s brilliant. He’s fantastic. Which I knew from day one long ago. His moves and decisions didn’t just start. He’s been doing that from the beginning. He and Clay (Bennett) have built just a class organization. Something that everybody in the league should emulate and something I know the city is really proud of.”

The Thunder and Spurs had several heavyweight matchups in the 2010s as title contenders led by Kevin Durant and Tim Duncan respectively. Both franchises hope history repeats itself with Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembanyama — who faced off for the first time on an NBA court during Monday’s preseason opener.

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Sam Presti talks about the possibility of an OKC Thunder rebrand

“I understand there’s some people that love our logo, don’t love our logo. That’s okay. If you have an opinion, we’re happy about that.”

The Oklahoma City Thunder are entering a new era, which has caused fans over the last few years to push for a rebrand to symbolize a new beginning.

Since revealing the logo and nickname, the Thunder have been heavily criticized for the team’s identification — citing a lack of creativity and historical ties to OKC.

During his 2023-24 preseason presser, Thunder general manager Sam Presti spoke about the possibility of potentially rebranding. While he didn’t completely rule out it in the future, he said a rebrand would feel like starting over.

“I would never say no to that. I do think that when you start a franchise from nothing, it is important — I think if you start chasing your tail on some of that, and we have to give ourselves a chance for the identity of the team to become kind of entrenched a little bit, certainly I think there’s a time for re-looking at that kind of thing, and if we do, I think we’ll do a very expert job but also a very thoughtful job.

But also making sure we stay true to who we are.

But I used to say this all the time in our earlier days, like the cement is not dry. We’re really only 15 years, going into 16 years. I think 80% of the history of the NBA has been played without the Thunder, OK, so we’re still the new people on the block here.

Letting that sink in a little bit I do think is important. I understand there’s some people that love our logo, don’t love our logo. That’s OK. If you have an opinion, we’re happy about that. You care. That logo means a lot to a lot of different people.

But change is part of progress, too, so at some point I’m sure we’ll look at that. But we’ve also — I think we’ve also evolved, as well, and this will be just another way we do that at some point.”

Presti did an excellent job at handling a touchy — albeit trivial — subject with diplomacy. He acknowledged it might not be the most popular logo, but its tenure has helped give OKC an identity with its first pro sports team.

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Sam Presti explains what Thunder could learn from NBA champion Nuggets

“What I see there is a result of commitment.”

Each year, new lessons can be learned across the league on how to build a championship roster. From the latest NBA Finals winner, the biggest lesson that can be learned from the 2022-23 Denver Nuggets is patience.

After years of trials and tribulations, the Nuggets finally reached their ultimate goal of winning an NBA championship for the first time ever. The Nuggets were a dominant force throughout the 2023 playoffs and defeated the Miami Heat in five games to win the crown.

When asked about what lessons could be learned from the Nuggets’ title run, Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti spoke with fondness about the division rival’s patience and discipline in keeping their core together for the long haul.

“I have a lot of respect for them. It took four years for I think a Jokic team to make it to the postseason. They’ve traditionally had the same coach. The team around Murray and Jokic has changed a little bit, but a lot of the same guys.

They’ve responded to a lot of adversities. To me, when I think about that from my seat, to me, you can see a lot of those things. Those are easy to see.

The thing that I think is a little harder to see is what I see there is a result of commitment, a commitment from — Murray and Jokic are committed to winning with the Nuggets. The organization is committed to those guys. They have just kept at it.

In our society and especially in sports culture today, we’re blitzed every day with the terms windows and timelines. Generally the only time we get blitzed with those things is when one of those entities, their commitment is not quite as strong as maybe it once was. That’s when we start talking about windows and time lines.

The commitment from those guys to the team and from the team to those guys in terms of their compensation and relationships, they’re all in on winning together, and therefore I think it’s allowed the team to really just focus on improving, battling back from adversities, integrating new players, and those guys really being invested in that, knowing that part of the run for them has been there’s been some changes.

But I have to think that the commitment to — the mutual commitment to we’re solving this as a group, that to me is really special, and it’s rare. It doesn’t happen all the time.

That’s not to speak ill of anybody else. I just think that they’ve prolonged that commitment through a lot of adversity where sometimes that can start to fade in today’s world.

I don’t want to speak for them, but I’m sure they know that it gets harder, but I think they’ve just always been — like that group has been together, and they’ve been all in on how do we work on it. There’s never been a weaponization of anything there.”

Unlike most previous champions, the Thunder could learn a lot from the Nuggets’ blueprint. Both are small-market teams that built their core via the draft and added pieces around it with trades and bargain bin free-agent additions.

Stability in head coach is also another similarity both franchises share. Michael Malone has been the Nuggets head coach since 2015 while Mark Daigneault recently signed an extension after being named Thunder head coach in 2020.

The level of respect and comradery between both franchises is mutual. Both teams historically face similar challenges of trying to build contenders in cities that usually never attract top free agents.

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Sam Presti talks about Mark Daigneault’s contract extension

“I think he’s a great fit for the team and organization.”

As the Oklahoma City Thunder continue to grow and develop, so has their head coach Mark Daigneault.

The Thunder promoted the assistant to head coach in 2020. In three seasons since, he’s become known as one of the younger head coaches with a bright future.

This was evident last season when he finished second in Coach of the Year voting. The Thunder rewarded Daigneault for his work by signing him to a contract extension this offseason.

Thunder general manager Sam Presti publicly spoke about the extension for the first time during his 2023-24 preseason media conference. In it, he talked about how much synergy the franchise has thanks to a head coach who aligns with their views.

“I think he’s a great fit for the team and organization. The thing he does so well is he takes the vision of the organization and he brings it to the floor every single day. He really believes in our ways of working. He’s a big believer in having a discovery mindset, a beginner’s mindset. He’s willing to try new things.

I think he takes a pretty optimistic view on people in general, which I think — it’s really hard to grow and develop in a very pessimistic environment, negative environment. I think he does that, but he balances that well with a certain level of accountability to certain principles that are critical to success.

They’re just ours. They’re not necessarily everybody’s principles, but they’re certainly things that would be important here, and he stands on those.

But he interacts well with the entire building, and I think that’s a big — like a big thing for us because like the discourse and the communication and the challenging of ideas and the ability to disagree on different things and not take it personal throughout the building I think is a huge aspect of some of the progress we’ve made.

But again, that didn’t just start last year. Like that was him through the process of the Blue head coach and now when he started a few years ago.

He’s going to be challenged just like we all will, but I think he’s got the tools to keep improving and adapting to new environments.

I enjoy working with him. … His heart is in the right spot. He cares about the organization. He really cares about the players, and he’s competitive. He’s super competitive.

It’s a fun combination to come in and try to problem solve with. Him but also the other people we have in the organization are very like-minded, and I feel super lucky to be able to work with people like that.”

While his record might not reflect it, Daigneault has worked his way into being one of the better head coaches throughout the league and it looks like the Thunder realize they found a gem.

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Sam Presti addresses the possibility of making win-now moves

“You can’t buy the paint for your house that you haven’t bought yet.”

The Oklahoma City Thunder continue to be a fixture when it comes to discussions of potential landing spots for future disgruntled superstars.

Due to a mix of their young talent and rich collection of draft assets, the Thunder will likely be linked as a trade partner for stars among national NBA pundits. The rise of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as one of the best players in the league only strengthens that cause.

When asked about being a popular choice for win-now moves candidates, Thunder general manager Sam Presti didn’t completely rule out the possibility of making that type of trade in the future, but it sounds as if they’re prioritizing seeing their young core prosper and hope to keep them together for the long term.

“I have thought about this question and a way to kind of put it into terms that isn’t dismissive because there’s no script here. I don’t want to give you the sense — we practice what we preach. We are open minded, clearly. But there’s a couple reasons why I think that particular topic is maybe not relevant right now.

One, I used the example with the paint last year. You can’t buy the paint for your house that you haven’t bought yet, that you haven’t actually bought. You don’t know where the house is. You don’t know where it’s situated. You don’t know what style it is. You don’t know how much paint you’ll need.

We don’t really know what we have right now, so to even say — this is very broad, but a star. Where? Who’s to say we don’t have a player that could be really good in that spot already? We don’t know the answer to that. I don’t know.

We may not. But chances are — it’s really hard to find those players. We have one of them. If there happens to be one or two or more on the roster, then we’re like, we’ve really gotten fortunate. So that’s the first thing.

The second thing is, again, I’m not trying to dismiss everyone’s excitement, but we’re not a .500 team. Like I said earlier, we have to finish our breakfast before we start acting like we’re on the cusp of something.

I think this is, again, part of the headwinds that you face as a young team. I wouldn’t want to “cash in” to become average or above average. I don’t think that’s really what anyone is expecting. When people say go all in, I don’t think they’re saying go all in to have one season that’s slightly better than your last season.

I think when the team is performing at an extremely high level, you then know, wait, something could help us, and you have better information, we can be accurate. We’re big on accuracy.

Then the other thing I say, and I think this is really important, is we can’t let the fact that we have some additional draft capital make us soft. You don’t want to lose your industriousness. We can’t cut corners here. It doesn’t matter if we do this or we do that because we have these tools that are just going to solve everything.

I don’t know how many times people have gone — I’m not sure exactly the nomenclature of all-in or cash your chips in. I don’t know what that means. When I think about that, I think about a gambling scenario, which again, doesn’t jive with sustainable success. It jives with like gambling, live-or-die, lose the house, go home and explain it to your significant other.

I don’t want us to rely on that like it’s some type of panacea, because one, I don’t know how often it’s actually worked that someone has done that; and then two, we might need those tools to have a functional payroll over time if our players turn out to be as good as some people are projecting.

Now, I can’t protect that. I don’t know. But those tools are relatively important to some of the more high-performing teams in the league right now that have big payrolls.

I understand it’s a bit of a — again, these types of questions — there’s a performative — to do that would be almost performative. I don’t think you can make a rational case for it now.

But perhaps at some point when we have a little more information, the team has demonstrated its capability and played in high-performing games and we see what our limitations are, potentially, but I don’t know that there’s a lot of good rational thinking behind that other than impulse and following content creation that is just part of the world that we live in.”

This was one of Presti’s better answers during his 2023-24 preseason media conference. Instead of making a blockbuster trade for the sake of it, it sounds like the Thunder will take a methodological approach that looks at the long-term view of the franchise.

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