Sam Presti has become a top GM through the years and his players trust him

Sam Presti has been around since the offseason of 2007 when the Oklahoma City Thunder were still the Seattle SuperSonics. He already had one of the strongest offseasons he could have as he drafted franchise icon Kevin Durant and traded for promising wing Jeff Green. Presti has continued to leave a strong impression on Thunder players.

In his first-ever offseason, Presti already had a lasting impact on the Thunder organization. He is superb in roster construction, which has helped the franchise succeed through the years. With that success, Thunder player Chet Holmgren has talked about why he loves having Presti as the team’s GM.

“I see them but all those things are out of my control. We have one of the best, if not the best, person at their job running this team in Sam Presti. I have all the faith in everything he does. I don’t question any move he makes,” Holmgren said before the preseason game against the New Zealand Breakers.

Presti has consistently made the Thunder a good team

Since he took over in 2007, during the summer he drafted KD, the Thunder have always wanted to compete. They were a promising team early on in Durant’s career, as he led a young team with Russell Westbrook, James Harden, and Serge Ibaka to the NBA Finals. They lost in five games, but it showed the quality of the roster Presti constructed.

Unfortunately, they hit their ceiling when they could not pay The Beard the money he wanted. Most OKC fans knew that Sam did not deserve the blame for what happened because the ownership did not want to fork over a few million dollars to keep both Harden and Ibaka on the roster.

He kept building the team beyond that, even pivoting when Kevin Durant left in free agency with trades for Victor Oladipo, who then got flipped for superstar Paul George. Presti pivoted even further when Russell Westbrook left the team by going for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the team’s current superstar and All-NBA player.

Presti has set a strong organizational culture

When Sam builds a team, he looks at the player and the person . Coach Mark Daigneault loves working with Presti because he expects the players to be talented and have good character.

“Fortunately, one thing that Sam has done a great job of is bringing in guys that naturally gravitate towards the principles that we have in the organization. We’ve done that again with Alex and Isaiah, and the guys that we picked,” Daigneault said about Presti’s roster building.

With Sam at the helm, it will be difficult to count the Thunder out. They might have had some years in the early 2020s that involved them at the bottom of the standings, but it was always part of the plan to develop and become a top team again like they are today. That is a testament to how good a GM Presti is and why Holmgren has complete faith in him.

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