Rumors

Chet Holmgren: I think the first statue outside the new arena is probably going to be a Sam Presti statue. I'm pretty sure he makes the decisions on who's the statue, so he'd probably know better than me. If there was a vote, I'd vote for it. I wasn't here for the entire lifetime of the Thunder obviously, but since I've been here but… (…) I don't want to discredit all the players cuz like all the players are extremely talented, came in talented, continue to work, continue to improve, but like we've seen so many times across the NBA where a really talented guy where everybody knows he's talented just does not succeed or thrive where they are because of the environment or whatever it might be. And I think the biggest credit to Sam is what he's built around the players that allows them to be at their best, if that makes sense.

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NBA Communications: The voting panel for the 2025-26 NBA Basketball Executive of the Year Award consisted of basketball executives from NBA teams. Complete voting results ⬇️

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They point out the ridiculous, unlikely nature of it all -- how a 2007 sign-and-trade that sent Rashard Lewis from Seattle to the Orlando Magic marked the first of five moves, all of them connected, that helped form the foundation of the Thunder's current championship core. And they ask Lewis if he can believe it. Lewis thought back, connecting the past and the present, and thought of the throughline: the architect behind each transaction and the Thunder team that has earned the top seed in the Western Conference for the past three seasons. "It just shows you," Lewis said, "what type of general manager Sam Presti is."

ESPN

"What it says about Sam is that he's been pretty good with his asset management," the second executive said. "If you start to trace the asset trees of the things he's done, there aren't very many dead ends. He's going to try to use every piece that he can -- every aspect of the trade, every trade exception, every draft pick, every little thing -- and he's going to try to make something out of it. He has always had a vision, and he's always been decisive." The executive added, "People would say it's obvious when he took over the Sonics to trade Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis and do a rebuild, but at the time it was not obvious. They were only one year removed from having a pretty good team, and [Allen and Lewis] were regarded as good players and the rebuild was regarded as uncertain."

ESPN

Chris Mannix: Sam Presti's not leaving Oklahoma City for Dallas. Brad Stevens is not leaving Boston for Dallas. Could Tim Connelly be in the mix? I think maybe. We'll see how his situation plays out in Minnesota. There's a lot of moving parts out there. I think Koby Altman is someone to keep your eye on in Cleveland. Something could potentially be in play there, but this is really ownership you know, coming out and saying, well, like wow, we've got this job. Let's go big game hunting. Let's go shoot for the stars there. But I think the two biggest names are not in play. Connelly, Altman maybe. I also wouldn't dismiss Jason Kidd as a candidate for this job. I mean, Jason Kidd is very well respected for what he's done in Dallas. And he's very well liked by ownership. And if he wasn't the head coach of this team doing a great job developing Cooper Flagg, he might be in consideration more strongly. But I think the only thing holding Jason Kidd back or or preventing him from being a real candidate for this job is the fact that Dallas wants to keep him on the bench and wants to keep some stability with Cooper Flagg in his second year in the NBA. But I would still keep my eye on that. I think that's something that Jason is, let's say he's interested in. I would say he's very interested in that job in Dallas. 

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"When you can mesh like that with a coach, it's really awesome," McCain said, recalling his first meeting with Daigneault and general manager Sam Presti before the 2024 draft. "Being able to just talk to them about, 'How is Shai so good?' It was process-oriented, the daily habits," McCain said. "It's the consistency, the discipline. That's all stuff that I love. I love that 'Atomic Habits,' the '1% Better,' the do one thing, get really good at it, then focus on the next thing. It's been really cool to just have conversations with them, get to know 'em, because it's the same mindset I have."

CBSSports.com

Sam Presti and the front office of the Oklahoma City Thunder typically handle their business in stealth mode, but they have surfaced in some level of trade conversations heading into the February 5th NBA trade deadline with the possibility of targeting a center. "Here's an interesting name: Isaiah Hartenstein," said Brian Windhorst on The Hoop Collective Podcast. "He's got a team option next year for $29 million. I've actually heard the Oklahoma City Thunder's name in some trade chatter."

RealGM

The Thunder have an increasing payroll as the extensions for Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren begin as they become dramatically more expensive. "Why would the Oklahoma City Thunder's name be out there? And why would the Oklahoma City Thunder's name be out there potentially looking at centers?" added Windhorst.

RealGM

Anthony Morrow: Right now San Antonio is like the little brother of Oklahoma City. Like they're right in the same path. Like you see how Sam Presti has developed this team to be what they are now. It's the same as what San Antonio was with developing who they were and they've been sustainable. Shout out to Coach Popovich, RC Buford, doing that work over there and just the development, and I know Sam kind of took that blueprint and went there with it. I would love to see them in the Western Conference Finals every year for the next five years or something like that because they still young.

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[SGA] to Sam Presti: “When I first arrived at OKC you gave me the book ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’. You explained the meaning behind it and the next few years were very rough… When we won the championship you gave me a statue of the tortoise. I keep that beside my championship ring and MVP trophy.”

reddit

Brandon Rahbar: SGA: “Sam told me this a long time ago: Success isn’t linear. It goes up and down. Every team goes through rough patches. No team has gone 82-0 for a reason..”

x.com

Rival executives are predicting a quiet deadline for the Thunder. They're 6-6 in their previous 12 games, but there's a sense that it's more of an inevitable lull than some fatal roster flaw for the 30-7 defending champions. If general manager Sam Presti did go searching for an upgrade, he has plenty of draft assets to dangle. But the rotation is chock-full and the Thunder's future financial flexibility is limited. Extensions for Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren kick in next season, bumping their combined salary from $20.2 million to $83 million. -- Anthony Slater

ESPN

None of those moves was as monumental as the Dallas Mavericks’ decision to fire Nico Harrison, whose ill-fated decision to send Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers in February seems destined to go down as one of the worst trades of all time. But from Sacramento to New Orleans, Denver, Atlanta, Phoenix and Toronto, the top roster builder was shown the door, in essence, because they failed to keep up with the Prestis. To no one’s surprise, longtime Thunder president of basketball operations Sam Presti and his staff were the winners of this honor for the second consecutive season. Yet the unique part about what Presti and his group are doing, and the thing that helped them extend their lead on the rest of the field from last time around, is that they’re still building at an elite level during this time when the current roster looks worthy of evolving into a dynasty as it is. As our John Hollinger details below, that’s a remarkable feat to pull off. From there, though, there were all kinds of shifts in the reputational rankings that are worth chronicling.

New York Times

Of course, the Thunder are No. 1. How could they not be, after rolling through the league with 68 regular-season wins and a historic victory margin to win their first championship and still having a cupboard full of draft assets and one of the youngest rosters in the league going forward? Have I mentioned that it’s possible they could win the championship and draft lottery in 2026? “The best-ever job of acquiring future assets while dominating in the present,” said one voter. “Usually, those two are a little exclusive when you’re talking about championship-level teams. Sam Presti is just the preeminent GM in the league.” The Thunder also have one of the largest staffs in the league and have filled their front office with clever people from different backgrounds. — John Hollinger

New York Times