Reclaiming Glory: Thunder's Journey Back to Contender Status

Once before, the Oklahoma City Thunder took a unique approach by going organic and cultivating a contender primarily through the Draft. As a result, they quickly rose to become a formidable force in the world of basketball.

It was a study in vision, patience, development and young potential, and the process made the rest of the NBA take notice. The Thunder’s meticulous blueprint was studied and envied … until it wasn’t.

This was a dozen years ago, and the inability to cash in with a championship was humbling. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden — all future Kia MVP winners, all in their 20s — never sipped champagne together in their NBA birthplace. All those rosy predictions of an OKC dynasty? They died nasty.

That doesn’t mean OKC’s first swing at creating a Goliath from scratch was a miss. The franchise remained a winner for years.

Once again, OKC boasts what you now see: a team bloated with an MVP contender, multiple young assets, a manageable salary cap and a treasure chest full of Draft capital.

Given all of the above, OKC is currently in better top-to-bottom shape than most, if not all, of its 29 competitors.

As the Thunder prepare to meet the Spurs, their Tuesday matchup (9:30 p.m. ET, TNT) is curious in this respect: Both earned high praise at some point in their history for their team construction.

The big difference is the Spurs produced five championships. Oklahoma City is still awaiting the first one.

It’s not a coincidence that the link between the two is Sam Presti, a masterful judge of talent and asset management. The OKC general manager’s ability to navigate modern-day roster-building challenges was first developed in the Spurs’ organization, where he started from the bottom — as an intern, then video coordinator, then scout. His rise coincided with the Spurs’ championship run in the mid-2000s.

The year before the Seattle SuperSonics relocated to OKC in 2008, Presti was hired at age 29 and given full control. Since then, he elevated a small market team, made multiple franchise-changing personnel decisions and did everything except win a championship.

Until the Thunder win big with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and others, their business is unfinished.

Oklahoma City and Presti do have time on their side because the Thunder are just getting started with this latest attempted pursuit of sustained greatness. OKC opened the season with the league’s youngest roster (24.1 years old). Last season, they were the league’s youngest No. 1 seed in history and OKC again lurks near the top of the Western Conference.

OKC’s process in building a winner

During his preseason news conference, Presti was both measured and optimistic about 2024-25:

“There’s no silver platters in Oklahoma. But I would say anything is possible,” Presti said. “It just can’t be expected … we as an organization and as a team have to earn our arrival.”

And, regarding the team’s makeup:

“We’re trying to be the exception to an age-old rule in sports that you cannot win at the highest level with young players. We recognize in order to be that team, you have to be willing to be an exception.”

OKC tried to be that exception with Durant, Westbrook, Harden and Serge Ibaka (a good rebounder and defender). The Thunder reached the Finals in 2011, lost 4-1 in that series and never returned.

What happened next was somewhat understandable: OKC either couldn’t pay everyone … or refused to. Harden was shipped to Houston a year later. While Durant and Westbrook were given rich extensions and went to four West Finals in six years — the two years they didn’t, injuries happened — ultimately Durant bailed in free agency and Westbrook was traded.

“I’m not embarrassed to say we didn’t get it done,” Presti said. “Proud to say we were in the fight, in the arena every year.”

Basketball scholars will one day reflect and wonder why and how a dynasty never happened. But while such an experience might cripple most franchises, Presti never allowed OKC to wallow at the bottom during OKC’s reinvention. They’ve had just two sub-40-win seasons in the five years since Westbrook left.

Here’s why the Thunder are right back in the contender’s circle:

Still to be determined: The 2024 offseason, adding Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso.

“We’re going to need some time with this group,” Presti said. “Our continuity will not be great early. I don’t think it’ll be an issue when we get some miles underneath us … We’ve always seen ourselves as a work in progress. I hope that doesn’t change.

“I do think there’s a difference between picking players and selecting a team. I like the way the team’s been selected.”

‘Ambitious but without an agenda’

Team construction has always been tricky as salary cap and free agency rules evolved. It is unquestionably tougher than before, with aprons, the luxury tax and other hurdles.

Here are a handful of post-1980 teams applauded for their methods:

The NBA has had a different champion the last six seasons, mainly because of new cap rules and the difficulty in assembling a “Big 3” — or even keeping key role players from chasing money (see the Denver Nuggets since 2023). What will help OKC avoid this is multiple future first-round picks and swaps that can be used to get players on rookie contracts.

As for the current roster, Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 28.5 points and Williams 20.8 ppg. There’s depth aplenty while Caruso and Lu Dort spearhead the defense. A lack of rebounding will remain a glaring issue until Holmgren (hip) and Hartenstein (hand) return from injuries.

Presti described such a young group as largely unselfish, “ambitious but without an agenda. If we can maintain that we can be a very good team for a very long time.”

This is the key — if a team gets multiple chances to contend for championships, odds are they’ll win at least one.

“We all want to be a part of something that can endure over a period of time,” Presti said. “We’re not running from the expectations. Whatever it is we want, is possible.”

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Shaun Powell has covered the NBA for more than 25 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.

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