Just curious; is anybody still pretending Sam Presti is a good GM? He had three MVPs on his team and he busted it up. Dude chose Kendrick Perkins over Harden. Harden turns out to be an MVP caliber player (and now MVP winner). And we aren't talking about some slow and unforeseeable transformation over time. It was clear from game 1 with the Rockets that Harden's talent was shamefully under-utilized in OKC. And he has just continued to get better and better every year since. I strongly believe that, had the Thunder re-signed Harden, the Thunder would have beaten the Warriors instead of losing 3 in a row to them in that final season with Durant. If that happened, Durant likely would not have left. But he did. Now two MVP talents left and OKC can only dream of being able to compete with Durant's Warriors and Harden's Rockets. Then last off-season he trades away Oladipo (under a long term contract) and Domantas Sabonis (rookie scale contract) for a one year rental of Paul George. George is as good as gone. Oladipo instantly emerged as an All-Star talent that was completely under-utilized in OKC and will definitely be named the MIP. It seems like a safe bet that he will be participating in many more All-Star games. Meanwhile, Sabonis is playing a key role in his new team taking the Cavs to a 7 game series and it's clear they also didn't properly utilize him while he was in Oklahoma City. Meanwhile, Melo has been terrible with the Thunder and they traded away Kanter and McDermott for him. I understand Kanter wasn't a good fit in OKC, but it really doesn't matter. Melo hurt their team badly and it wasn't exactly unforeseen that he and Russ wouldn't be a good fit. Now OKC fans are praying that Melo won't opt back in - but he will. Oh he definitely will. He wants superstar money and a starting role, but with the way he played this year nobody is going to be offering him more than MLE money and a bench role. Melo was unafraid of just refusing to waive his no trade clause in NYC for years and he won't be afraid to take the money even if the team doesn't want him back in OKC either. This will essentially render the Thunder unable to bring in any free agent talent. I'm going to laugh so hard if Oladipo ends up being an MVP candidate type player too. He's looking good enough in his first year with the Pacers that it's not entirely impossible. And that would be a lot easier to write off as, "Come on! Nobody knew he'd be this good!" if it didn't look so damned much like what happened with Harden. p.s. Corey Brewer was a starter on their team in the Playoffs.
Melo with a $28MM player option he will exercise and condemn the MAGA-trash Thunder to the lottery for next year and thereafter as PG leaves.
Not exactly his fault that the owner refused to pay even a dime of lux tax to retain Harden. Thats like saying Billy Beane is a bad GM because the As let so many players go in free agency because the owner is a total cheap ass and refuses to pay anything more than a bottom 10 payroll.
Presti is a decent GM. His only flaw was he got too attached to Westbrick. You can't say pairing George and Melo with Westbrick was a bad move, sometimes teams just don't work out. Like Morey bringing in Dwight and that drunk dude to play with Harden. Looking at it now it was stupid to bring in Dwight who had cancer cells and that drunk dude but you see an opportunity to bring stars together you gotta take a chance. Presti has a good eye for talent, he drafted Westbrick, Ibaka, Adams, Sabonis and Harden when others passed on them. He even identified Oladipo was a good player thats why he traded for him. Like I said the issue is he chose the wrong player in Westbrick over Harden, if he traded Westbrick to Houston instead they would have a ring by now.
Presti is the best drafting GM I can think of. He drafted 3 MVPs. Please name me any GM who has done that. Westbrook and Harden were not no brainier picks. He also was the guy who got the spurs to draft Tony Parker. If his ownership wasn't cheap he would have been able to keep Durant, harden, and westbrook. He offered Durant a max contract he didn't take it. Its not like he chose westbrook. Howard was a big reason why we got to WCF which was the best season in the last twenty years which we hopefully pass this year.
The way we play the Jazz, and how we own them, either shows how bad OKC really is, or how good we really are... which one? Or both? I still can't believe it. A prime Westbrook and Paul George + Adams can't even beat a rookie led Jazz team? 10 years in the league and Westbrook still doesn’t understand how to win... he just wants his stats and individual trophies... prime example is when he made the comment during the post game interview about shutting Rubio down... full court press on the 4th best player on their team and lost focus on team defense and gets blown out during that game... and Rubio STILL got his average points rebounds and assists that game... I really don’t know how to analyze this situation. I think the conclusion is that Westbrook just can’t make other players around him better like Harden/Lebron can. And it seems the only way Westbrook will ever win a chip is if he teams up with someone better than him to shut him up and tell him how to properly play team basketball. I still think Westbrook is one hell of a player and probably the most athletic/explosive player in the league, but he’s lacking a lot of the crucial things that could make him a great team mate on the court fundamentally.
This is why I say, intelligence and character are the most underrated talents in the NBA. We have seen plenty of physically gifted players not making it because they lack either the smart of the proper personality or both to develop winning skills. Westbrook is not only athletic, he has skills. But he does not have the mindset to play team sports. If he was great in sports like tennis or golf, he would have been a legendary figure because in these sports, all he needed to care was himself.
Still his fault. He could have moved Kendrick Perkins and paid Harden but he believed he needed bigs. Same with Ibaka. There were alternate ways he could have gone. He didn't. And ever since it's been a never ending chain of things going the wrong way because of that single move.
He could have kept Harden if he would have been willing to move Perkins or Ibaka instead. He decided with Durant and Westbrook that those bigs were more important to the team than Harden. I'm going to say it again; HE COULD HAVE KEPT HARDEN WITHOUT PAYING THE LUXURY TAX! And if he'd have kept them, they'd have likely hoisted the Larry O'Brien Trophy that year and Durant would have more than likely taken that max contract. And, again, he opted to trade Oladipo (who, much like Harden, he clearly under-valued) for a one year rental of Paul George. This dude is making some historically bad moves and somehow getting a pass. I don't get it.
I do think that moving one of Harden and Westbrook was a reasonable move, although not necessary. All Westbrook, Durant, and Harden are ball-dominating players. Yes, we see how Harden and Paul can coexist. But they didn't see how Harden and Westbrook could play together for long minutes, with Durant also demanding the ball. I've always felt that he got rid of the wrong guy. He should have traded Westbrook and got the same, maybe more, back. I totally agree that they under used and therefore undervalued Harden. If Harden was given the same prominent role as Westbrook and Durant, he would have developed much earlier as a primary offensive guy. Durant would have stayed. Perkins was bad. But they did need good bigs to complement the perimeter stars. Adams would actually be perfect for them but he came too late.
I don't know about Y'ALL, but I'm chillin, waiting to see if y'alls boy Fertitta is really going to pony up for CP3, Capela and whatever else.
It's time for OKC to make a decision, two more years of Russ and Round 1 exits, they need to look long and hard to see if Russ is the right piece. You've traded away 3 or 4 players that improve once they leave so you know there is an issue playing with Russ. I personally think they need to go ahead and see if they can offload Russ (probably an Eastern conf team, don't see any Western conf team taking him), keep PG if possible, waive/buyout Melo and roll with that.
OKC can potentially lose both Paul and Melo... although they both said they're leaning toward coming back, but maybe just lip service.
The real issue wasn’t Westbrook over harden. It was Ibaka over harden (they chose th big) and then Kendrick Perkins over harden (they could have avoided luxury by waiving and stretching). Those were the really indefensible positions. And of course, he chose Westbrook over harden although back then it was understandable.
If their ownership was too cheap to pay for harden would they have been cool with just cutting Perkins? You still have to pay his salary. Despite all that they were up 3-1 on the warriors. They were literally a quarter away from being the finals.
