bballsparkin wrote:CazOnReal wrote:I would wait for the Thunder to make a Conference Finals appearance before congratulating them on a successful rebuild - especially when upcoming cap decisions that'll need to be made are what led to Presti's biggest failure as a GM by breaking up the trio of Harden/Westbrook/Durant around a decade ago.
Yes, they're the 1 seed right now but as the 2018 Raptors demonstrated, that doesn't mean you're guaranteed any playoff success, and it certainly doesn't guarantee a championship. Hell, the last game was a close one against a Pelicans team that lacked Zion/had a not great Brandon Ingram game.
Yes, they have a lot of assets but while I do trust Presti more than, say, the 76ers series of blundering GMs to make use of them, the way he plans to use them as cheap depth rather than potential trade fodder to get them the final piece for a bonafide contender could backfire if they miss out on grabbing someone who could push them in to that category in favor of an "organic" approach to teambuilding via the draft.
I was thinking recently while pondering that OKC team, Presti should have traded Westbrook. Imagine the haul. Trade him to the Knicks or something. Build around Harden and KD with Ibaka. I like that trio much better. Perhaps too much hindsight in play.
Also, Presti can only do what he does with the consent of ownership. Not every GM can do that.
They're set pretty nicely though. True star: check. True sidekicks: seems so especially if Chet fills out and stays healhty. Plus all those assets. Not bad at all.
Presti didn't believe that Harden would become an elite player and didn't want to pay him over $16 million per year.
