Is Sam Presti closer to elite or average as a GM?

Hook_Em · Post #1 » by **Hook_Em** » Sat Aug 7, 2021 6:27 am

He’s been the Sonics/Thunder GM for 15 years. Is he closer to elite or average as a GM?

GSWFan1994 · Post #2 » by **GSWFan1994** » Sat Aug 7, 2021 6:31 am

The only thing keeping Presti from being far and away the best GM in the league is that he works for a team which is geographically away from the big market cities.

Chuck Everett · Post #3 » by **Chuck Everett** » Sat Aug 7, 2021 6:42 am

GSWFan1994 wrote:The only thing keeping Presti from being far and away the best GM in the league is that he works for a team which is geographically away from the big market cities.

Well he has turned down opportunities to work for both teams in New York, so whose fault is that?

GSWFan1994 · Post #4 » by **GSWFan1994** » Sat Aug 7, 2021 6:45 am

Chuck Everett wrote:
GSWFan1994 wrote:The only thing keeping Presti from being far and away the best GM in the league is that he works for a team which is geographically away from the big market cities.

Well he has turned down opportunities to work for both teams in New York, so whose fault is that?

Maybe he perceived he wouldn't have the freedom to do his job the way he wanted to, that's my guess.

audiosway · Post #5 » by **audiosway** » Sat Aug 7, 2021 6:54 am

Let's see what he does with all of those draft picks first. He's drafted a very good team before. I'm sure it wasn't entirely his fault they didn't keep them together. If he can make something happen again with that chest of picks he has then I would declare him elite.

MostValQuitter · Post #6 » by **MostValQuitter** » Sat Aug 7, 2021 2:32 pm

Presti is an elite GM period.

People here act like anyone can turn garbage into gold so if that is true why haven't the rest of the small market GM's managed to do so? You want to talk overrated take any big market GM like Pelinka as an example. AD wants to come here ok we will give you everything. Lebron wants to come here so lets sign him. Those are are some tough decisions.

EArl · Post #7 » by **EArl** » Sat Aug 7, 2021 2:41 pm

In my opinion a good gm is able to put a good team on the floor. Trading for draft picks does not make you a good gm. All he is doing is kicking the can down the road. They're basically the Sixers trust the process crap with Hinkie. The only thing presti is known for is losing Harden, Westbrook and Durant.

kg01 · Post #8 » by **kg01** » Sat Aug 7, 2021 2:52 pm

EArl wrote:In my opinion a good gm is able to put a good team on the floor. Trading for draft picks does not make you a good gm. All he is doing is kicking the can down the road. They're basically the Sixers trust the process crap with Hinkie. The only thing presti is known for is losing Harden, Westbrook and Durant.

There's more truth here than it seems folks are willing to acknowledge.

The tear-down is the easy part. Let's see what he does with all those picks.

SecondTake · Post #9 » by **SecondTake** » Sat Aug 7, 2021 3:07 pm

Top two gm in league

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DroseReturnChi · Post #10 » by **DroseReturnChi** » Sat Aug 7, 2021 3:15 pm

elite hard to hit 3 mvps.

Pointgod · Post #11 » by **Pointgod** » Sat Aug 7, 2021 3:23 pm

Sam Presti is still living off the reputation from hitting on 3 lottery picks in a row. Even after Harden left he still had 2 MVP caliber players and couldn’t surround them with enough talent to make a finals appearance. Tanking and collecting low end draft picks is not team building. He reminds me of Danny Ainge who lived purely off the reputation of that Brooklyn trade and always talked about his war chest only to literally do nothing with it.

I know it’s common on these boards to fetishize draft picks but the reality is that they’re overrated by NBA front offices and fans in general.

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_qubik · Post #12 » by **_qubik** » Sat Aug 7, 2021 3:24 pm

The objective is to win right ? He never did it, he could have had KD, Harden and WB at the same time, a superteam of their own. They went far but failed. He and his guys look to be good at talent evaluating and young guys developing. The collection of picks is nothing for me, the point is, what he will do, if he and his front office use it wisely, than he will be historical good, much more historical than just having an insane number of picks

SharpyShuffle · Post #13 » by **SharpyShuffle** » Sat Aug 7, 2021 3:40 pm

GSWFan1994 wrote:
Chuck Everett wrote:
GSWFan1994 wrote:The only thing keeping Presti from being far and away the best GM in the league is that he works for a team which is geographically away from the big market cities.

Well he has turned down opportunities to work for both teams in New York, so whose fault is that?

Maybe he perceived he wouldn't have the freedom to do his job the way he wanted to, that's my guess.

if this is him doing the job the way he wants to then he's a mediocre GM. The only way you can see Presti as elite is if you believe that ownership overruled him and were too cheap to pay Harden or to fire the crappy coach they stick with for way too long.

taikibansei · Post #14 » by **taikibansei** » Sat Aug 7, 2021 3:42 pm

EArl wrote:In my opinion a good gm is able to put a good team on the floor. Trading for draft picks does not make you a good gm. All he is doing is kicking the can down the road. They're basically the Sixers trust the process crap with Hinkie. The only thing presti is known for is losing Harden, Westbrook and Durant.

Yeah, it's not like Presti has picked three first ballot HOFs so far in his career...oh, wait.
Yeah, it's not like Presti has ever put together a team that made it to the finals before...oh, wait.
Yeah, it's not like Presti has ever put together a team that was up 3-1 in the conference finals against a 73-win opponent before...oh, wait.
Yeah, it's not like Presti kept the team competitive for multiple seasons even after KD ran off to the Warriors...oh, wait.

Presti can't be compared to Hinkie--both the good and the bad, they're nothing alike. Seriously, did you guys just start watching basketball last season?

MostValQuitter · Post #15 » by **MostValQuitter** » Sat Aug 7, 2021 3:43 pm

_qubik wrote:The objective is to win right ? He never did it, he could have had KD, Harden and WB at the same time, a superteam of their own. They went far but failed. He and his guys look to be good at talent evaluating and young guys developing. The collection of picks is nothing for me, the point is, what he will do, if he and his front office use it wisely, than he will be historical good, much more historical than just having an insane number of picks

He is operating under the constraints of a small market team.

That is like criticizing Andrew Friedman because he never won a chip with the Rays.

BenoUdrihFTL · Post #16 » by **BenoUdrihFTL** » Sat Aug 7, 2021 3:44 pm

I consider him elite, even if I think what he's currently doing is bad for the league. Seems like people have already forgotten that he has constructed championship contenders in the past, and he absolutely fleeced LAC to get Shai added to that deal in addition to the draft picks everyone talks about

Big J · Post #17 » by **Big J** » Sat Aug 7, 2021 3:49 pm

BenoUdrihFTL wrote:I consider him elite, even if I think what he's currently doing is bad for the league. Seems like people have already forgotten that he has constructed championship contenders in the past, and he absolutely fleeced LAC to get Shai added to that deal in addition to the draft picks everyone talks about

He didn't even win that trade though. The clippers made the conference finals because of PG13, and Shai hasn't done chit yet.

BenoUdrihFTL · Post #18 » by **BenoUdrihFTL** » Sat Aug 7, 2021 3:50 pm

Big J wrote:
BenoUdrihFTL wrote:I consider him elite, even if I think what he's currently doing is bad for the league. Seems like people have already forgotten that he has constructed championship contenders in the past, and he absolutely fleeced LAC to get Shai added to that deal in addition to the draft picks everyone talks about

He didn't even win that trade though. The clippers made the conference finals because of PG13, and Shai hasn't done chit yet.

I don't think the point of the trade from Presti's perspective was to create a 2 year win-now window

MINDKCUF · Post #19 » by **MINDKCUF** » Sat Aug 7, 2021 3:51 pm

EArl wrote:In my opinion a good gm is able to put a good team on the floor. Trading for draft picks does not make you a good gm. All he is doing is kicking the can down the road. They're basically the Sixers trust the process crap with Hinkie. The only thing presti is known for is losing Harden, Westbrook and Durant.

presti is more known for drafting 3 mvps in a row.....then he for losing them.

harden was traded because owners didnt want to pay luxury. not presti's fault.
durant left because he's weak. not presti's fault. he built a great team around him (aside from perkins and sefelosha)
westbrook wanted out because team was going to rebuild once pg13 wanted out.

i dont believe accumulating 20 late1st rd picks makes presti a great gm. he will have to reprove himself through those picks.

SharpyShuffle · Post #20 » by **SharpyShuffle** » Sat Aug 7, 2021 3:54 pm

taikibansei wrote:
EArl wrote:In my opinion a good gm is able to put a good team on the floor. Trading for draft picks does not make you a good gm. All he is doing is kicking the can down the road. They're basically the Sixers trust the process crap with Hinkie. The only thing presti is known for is losing Harden, Westbrook and Durant.

Yeah, it's not like Presti has picked three first ballot HOFs so far in his career...oh, wait.
Yeah, it's not like Presti has ever put together a team that made it to the finals before...oh, wait.
Yeah, it's not like Presti has ever put together a team that was up 3-1 in the conference finals against a 73-win opponent before...oh, wait.
Yeah, it's not like Presti kept the team competitive for multiple seasons even after KD ran off to the Warriors...oh, wait.

Presti can't be compared to Hinkie--both the good and the bad, they're nothing alike. Seriously, did you guys just start watching basketball last season?

This is so adorably biased. Especially when you mention appearing in the finals when his big three were still kids, but not ever getting back, and choking a 3-1 lead, ad positives. Obviously it's not Presti's fault that KD choked. But you can't give him credit for the good things his players do without him also sharing the blame for the bad. If he gets credit for being 3-1 up he also gets blame for being 4-3 down.

And drafting that trio is a double edged sword. Well done to him for picking them, but he's incredibly lucky to have had even the chance to pick them, and when you have players like that there's an onus to build around them successfully. A GM could go 30 years without ever having a chance to pick a player as good as KD, who fell into Presti's lap. KD is a top ten player all time in terms of raw talent. How many players that good fail to win a title with the team that drafted them?

Partially that's KD's fault, as I say above. But it's also Presti's fault for not building around him (which would include hiring a competent coach who could get KD and WB playing better together). You can't give him credit for drafting KD, which was an absolute no brainer, and not also criticise his failure to adequately support him.

Closer to which description?