Sam Presti Says He 'Missed' On Gordon Hayward Trade

[RealGM Wiretap]

Sam Presti admitted that he "missed" on the Gordon Hayward midseason acquisition at his end-of-the-season news conference on Tuesday.

"I missed on that. That's on me. But I'm learning, I'm trying to learn this team, I'm trying to learn the pace of the team a little bit," said Presti.

Hayward averaged 5.3 points in 17.2 minutes during his time with the Thunder.

Hayward described his time with the Thunder as 'disappointing' last week. 

"I don't think I read that one perfect, and I'm learning from that in terms of bringing somebody midseason and especially early on in the process for our team," added Presti.

Via ESPN

[Skipwhethers]

Ouch!

[WaltFrazier]

He's been on the job a long time to still be learning. Imagine if he'd just brought in Gafford, they'd be in the Finals not Dallas.

[Kizz Fastfists]

You have to be a special kind of stupid to think adding Hayward to a team loaded with better wing players was going to be helpful. Thunder fans assumed it was done to clear roster spaces and cap room for this off-season. No one thought it was intended to improve the team. Presti is a illiterate noob that can't get fired soon enough for Thunder fans that want a championship. Want proof that he is illiterate? Presti said "We made an appearance. We will arrive when we we can replicate that." The dictionary defines arrive as "to make an appearance". So basically Presti said we made an appearance. We will make an appearance when we can replicate that.

This is top class politician level word salad. Presti needs to go try to be a White House press secretary where he can put his refusal to answer direct questions to proper use. As far as NBA GM skills go Presti is great if you have a bottom 5 team. He can bottom you out, collect assets and build you a strong foundation. He can't finish the job, but if you need a GM for 4 years to get you through your rebuild he's great. Then go get someone that understands the goal it to win a championship to get your rings.

[Kizz Fastfists]

He's been on the job a long time to still be learning. Imagine if he'd just brought in Gafford, they'd be in the Finals not Dallas.

He gave Dallas the pick they needed to trade for Gafford. The trades took place on the same day. Presti sabotaged his team at the deadline. Presti got a 2029 pick swap instead of Gafford. He also could have gotten Olynyk or P.J. Washington to fill the hole OKC had that was obvious to every toddler OKC fan, but someone wasn't clear to their GM.

[GameOver25]

Seems like the type of GM who's okay with kicking the can down the road because he likes the idea of hoarding picks forever and ever.

[Cassius]

He's been on the job a long time to still be learning. Imagine if he'd just brought in Gafford, they'd be in the Finals not Dallas.

He gave Dallas the pick they needed to trade for Gafford. The trades took place on the same day. Presti sabotaged his team at the deadline. Presti got a 2029 pick swap instead of Gafford. He also could have gotten Olynyk or P.J. Washington to fill the hole OKC had that was obvious to every toddler OKC fan, but someone wasn't clear to their GM.

He thinks he’s RC Buford, because, like the Spurs, the Thunder never make in-season trades of consequence. He’s made two brutal deadline deals in bringing Perk in and then shipping him out for Kanter a few years later, which are sandwiched around nixing the Tyson Chandler deal, so maybe he’s afraid of screwing up another deadline deal for a big and tried to just avoid it.

I’ve been screaming from the mountaintops that the move he needed to make was to call up his former subordinate Troy Weaver in Detroit and send him a few goodwill picks for Isaiah Stewart. Toughness, rebounding and shooting.

[TimeisIllmatic]

I surely hope this OKC team wins a championship in the near future because they are very fun to watch. If Presti wants to make a big move, he needs to go after Markkanen this summer.

[deeps6x]

He should trade for Poeltl. Raptors aren't a win now team anymore and would probably be a willing trade partner.

[kalel123]

OKC is in what is probably the toughest part of the rebuild phase. Need to start looking at consolidating all those picks into upgrades to take the next step. All those picks mean nothing if it means you are just using them to go sideways by being cheap and replacing guys you can't pay any more with rookie contracts. This is how they failed in Durant era once they got cheap and lost Harden.

[uconn83]

the reasoning behind it made sense, Josh Giddey became a weak point in the second half of the season after teams adjusted to defending Holmgren leaving Giddey alone on the left wing. The playoffs showed they lacked another ball handler who could create from the perimeter with Jalen Williams still being raw in that department, all areas Hayward was strong at.

[hippesthippo]

He's been on the job a long time to still be learning. Imagine if he'd just brought in Gafford, they'd be in the Finals not Dallas.

The day you stop learning is the day you start preparing for your retirement.

This kind of reminds me of all the "Warriors need to trade for a real center," nonsense. Do the Thunder need to add size? Yes. Should they be looking at moving Chet to PF in order to accommodate that need? No.

PJ Washington would have been a great addition, but they didn't make that move. Hayward wasn't it. It is what it is. I don't think it makes Presti a bad GM. A bunch of teams could have made the same moves Dallas did and did not.