Sam Presti turned a 2nd round pick into SGA, Jalen Williams and firsts

[-Luke-]

Hat tip to user Againigan in the comment section at hoopsrumors.com, who had this idea first.

June 7, 2007: The Seattle SuperSonics make Sam Presti their new GM.

July 20, 2007: The Phoenix Suns trade a 2008 1st (Serge Ibaka was later selected), a 2010 1st and Kurt Thomas to the Seattle SuperSonics for a 2009 2nd (Emir Preldžić was later selected with the 57th pick and never played in the NBA) and an $8 million trade exception.

As far as I remember Sarver wanted to save money and dump Kurt Thomas' salary. This is a pretty insane trade in itself.

June 23, 2016: The Oklahoma City Thunder (formerly known as the above mentioned Seattle SuperSonics) trade Serge Ibaka to the Orlando Magic for Ersan İlyasova, Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis.

July 6, 2017: The Oklahoma City Thunder trade Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis to the Indiana Pacers for Paul George.

July 10, 2019: The Oklahoma City Thunder trade Paul George to the Los Angeles Clippers for Danilo Gallinari, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and five first round picks (Jalen Williams was selected, among others).


So Presti turned a 2nd round pick in 2009 into SGA, Jalen Williams and four additional firsts.

Build this man a statue.

[EmpireFalls]

I think we need to spend some time on this:

The Phoenix Suns trade a 2008 1st (Serge Ibaka was later selected), a 2010 1st and Kurt Thomas to the Seattle SuperSonics for a 2009 2nd (Emir Preldžić was later selected with the 57th pick and never played in the NBA) and an $8 million trade exception.

Two firsts for a salary dump? Are you kidding me??? Even worse, the GM behind that move was none other than 9-time NBA champ Steve Kerr. My God.

Sarver should be tried at The Hague for war crimes. I forgot just how bad 2000s GMs were, my goodness. There are some real doozies from that era.

[Snakebites]

I was aware of the Ibaka to SGA pipeline, but I wasn't aware that they'd acquired Serge in that manner.

That is pretty wild.

[Raps in 4]

He's easily the best executive in basketball. He's built two seperate contenders in the NBA's smallest market in under 15 years. And drafted and/or traded for four different MVPs.

The only thing that kept his first team from becoming a dynasty was cheap ownership (he drafted three future MVPs for that team).

He's elite at scouting, player development, and trades/asset acquisition. That's a rare combination.

[-Luke-]

I think we need to spend some time on this:

The Phoenix Suns trade a 2008 1st (Serge Ibaka was later selected), a 2010 1st and Kurt Thomas to the Seattle SuperSonics for a 2009 2nd (Emir Preldžić was later selected with the 57th pick and never played in the NBA) and an $8 million trade exception.

Two firsts for a salary dump? Are you kidding me??? Even worse, the GM behind that move was none other than 9-time NBA champ Steve Kerr. My God.

Sarver should be tried at The Hague for war crimes. I forgot just how bad 2000s GMs were, my goodness. There are some real doozies from that era.

I couldn't believe it when I read it. But I think it gets even worse. If my little research is correct, Kurt Thomas' contract expired after the 2007-08 season.

[ReggiesKnicks]

If you ever think about criticizing modern-day GM's, teams in the 2000s often traded 1st round picks for salary dumps. Teams rarely do this now.

[Snakebites]

I remember really thinking the Dipo/Sabas for Ibaka deal was very stupid at the time- I could not believe the Magic did it.

To me the only real black mark on his resume is trading Harden away for limited value.

But when you’re regularly drafting MVPs I guess you can afford to give one away on occasion.

[Bornstellar]

I think we need to spend some time on this:

The Phoenix Suns trade a 2008 1st (Serge Ibaka was later selected), a 2010 1st and Kurt Thomas to the Seattle SuperSonics for a 2009 2nd (Emir Preldžić was later selected with the 57th pick and never played in the NBA) and an $8 million trade exception.

Two firsts for a salary dump? Are you kidding me??? Even worse, the GM behind that move was none other than 9-time NBA champ Steve Kerr. My God.

Sarver should be tried at The Hague for war crimes. I forgot just how bad 2000s GMs were, my goodness. There are some real doozies from that era.

I couldn't believe it when I read it. But I think it gets even worse. If my little research is correct, Kurt Thomas' contract expired after the 2007-08 season.

It's even funnier because Thomas ended up in SA and he beat the Suns in the playoffs that year

[EmpireFalls]

If you ever think about criticizing modern-day GM's, teams in the 2000s often traded 1st round picks for salary dumps. Teams rarely do this now.

I honestly think about 75% of the reason we don’t see dynasties as much in the 2020s is because GMs actually value their assets now and don’t do astoundingly idiotic things as much anymore.

The Clippers at the 2011 deadline deciding to trade BD and their 2011 1st for Mo Williams (that first became #1 overall, allowing Cleveland to pick Kyrie Irving) is another one. Trust me it sounds exactly as stupid as it was.

That idiotic Sterling trade right there is responsible for LeBron’s return to Cleveland and the 2016 title team.

[Expoking]

He's done an unbelievable job with the Supersonics/Thunder. People critcise him for the Harden (which is fair) and not using some more of his war chest of draft picks and assets to gain a superstar of some kind (which is not fair). But overall the fact he's constantly nailed draft picks, fleeced teams on multiple occasions and created 2 separate contenders without even having an extended period of rebuilding. All in the worst city/state in the NBA, that is some achievement.

[Mr Puddles]

I think we need to spend some time on this:

The Phoenix Suns trade a 2008 1st (Serge Ibaka was later selected), a 2010 1st and Kurt Thomas to the Seattle SuperSonics for a 2009 2nd (Emir Preldžić was later selected with the 57th pick and never played in the NBA) and an $8 million trade exception.

Two firsts for a salary dump? Are you kidding me??? Even worse, the GM behind that move was none other than 9-time NBA champ Steve Kerr. My God.

Sarver should be tried at The Hague for war crimes. I forgot just how bad 2000s GMs were, my goodness. There are some real doozies from that era.

It actually gets worse. Kurt Thomas was an EXPIRING contract when the Suns made this trade.

Sarver traded two first rounders so he wouldn't have to pay Thomas 8 million dollars for one season.

Thomas wasn't even a bad player at this point, and gave a small Suns line-up much needed grit and length.

[bkkrh]

If you ever think about criticizing modern-day GM's, teams in the 2000s often traded 1st round picks for salary dumps. Teams rarely do this now.

Yeah, that's why I found it so funny how everybody lost it when the Mavs traded Luka, there were some trades in the 90s and 2000s that were way wilder.

[DaddyCool19]

Would Nash still be ringless, if he had a better and richer owner than Sarver?

[facothomas22]

Sam Presti has done a lot in terms of asset management and usually hits on his draft picks. They rarely give out outright bad contracts and flip players while their value is high. That's why the Thunder have so many assets to work with. If there's one issue I have with him, it's is the fact he has yet to cash in on any of these picks to this point, knowing that not all of those player he drafted would be able to stick around long term because they only have so many roster spots to give. If the Thunder win a Championship this year, maybe there won't be a need to do anything and may just to smart to use the pick they have this year and flip them for future picks. However I would like to see the Thunder be aggressive this Off Season if they lose in the playoffs and go after someone like Giannis or maybe a smaller, but still a major piece like Cam Johnson.

[Hoop Hunter]

The Dipo/Sabonis for Paul George worked out great for the Pacers. Especially since Paul made it known publicly he wanted out and we didn't have much leverage.

To bad Dipo got hurt, he played great as a Pacer. Sabonis got us Haliburton, so it worked out very well for the Pacers.

Seems like Paul George has helped more teams that he's left than ones he stayed on.

[Mr Puddles]

I think we need to spend some time on this:

The Phoenix Suns trade a 2008 1st (Serge Ibaka was later selected), a 2010 1st and Kurt Thomas to the Seattle SuperSonics for a 2009 2nd (Emir Preldžić was later selected with the 57th pick and never played in the NBA) and an $8 million trade exception.

Two firsts for a salary dump? Are you kidding me??? Even worse, the GM behind that move was none other than 9-time NBA champ Steve Kerr. My God.

Sarver should be tried at The Hague for war crimes. I forgot just how bad 2000s GMs were, my goodness. There are some real doozies from that era.

I couldn't believe it when I read it. But I think it gets even worse. If my little research is correct, Kurt Thomas' contract expired after the 2007-08 season.

Not only is this true, it's only the tip of the ice berg.

Sarver effectively sold three first round picks the two years prior, 06 and 07, for cash.

That's 5 first rounders that Sarver got rid of for cap relief in a span of 3 years, with only cash in the owner's pocket to show for it.

- 2006 first round pick (Rondo) for eventually cash and pick #59 in 2007
- 2006 first round pick ( Sergio Rodriguez) for cash
- 2007 first round pick (Rudy Fernandez) for cash.

Fun fact, weeks before Sarver took over as the new owner of the Suns (in 2004), as a parting gift previous Suns ownership traded away a lottery pick that would become Gordon Hayward and an additional first rounder and second rounder to salary dump Tom Gugliotta. The trade was made at the trade deadline and Gugliotta was due to expire that same offseason, roughly 4 months after being traded.

It's truely a remarkable period of ownership Tom Foockery.

[Damkac]

If you ever think about criticizing modern-day GM's, teams in the 2000s often traded 1st round picks for salary dumps. Teams rarely do this now.

Yeah, that's why I found it so funny how everybody lost it when the Mavs traded Luka, there were some trades in the 90s and 2000s that were way wilder.

Wilder in hindsight because we know what players got drafted. If they were bust then nobody would care they got traded for salary dumps.
In Luka's case we knew who Mavs are trading and who they are getting.

[dc]

The Clippers at the 2011 deadline deciding to trade BD and their 2011 1st for Mo Williams (that first became #1 overall, allowing Cleveland to pick Kyrie Irving) is another one. Trust me it sounds exactly as stupid as it was.

That idiotic Sterling trade right there is responsible for LeBron’s return to Cleveland and the 2016 title team.

That's pretty crazy they wouldn't demand protection on that pick.

Here's more to that butterfly effect: The Clips were likely looking to unload Baron's contract after he got fat/lazy living in LA again (signed for 5 years in 2008) after he boosted his stock with the We Believe Warriors. So they had to attach that pick to unload his contract. I'm pretty sure it wasn't for Mo Williams ability as a player at that point.

Everyone assumed BD would re-sign with the Warriors after the 08' season where they just missed the playoffs. But I guess the then sort of newly minted President of BBall Operations (Robert Rowell) shot down an extension that Chris Mullin had worked out for Baron. IIRC, he didn't like Baron. It was kind of a poor man's Nico-Luka situation. So he let Baron walk and eventually forced Mullin out, winning the power struggle.

Rowell decided to replace Baron (leader of the We Believe team) with ....Corey Maggette and Ronny Turiaf, LOL. That's how Baron ended up in LA.

Had they kept Baron and ran it back, they would've probably had another couple seasons of 45-48 wins before it would get stale with Baron, Stephen Jackson and Nellie.

A lot of other things happened that year, including giving Monta Ellis an extension only to have him crash in a moped accident over the summer and missing a huge chunk of time. Warriors went from a 48 win team to back in the lottery....which led them to Curry. LOL.

So Robert Rowell being an idiot of a Bball president led to Steph on the Warriors and Kyrie to the Cavs (and eventually Lebron again). Pretty wild.

[SA37]

I remember really thinking the Dipo/Sabas for Ibaka deal was very stupid at the time- I could not believe the Magic did it.

To me the only real black mark on his resume is trading Harden away for limited value.

But when you’re regularly drafting MVPs I guess you can afford to give one away on occasion.

Less is more.

[Revived]

He's easily the best executive in basketball.

He’s probably the best executive in all of North American sports. Howie Roseman and Eric DeCosta coming in a close tie for second place.