Next Season Could Look Similar for the Thunder
At some point for every NBA team during a season, it’s about determining the direction you’d like to go.
If you’re within reach of the postseason, it might take sense to compete and make moves to get better. On the flip side, if you’re out of the playoff race it could make sense to prioritize developing and exploring young prospects.
For the past two seasons, the Oklahoma City Thunder have taken the latter route. Amidst a rebuild, they simply don’t have the talent to contend quite yet. As such, levers have been pulled throughout the season.
In consecutive seasons, Oklahoma City has gotten to the point where key players are out due to injury and the playoffs are out of reach. Once that happens, the focus for the season has been to bring up G League prospects to see what they can do at the next level.
In a press conference on Monday, Thunder GM Sam Presti said that will continue to be the plan next season as well.
"If we get to the point where we aren't playing games of consequence, we do shift to development,” said Presti. “We see where we are and compete then play it from there.
While this doesn’t mean benching cornerstone players when you reach this point, it does mean giving minutes to players that may not have touched the floor much earlier in the season.
The Thunder certainly have the assets to build a winning team immediately, but at what cost? Rebuilding an NBA roster is an art and must be done the right way.
"If we want to burn our boats to get 40 wins, we could do that. Would that be best for the long term future of the Thunder? Probably not,” Presti said on Monday.
If the Thunder come out next season and are on track to make the playoffs, the expectation would be that they continue to push for that. However, if they’re once again a long shot to get in, things could look similar for the third-straight year during the final quarter of the season.
Oklahoma City has two young cornerstones in Josh Giddey and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, but a couple more pieces need to be added. The Thunder haven’t ever had success in free agency being a small market team, so the draft and trades are their two primary ways of roster building.
At some point, Presti will leverage his assets to trade for quality players to round out the roster. Until then, it takes patience as OKC acquires young prospects in the draft.
"If there was an acceleration button that wasn't a detriment to the future of the Thunder, I'd be the first one to press it,” said the Thunder GM.
Sometimes trying to move too quickly in a rebuild can ultimately slow down the process or hinder the sustainability of success. Presti is ready to take his time to rebuild the right way.
“We're closer to being the team we want to be than last season. But we're still far away from being the team we want to be."
Over the next several years, Presti and the rest of the front office will look to build a roster that can once again be a contender for a decade. It’s not about getting to the playoffs once, but rather build a team that can do it consistently.
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