OKC Thunder GM Sam Presti Talks Draft-Night Strategy

The Oklahoma City Thunder have an interesting offseason ahead.

Having been recently eliminated, the team is now faced with a myriad of financial decisions that could see players like Isaiah Hartenstein, Luguetnz Dort, Kenrich Williams or others move on prior to the 2026-27 season.

The Thunder will have the option to keep their entire 15-man roster, though with two first-round picks coming up in a reportedly great NBA Draft class, it seems decisions will need to be made one way or the other.

As always, Oklahoma City is keeping its options open.

The Thunder have made optionality a pillar, not only employing that on the court in the form of versatile, two-way lineups, but also in terms of roster-building. OKC will have the option to keep its players, simply pick up options, extend on different deals, trade and more.

Its optionality also extends to the NBA Draft. They formerly had one of the top first-round pick caches in the entire league, and are still reaping the benefits of that cache in the 2026 NBA Draft. As of now, they'll pick at No. 12 and 17, far above where a 60-plus team should be selecting.

Thunder General Manager Sam Presti — the top decision-maker through the team’s last few eras — dished on the options they will have available on draft night 2026.

“Yeah, everybody knows we try to move up every year,” Presti said at his end-of-season presser on Monday. “We try to get a price for what it would take for us to move out entirely, and then we also have contingencies to move back in the draft if we think that would. It's all about creating value. That's how we see each one of these picks. That's what I mentioned before, sometimes the best value is to take the best player on the board and figure it out later.

“What you don't want to do is plan yourself into a pretzel and say, well, because this isn't figured out yet, we're not going to take this opportunity in front of us even though this might be where the best value is, and you let an option go away. Especially where we're picking, those players are extremely valuable. They're in the top 20 of a really good draft. So we're not going to let that opportunity pass us by because we haven't sorted through everything else yet.”

Much as been made about the Thunder moving up, down and out of the draft. Though even they won't cement themselves to any singular path. Especially with how fast-moving and volatile and draft night can be.

The 2026 NBA Draft will take place on June 23 and 24.

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