They Could Be Better.

And they just won an NBA title

Thanks for reading The Dope.

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Obviously, there’s a major what-if associated with the Oklahoma City Thunder’s first NBA championship. Anyone who watched Game 7 on Sunday already knows. When Indiana’s star, Tyrese Haliburton, went down with injury in the first quarter, the hoops universe spun off its axis for the Pacers. It’s amazing that they sustained the run they did, staying in that game for as long as they did, while playing with a broken spirit. “All of our hearts dropped,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said afterward.

So we don’t know how it might have gone, had Haliburton played. What we do know is that an OKC squad that was built for the future has arrived a little early, with 68 regular-season wins and the Larry O’Brien Trophy now secured.

The Thunder are good, star-stocked (Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams, Holmgren), and young.

Also, this:

—15th pick in the 2025 NBA Draft via Miami

—24th pick in the 2025 NBA Draft via the Clippers

—2026 top-4 protected pick via Philly

—2026 top-8 protected pick via Utah

—2026 own pick

—2027 pick swap with Clippers or own pick (whichever is better)

—2028 pick swap with Dallas or own pick (whichever is better)

—2029 own pick

—2030 own pick

—2031 own pick

Every one of these future choices is a first-rounder.

So yes, Sam Presti, the Thunder’s general manager, has handled all this pretty well.

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If Presti’s name is at all familiar to you, it might be because the ownership of the franchise hired him in 2007, before the club had even relocated from Seattle to Oklahoma City, and basically let him do his thing for the past 18 years. The Thunder have had one GM.

Presti was 27 years old when Clay Bennett lured him away from an assistant’s job in San Antonio. From the start, Presti demonstrated a knack for making deals that added talent but also — almost always — squirreled away future draft considerations. On his first NBA Draft night, he selected Kevin Durant at No. 2 overall and acquired No. 5 pick Jeff Green in a Ray Allen blockbuster trade, and shortly thereafter he swung a series of deals that netted him a couple of future first-round picks, one of which became Serge Ibaka. That was in the 2008 draft, when Presti also took Russell Westbrook at No. 4 overall.

And that’s pretty much how this all started. Presti has made decisions to move or keep talent based upon what OKC could do and could afford, but always with an eye toward the horizon. A lot gets made of the notion that small-market franchises must endure painful rebuilds as they lose top talent to bigger-money teams, but the truth is that the Thunder have had only four losing seasons in 17 years in Oklahoma.

They’ve been built by an executive who long ago understood that, for them, the key is to never run out of options. The Thunder’s motto ought to be, No dry wells. They’re going to be a problem for the NBA for years and years and years. That’s all that Sam Presti ever intended for them to be.