Sam Presti, the Thunder‘s executive vice president of basketball operations and general manager, has been named the NBA’s Executive of the Year for 2024/25, the league announced today (via Twitter). It’s the first time that Presti, who has run the Thunder’s front office since 2007, has earned the honor.
Presti, who built the Thunder around a young core led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, and Jalen Williams, made two notable moves last offseason to fortify the roster. He traded Josh Giddey to the Bulls in exchange for defensive standout Alex Caruso and signed big man Isaiah Hartenstein away from the Knicks in free agency.
Despite some injury woes that prevented Hartenstein and Holmgren from suiting up together until after the trade deadline, the Thunder dominated the NBA’s regular season in 2024/25, racking up a league-high 68 wins and recording a net rating of +12.7, one of the best marks in league history.
Oklahoma City ranked third in the NBA in offensive rating (119.2) and led the league in defensive rating (106.6) by a comfortable margin.
The Thunder, viewed as the heavy favorites to come out of the West this spring, remain well positioned to contend for years to come due not only to the talent already under contract but to their collection of future draft picks.
The Executive of the Year award is voted on by fellow team executives rather than by media members.
According to the NBA, Presti received 10 of 30 possible first-place votes and showed up on 22 ballots overall, earning 74 total points. He narrowly beat out Koby Altman of the Cavaliers (six first-place votes; 58 points) and Trajan Langdon of the Pistons (six first-place votes; 52 points), with Rafael Stone of the Rockets (four first-place votes; 38 points) coming in fourth.
A total of 13 executives showed up on at least one ballot, with Lawrence Frank (Clippers), Rob Pelinka (Lakers), Sean Marks (Nets), and Brad Stevens (Celtics) earning the remaining first-place votes. The full results can be viewed here (Twitter link).
Nico got robbed!
The Thunder were already good, Caruso and Hartenstein were nice signings but Langdon took a team from 14 wins to 44 wins by putting all the right pieces in place. From hiring the head coach in Bickerstaff to signing vets like Harris, Hardaway and Beasley to drafting Holland. He got a lot of shade for free agent signings (especially Harris) and most thought drafting Holland was a mistake.
I agree.
100%
Presti should win every year for the next 4 years. Just imagine that SGA 4 years from now will earn 15 million less than 39 year old Paul George (the guy who was traded for btw). Not only what Presti has done, is more about the years to come. They dont overpay stars, they do not offer player option contracts, they do decreasing structured contracts just to fit everybody under the tax when the big raises come (JWilliams). Check out how salaries are structured in this organizations, is just a masterclass on how to run a roster and an organization
Trade Paul George for SGA, Jalen Williams and 5 first round picks = Executive of the Year
He is supposed to win Executive of the Year a few years ago
It goes deeper than that. PG is from trading Sabonis+Oladipo. Sabonis+Oladipo came from trading Ibaka. Presti drafted Ibaka with the 24th overall pick in 2008, the SuperSonics last FRP, and their current team can be traced back to Ibaka. Presti has turned that one pick, 17 years ago, into Shai, Jalen, and five FRPs. It’s the single greatest trade tree in pro sports history.
@Againigan:
It gets even better (look at the basketball-reference page for Ibaka, under ‘Transactions’). The pick for Ibaka came from Phoenix (plus another first and Kurt Thomas) for a 2nd (Emir Preldžić, who never played in the NBA, picked with the 57th pick) and an $8 million trade exception. I don’t know why, but if I had to guess I would say cheap Sarver wanted to offload Kurt Thomas’ contract.
Sam Presti already was GM by then.
So he basically turned a 57th pick into Shai, Jalen, and five FRPs.
This is completely insane.
I just posted the same thing. OKC has a massive haul of picks. They could stay dominant well into the next decade.
Shai signed a rookie extension for the max he could sign for at the time. This off season he’ll sign an 4 year extension worth close to $300 million. That projects to be $76 million in four years. Paul George’s contract runs out when he’s 38. He’ll most likely be retired in 4 years.
They’ve also got to make extension decisions on Williams and Holmgren this off season and both will get max or near max extensions.
Holmgren keeps bricking free throws in clutch time and he will make that decision a lot easier….
Off course SGA is gonna get paid later,he is probably the current MVP. Jwill too and Chet. I set an example of how bad is PG contract and how good you ran the best team in the league and the future is even brighter. And I did not even mentioned the boatload of future picks and how well they selected before, etc etc
Next year they had almost a full roster under contract (13 players) plus 2 minor team options all for 177 million, way under the tax. So they can manage trades, accomodate new drafted players and they still have room
OKC is scary. Being this good and a huge war chest of picks, they could become the Tampa/Orlando Devil/Rays of the NBA, sans the worst sports venue in America. Rays have a steady stream of good players coming up through the minors and don’t have to dabble in Free Agency.
If they used their GLeague team the right way, they could be dominant for a decade or more. Staff their gleague team with the best coaches. Draft guys who aren’t quite ready and make a serious effort to develop them. Of course, they can draft and stash. Euro guys in the Midwest? They can then trade non-essential players when they reach max-contract time for more picks.
Or they could repeat the last OKC superteam disaster and have there stars walk bc they are cheap
Or they could have a cheap ownership like the new Celtics one (possibly) and break it all up
The new CBA wants to kill superteams, I wouldnt count the chickens until…..
Theres no way Presti should get it this season. He let the trade deadline pass without using any of his depth or too many picks he has to upgrade this years team. I can not stand the team but its a crime he didn’t go get SGA some proven hep for playoff run.
WTF r u talking about? 68-14 crushed everybody on west regular season and blast swept Mem in 1 rd. They clearly need no upgrades. Dont fix what aint broken
Presti got it this year because it’s like the last 4 years being robbed. I’m no OKC fan but the leagues best team *and* the most picks. That should get him the EotY.
Agreed. He’s been the best executive for 10 years now. I’m shocked this was his first.
It’s almost like Detroit doesn’t exist.
Adding some vets so your team doesn’t suck doesn’t make you EotY. Detroit has drafted some awful players.
They should still be in Seattle. David Stern let Clay Bennett swindle us.