OKC Thunder's Front Office Ranked Best in NBA by CBS Analyst

Originally posted on Athlon Sports
By Nathaniel Holloway | Last updated Aug 1, 2025 5:51 PM ET

The Oklahoma City Thunder are coming off a historic season that saw them dominate their way through the regular season and eventually to a championship.

Of course, it has been a long road for the Thunder since the days of Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant but their front office, led by Sam Presti, has done a great job of rebuilding their roster and his hard work paid off last season.

For the Thunder, they were able to land the NBA MVP from last season in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander via a trade and they then were able to hit on almost every draft pick, including those they used to select Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams.

Because of this, CBS Sports’ Sam Quinn ranked the Thunder’s front office as the best in the NBA for obvious reasons.

“Almost everything that can be said about Oklahoma City's flawless rebuild has been said. I just want to focus on a specific element that tends to get overlooked,” Quinn wrote. “There has been so much focus on the brilliance of the plan that not enough has been said about its execution. They didn't just stack endless draft picks. They did more with the selections they had than anyone else. They are the gold standard, elite in just about every element of roster-building and amazingly set up to not only avoid the worst impacts of the second apron, but actually benefit from them. If there were any doubters remaining, the title should have converted them. Sam Presti is the best executive in the NBA and is headed to the Hall of Fame one day.”

Quinn makes a great point about how the Thunder and Presti are the gold standard and the scary thing for the rest of the NBA is that they are not done.

Not only have the Thunder been one of the best teams in the NBA over the past two seasons, they have an abundance of young talent that could turn them into a dynasty.

Oklahoma City also has a boatload of future draft capital thanks to Presti that they will be able to use later on to replenish their roster when it becomes too expensive to keep some of the guys they already have on it, keeping their championship window open for years to come.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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