The “D” word has been thrown around quite a bit when discussing the Thunder over the last few months. From fans on social media to beat reporters to television analysts, it seems everyone believes there is a potential dynasty brewing in Oklahoma City. But I was curious if the architect behind the team’s present success and future prosperous possibilities felt the same way.
So I asked Sam Presti at his preseason media availability what he thinks when he hears all the dynasty talk surrounding this team.
“I think you guys probably know what I'm going to say about this.
I think every team that's probably won in the last six, seven years, the same things are said about them at that time. I don't know this for a fact, but I bet we could go back and dig up some articles or some tweets or some things that are all talking about every one of these teams is going to -- is on the verge of X, which is what we do as a society right now. I'm not blaming anybody, it's just where we're at.
But I find it a little confusing because in one sense, people are talking about that, that we're on the verge of a dynasty, and then other people are saying we won't be able to keep the team together because of the rules. So it's so dissident that you can't take either one of them seriously.
It's similar to when we had with our draft picks, we had too many draft picks, too many. We had to get rid of them, like dumping them overboard immediately, or we had to consolidate all of them and trade for a star, which of course we wouldn't know who else we had on our team if we had done that, and if people think that the team is going to struggle to stay together now, imagine if we had taken all our draft picks together and traded them for a star. That would be a real double whammy, right?
Then you also talk about the draft picks, and people are saying, well, but the draft picks are going to be the thing that's going to help them avoid the second apron issues, right? So I don't know what to think. I know I don't know the answer to any of those things. I definitely don't think talking about dynasties or things like that -- we have so many things we have to get better at. The West is so tough. We just have a good training camp. If we have a good training camp, and we have to be able to separate ourselves and show discipline, maturity, and humility to be able to put our best foot forward and respect this season, because we don't take anything with us from last year at all. We have to kind of go back to zero and have the humility to do the same mundane things again.
It sounds trite, but I think it's our best way forward.”
Presti is, of course, spot on. And that mindset is a big reason why the Oklahoma City Thunder are set up better than any recent title team to become a potential dynasty.