Article: Tracing the Thunder’s rise back to a 2007 trade Sam Presti made with Steve Kerr

In the summer of 2007, Steve Kerr was the recently elevated general manager of the Phoenix Suns. In his first month, he was given a mandate from owner Robert Sarver: Shed enough salary to escape the luxury tax.

“We were, like, exactly eight million over the tax,” Kerr recalled recently to The Athletic. “Just trading Kurt Thomas got us under the tax. And there was only one team, literally one team in the entire league, that could absorb his salary into a slot.”

“Sam knew exactly what he was doing,” Kerr said. “I knew how smart he was and how well-prepared for the job he was just from being with (Gregg Popovich) and R.C. (Buford) and learning the ropes from them. I was a young GM. I’m put in this position that I have to make this deal. Business is business. We ended up giving up two unprotected firsts.”

Kerr traded Phoenix’s 2008 and 2010 first-round picks along with Thomas’ contract. The Suns finished that next season 55-27, delivering Presti and the Thunder not a premium asset, but a valuable tool if utilized correctly.

Presti used the 24th pick on Serge Ibaka, a young power forward flashing some upside in Europe.

After Ibaka’s seventh season, on draft night of 2016, Presti sent him to the Magic for Victor Oladipo and the 11th pick. He’d immediately use that draft pick on Domantas Sabonis, bringing in a young starting shooting guard and what appeared to be Ibaka’s long-term replacement at power forward.

Presti pulled the trigger on a trade the following summer (2017) for Paul George, the replacement co-star next to Westbrook. To acquire George, he sent Oladipo and Sabonis to the Indiana Pacers, the exact package he received for Ibaka.

Presti traded George to the LA Clippers for a package that included Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a war chest of draft assets. One of those picks, the No. 12 pick in 2022, was used on Jalen Williams.

13 comments

  4. This is why people shouldn’t be so quick to always blame the GM for stupid moves. A lot of times, they are carrying out directives from ownership. The GM will not throw the owner under the bus by admitting it publicly. So the GM winds up being blamed for everything.

  7. I love trade trees. Really demonstrates how contingent all of this stuff is and how different it could have been.

  8. Presti is just better at the asset management game than any other GM and it isn’t close

  9. They gave up two firsts for Seattle to take on  Thomas who was still a very useful player at that point in time, a rugged interior defender that could still contribute and ended up doing so for San Antonio.  

    A player that the Suns could have used over the following three seasons.  

  10. It’s a bit of a stretch to connect all those dots. If other players on team develop or play well, the teams needs change and diff deals are made.

  11. Nico Harrison on his role in the Maverick’s 2025 trade of Luka Doncic: “I was a young GM. I’m put in this position that I have to make this deal. Business is business. We ended up giving up a fat man with no work ethic.”

  12. I love how we are now going 4 trades and 18 years back to show how brilliant Presti is. Yes hes a great GM but don’t act like the Kurt Thomas trade was a strategic move knowing he could flip the assets several times and get a mvp.

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