Feb. 18, 2026, 7:05 p.m. CT
Bringing home an NBA championship last summer, Sam Presti finally crossed off the last thing on his all-time resume. The Larry O’Brien trophy had clouded his work, but there’s no denying now that he’s one of the NBA’s best GMs.
That’s why it shouldn’t be a shocker to see the Oklahoma City Thunder ranked as the NBA’s best front office, per CBS Sports. The sports media outlet recently ranked all 30 across the league. And once again, the reigning NBA champions were at the top.
The Thunder finally have an NBA championship, but they’ve been one of the winningest teams since Presti took over as the general manager in 2007. The fact that he’s been in that position for 19 years shows just how brilliant he’s been at constructing rosters and building up future assets.
Seldom do you see an NBA GM last a decade at one spot. Much less for almost twice that length. Presti has helped the Thunder become one of the league’s top characters with several title contenders headlined by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.
CBS Sports’ Sam Quinn broke down what makes OKC the best NBA front office. He cited their stellar developmental track record. Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren are at the top, but the rest of the rotation is filled with success stories. Look at guys like Lu Dort, Cason Wallace, Ajay Mitchell, Aaron Wiggins, Isaiah Joe and so forth.
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“The Thunder have built their juggernaut already,” Quinn wrote. “The key now is maintenance, and the Thunder have thus far done a good job of it.”
While they rarely go into a free-agent splurge, their additions of Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso were the perfect final pieces to build an NBA champion who hopes to go back-to-back. Quinn also credited OKC’s buy-low move of Jared McCain at this past trade deadline.
As long as Presti is the OKC’s decision-maker, expect the Thunder to fully utilize their championship window. There’s a reason why most folks expect them to remain in the contender conversation for the foreseeable future.
“There’s no real blueprint for managing the sort of asset surplus the Thunder have built, but Sam Presti is drawing it right in front of us. Whether it’s turning bad picks into high-upside swaps, taking low-risk, high-reward swings on cheap talent elsewhere or leveraging team options and restricted free agency into team-friendly long-term contracts,” Quinn wrote. “Presti is proving just as good at sustaining a winner as he was at constructing one. The Thunder are the class of the league and will likely remain so for a long, long time.”