When Sam Presti was hired by the Seattle Supersonics on June 7, 2007, by the new Oklahoma-based ownership of the team, his first action made an immediate mark. In a draft-night trade with the Boston Celtics, Presti shipped Ray Allen, the face of the franchise, out of town. In return, he got Wally Szerbiak, Delonte West, and a draft pick that would be used to take Jeff Green. Only Green remained with the franchise beyond the next draft. This was not equal value for a future hall of famer that helped the Celtics win a championship that very next season.
It may have been the best deal Presti has ever engineered.
Being a mediocre team is poison in the NBA. Good teams get to make playoff appearances and compete for championships. Bad teams get the first dibs on incoming rookies that could help them become a good team. Mediocrity only breeds more mediocrity.
Going into what turned out to be their final season in Seattle, the Supersonics were a middling team. Two seasons before, they had made noise by winning the Northwest Division and making it to the second round of the playoffs. That success was not duplicated. Thanks to some injuries to Ray Allen, the team had bottomed out in the 2007 season and through the fate of the lottery had landed the second pick overall.
The team was at a crossroads. Option #1 was the safe option, the route that would satisfy the fans in the short-term, possibly please the electorate enough to approve stadium funding to keep the team in Seattle. That course would have meant selecting Kevin Durant with the second pick, giving Rashard Lewis a max contract to keep him with the team, and hoping that Allen had enough in the tank to continue carrying the team. That was a comfortable team, featuring names well known in the community, with enough hope from the big draft pick, but little else in the way of opportunity to improve.
Presti took the road less traveled by. He broke up the team and enacted a plan that Sam Hinkie would later facsimile and brand as “The Process.” A year later, the Sonics had fled Seattle. The team that landed in Oklahoma City looked nothing like what Presti had inherited. Only seven players that were contracted by the team at Presti’s welcome were still with the team. Most of those would be gone within the next year, and by the time the young GM’s vision was realized with a trip to the NBA Finals, only one (Nick Collison) remained.