How It’s Made: A Series on Teambuilding, Part 2

My favorite thing in the world to eat right now is this dish called mazesoba, which is basically a very hearty soupless version of Japanese ramen (the above is from a small chain of shops in Tokyo called Yaro Ramen, check it out if you are ever in town). I like to think mazesoba is kind of like this current iteration of the Cavaliers, in that it has suddenly exploded onto the scene in the last couple of years out of nowhere, it is highly polarizing (there are people like me who would eat it as their last meal on Earth, but there also are many people who think it is a repulsive abomination), and the ingredient mix is slightly clunky but there is no arguing that it is devastatingly effective if all your care about are results (wins or umami, as the case may be).

The noodles are like LeBron, because they are extra-thick and bouncy and without them there is no dish in the first place, just random basket ingredients. The slow-braised garlic soy sauce pork is like Kyrie, it’s a bit one-note (mmm, porky) and when it’s off it makes you queasy, but when it’s on there isn’t anything tastier in the bowl by a long shot. K-Love is like the gravy sauce at the bottom of the bowl — sometimes you have to really dig around to make sure it is even in there, but it’s definitely part of the Big Three with the noodles and pork. The raw egg is like Delly, slightly translucent and people sometimes complain that it is worthless, but mix it in good and it makes everything better, except the pork. The lard paste is like TT, you wonder if it is worth the heavy, heavy price of admission in cash or cholesterol but put that out of your mind and it’s totally awesome.  The red chili pepper is like JR – it adds very welcome heat and spice, but add too much and it has the potential to spoil the whole dish. The shredded dried seaweed is like Shump, very visible but you’re usually disappointed by how little it seems to actually do. The chopped garlic is like Andy used to be, in that it kind of stinks but there are people who swear it is the soul of the whole dish, and I guess the boiled bean sprouts and cabbage are like Mosgov, they’re pale and add bulk. Combined it’s all a bit over the top and you can complain about how flawed it is as a composed dish, but man it is gooooooooood.

There you have it. I hope like me, you have the chance to eat mazesoba and drink a beer while watching the Cavs playing in the playoffs someday, because I can tell you there is not a better thing in the whole world.  Of course, you may end up feeling utterly disgusted and wanting to throw up, but that might be true without the mazesoba.

And now, on to Part 2! Oh, but before that, an epilogue on Part 1.

It was asserted by a popular longtime commenter of the Blog that Daryl Morey has actually done a good job building this team, he merely had a hiccup this season. I would respectfully beg to differ. Look at the end of season Rockets’ roster.

Including J.B. Bickerstaff the coach, there is not one name on there other than Harden who looks like even a potential cornerstone for a top team. The team consists of a bunch of mercenaries well past their sell-by date (Terry, Smith, Brewer, Ariza), roster filler (Jones, Dekker, Harrell), decent young pieces without real star potential (D-Mo, McDaniels, Capela) and two veteran free agents-to-be who are notyoung, not reliable and will be painfully overpaid if retained (Howard, Beasley). The Rockets do not have their first round pick this year, that went to the Nuggets in exchange for Ty Lawson, huzzah. They have cap space, but are unlikely to attract top free agents given the current situation. Zaza Pachulia, come on down!

So whatever it is that Morey has been doing the past few years it’s hard to say he has “built” much of anything going into 2016-17. OK, that’s my last little spiel on the Rockets.

And now, really on to Part 2!

Case Study B: Sam Presti and the Oklahoma City Thunder (2012~)

One of these things is not like the other.

Superstars: Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Serge Ibaka

Season 1

Preseason: drafts Perry Jones III.  Signs DeAndre Liggins and Hasheem Thabeet. Re-signs Ibaka and Reggie Jackson to extensions. Signs and waives Hollis Thompson.  Signs and waives and signs Daniel Orton. Oh, and by the way, trades Harden, Daequan Cook, Cole Aldrich and Lazar Hayward for Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb and picks.

Trade deadline: obtains Ronnie Brewer from the Knicks for a second-round pick, cash and a Traded Player Exception (“TPE” . . . you’ll be seeing this acronym a lot from here on out). obtains Eric Maynor from the Blazers for nominal Euro player rights and a TPE.

Post-trade deadline: signs Derek Fisher.

Hits: I guess extending Ibaka and Jackson? Although Hampton the Hampster would have known to do that. Signing and waiving Orton.

Misses: trading Harden, signing Thabeet, trading for Martin and Lamb, signing and waiving and signing Orton.

Neither: drafting Jones, trading Cook, Aldrich and Hayward, signing Fisher.

SUCSSUC: signing Liggins, signing and waiving Thompson, trading for Brewer and Maynor.

Season 2

Preseason: drafts or acquires on draft day Steven Adams, Andre Roberson, Alex Abrines and Grant Jerrett. Signs and trades Kevin Martin to the Wolves for nominal Euro rights and a TPE. Lets Brewer go via free agency. Re-signs Fisher. Signs Ryan Gomes. Waives Liggins. Waives Orton.

Pre-trade deadline: trades Gomes and a TPE for a second round pick and a conditional second pick to the Celtics. Signs Royal Ivey.

Trade deadline: stands pat. Well, I mean he did trade Gomes and sign Ivey, he had to see how the roster would gel around those major moves.

Post-trade deadline: signs Caron Butler. Signs and waives Reggie Williams. Signs and waives Mustafa Shakur. Signs Jerrett to a multi-year contract.

Hits: drafting Steven Adams, not re-signing Ronnie Brewer, maybe signing Butler.

Misses: trading Harden, losing Martin via free agency, giving Grant Jerrett a multi-year contract, re-signing Fisher, still having Thabeet on the roster.

Neither: drafting Roberson and Abrines.

SUCSSUC: signing and trading Gomes, signing and waiving Williams and Shakur, signing Ivey, waiving Liggins and Orton.

Season 3

Preseason: drafts Mitch McGary, Josh Huestis and Semaj Christon. Signs Sebastian Telfair, Anthony Morrow, Lance Thomas and Ish Smith. Signs and trades Thabo Sefolosha to the Hawks for nominal Euro rights and a TPE. Trades Thabeet and cash to the Sixers for a conditional second round pick and a TPE.

Pre-trade deadline: waives Telfair, who may as well legally change his name to “Waives Telfair” at this point.  [Editor’s Note:] Enjoy this trip into the CtB vault! Obtains Dion Waiters and a TPE in exchange for a conditional first round pick, Lance Thomas and a TPE.

Trade deadline: trades Reggie Jackson and multiple TPEs for D.J. Augustin, Kyle Singler and two second-round draft picks.  Trades Jerrett, Perkins, nominal Euro rights, and conditional first and second round picks for Enes Canter and Steve Novak. Trades Ish Smith, the rights to Latavious Williams, a conditional second round pick and cash to the Pelicans for a second-round draft pick and a TPE.

Post-trade deadline: stands pat. I am not being sarcastic when I say perfectly understandable this time, they had a lot of parts to sift through.

Hits: obtaining Canter, judged solely on the trade. Getting a conditional second round pick and cash for a mint-condition statue of Hasheem Thabeet. Oh wait, that was Hasheem Thabeet.

Misses: trading Harden, stuffing the cupboards with marginal prospects like Hasheem Thabeet, Jeremy Lamb, Daniel Orton, DeAndre Liggins, Ish Smith, Lance Thomas and Mitch McGary on the roster while shipping out veterans that would actually helped a team with championship aspirations, like Sefalosha, Martin and Jackson (yes, I realize some of the those guys wanted to leave, but whose fault is that?). Signing Anthony Morrow.

Neither: drafting McGary and Christon, obtaining Augustin, Thomas, Singler and Novak.

SUCSSUC: drafting Huestis (who was drafted about 40 spots higher than projected — yes, I realize there are not 40 draft slots behind where he was drafted — in exchange for a gentleman’s agreement with the team that he would go to Europe so they could avoid signing their first round pick to a guaranteed rookie scale contract, way too pointlessly clever by half), signing and waiving Telfair, signing and trading Ish Smith, getting all the TPEs.

Season 4

Preseason: drafts Cameron Payne and Dakari Johnson. Trades Jeremy Lamb and a TPE to the Hornets for Luke Ridnour and a conditional second-round pick. Somewhere Sam Hinkie was weeping and gnashing his teeth that someone else got Luke Ridnour and a conditional second-round pick.  Trades Ridnour and cash for nominal Euro rights and a TPE.  Swallows hard and matches max offer sheet for Canter. Re-signs Singler to a multi-year contract. Trades Perry Jones III, a round pick II and cash for a second-round pick and a TPE. Signs Josh Huestis, last year’s first-round pick so he can sell refreshments at Oklahoma City Blues games.  Still counts as a guaranteed roster spot!

Trade deadline: trades Augustin, Novak, two second round picks, cash and a TPE for Randy Foye and a TPE.

Post-trade deadline: signs Nazr Mohammed, the homeless man’s Kendrick Perkins, if it were 2010.

Hits: None. Seriously, none.

Misses: trading Harden, trading Lamb for nominal Euro rights and a TPE, trading Augustin and Novak (effectively their haul for Reggie Jackson the previous season) for Randy Foye, re-signing Kyle Singler, playing marginal prospect roster spot musical chairs shipping out Lamb and Jones and adding Payne, Johnson and Huestis.

Neither: drafting Payne and Johnson, signing Mohammed.

SUCSSUC: signing Huestis to a multi-year deal a year after he was drafted, the Luke Ridnour thing that was not a thing, trading Perry Jones III, getting all the TPEs.

Comments: Hoo boy, where to start? Oh, the Harden trade.
More sports hot takes ink has been spilled on whether Presti did the right thing by trading Harden at the time than on whether Donald Trump would make a good President, and I will not should a fella to death here.  However at this point arguing whether or not the Harden trade was justifiable at the time is like arguing about whether it was the correct decision to perform a surgical procedure when the patient died on the operating table.  All very interesting from a malpractice insurance adjuster’s perspective, but I’m just here to collect the body.

Trading Harden was even more damaging to the Thunder than simply losing the services of a top five player in the prime of his career for four years alongside Westbrook, Durant and Ibaka, which obviously is not a minor thing in itself.  It also resulted in Presti burning key roster spots on young guys like Jones, Roberson, Orton, Thabeet and Lamb hoping they would develop into semi-palatable assets, before giving up and cutting them loose for next to nothing (yes, I realize Roberson is technically still on the team but let’s face it, Presti has already scratched his name out on the team roster and replaced it with “conditional second round pick and a TPE”), and bringing in various desperate stopgaps to (badly) fill the Harden role like Martin, Augustin, Foye, Morrow, and of course Saint Weirdo. The loss of Harden also most likely caused Presti to overpay for potential “star” Enes Kanter to compensate for the declining talent around Durant, Westbrook and Ibaka, even though they have two bigs who already are better all-around players than Kanter in Ibaka and Adams in a small-ball league. The chemistry of the current team is awful, and they are saved from outright mediocrity only by the truly transcendent talents of Westbrook and Durant, who are better than they have ever been.  The team, however, is worse than it was in 2012, which pretty much tells you what Presti has been doing with it around them since then.

Here is the complete list of players who have been on the Thunder since 2012 to the present, alongside Durant, Westbrook and Ibaka:

Nick Collison.  (don’t wear out your scroll wheel)

I honestly can’t tell whether Presti keeps turning over the roster like a meth addict looking for coins in the sofa because he thinks it genuinely improves the team around the OKC Big Three, or whether he is making all these moves in order to launder the failed assets from the Harden trade. But the level of roster instability in OKC seems almost completely indefensible to me from a GM ostensibly trying to build a winner.  People talk about how the OKC offense is too simplistic and relies too much on Durant and Westbrook isos, but when have they had the opportunity to learn to play together with anybody other than Nick “The Rich Man’s Paul Shirley” Collison?  Every 6 to 10 months Presti decides a veteran signing was a mistake and trades him away for a second round draft pick and a TPE. The team wasted years developing a guy like Reggie Jackson but couldn’t find a way to keep him happy, which was bad, and then even worse, they traded him for nickels on the dollar (Jackson begat Augustin begat Randy Foye in the space of 12 months folks. I rest my case).  Worst of all, Presti’s gamble that he could put a championship supporting cast around his superstars by having half the roster spots every season eaten up by raw, untested prospects has been an unmitigated failure.  I assume Presti takes great pride in his drafting and player development acumen and certainly his record over the past decade is good (if less so the last few seasons, which has not helped the situation) but year over year these moves simply haven’t panned out, unless you bought TPE futures in Oklahoma.

Some of you may have heard that Kevin Durant is an unrestricted free agent after this season, and Russell Westbrook is available after the next.  Signs are that Durant is seriously considering re-upping with the Thunder, at least for an one-and-one type deal like the one LeBron has signed with the Cavs, but why should he?  I don’t think Presti has given him any reason to do so. How many more years of his prime can Durant waste while Presti tries to develop Mitch McGary, Cameron Payne and Josh Huestis into JR, TT and Delly? In 2012, I think most people felt that the Miami Heat notwithstanding, the Thunder would be the team to beat for the next half-decade or more.  Well, 80% of that half-decade has passed and the Warriors, Cavs and Spurs have passed them by, in the case of the Dubs and Cavs from way, way behind and in the case of the Dubs and Spurs way, way by. Each of these teams have gotten lucky, but they have also drafted wisely, added quality veteran players to put around their superstars and picked the right (few) young guys to develop.  They have built cores of seven-to-nine player for the long haul.  Not so the Thunder. Even if Durant and Westbrook for some reason choose to stay, Presti cannot be expected to put the pieces around Durant and Westbrook needed to compete with these other elite teams in the league.  In 2012, the Thunder had Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka and Harden.  In 2016 the Thunder have Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka and all the TPEs.  In two months they may be down to Westbrook, Ibaka and all the TPEs.  In 14 months . . . well you see where this is going.

It may sound harsh, but after going through this exercise I have concluded that Presti has been a failure as a championship team building GM, worse than Morey.  Someone merely competent at the stewardship task, such a Mitch Kupchak or Danny Ferry, probably could have kept the team in better shape.  The story is not yet fully told, but at this point, I can’t think of another team in NBA history that had better players than Durant, Westbrook, Harden and Ibaka at one point in time and accomplished so little during five years of their prime. That, I am afraid, is going to be the defining executive legacy of Sam Presti, would-be architect of title winners.