Thunderstruck: Ripple effect of a move 18 years later

The assembly of this iteration of the Oklahoma City Thunder has been years in the making. A series of moves - some headline-grabbing and others that were seemingly immaterial at the time - led to this moment.

General manager Sam Presti was the one constant in each of those moves, and of all the transactions he's orchestrated since the Seattle SuperSonics hired him at 29 years old in June 2007, there's one that stands out - the creation of one trade exception that caused a ripple effect still being felt 18 years later.

July 11, 2007: Magic-bound Lewis pens sign-and-trade

A month after Presti was hired, he sent Rashard Lewis to the Orlando Magic in a sign-and-trade for a second-round pick and an $8-million trade exception. The move came weeks after Presti selected Kevin Durant second overall in the 2007 draft and traded Ray Allen to the Boston Celtics for the No. 5 pick that became Jeff Green. The departures of Lewis and Allen sparked a rebuild in Seattle.

July 20, 2007: Sonics offload trade exception for 1st-round picks, Thomas

Presti then packaged the $8-million exception acquired in the Lewis sign-and-trade with a second-round pick for forward Kurt Thomas and two first-round selections.

The following June, after grabbing Russell Westbrook at No. 4, the Sonics used that 2008 first-round pick and selected Congolese-Spanish big man Serge Ibaka with the 24th pick of the 2008 NBA Draft.

Now in Oklahoma City, Presti and the Thunder capitalized on the aforementioned draft picks and the selection of James Harden at No. 3 in the 2009 draft to build an ascendant young roster. Durant, Westbrook, Harden, and Ibaka formed the core of a team that reached the conference finals in 2011 before losing the 2012 NBA Finals in five games to the Miami Heat.

Both Durant and Westbrook eventually won MVP as members of the Thunder (Harden was later named MVP with the Houston Rockets), but the 2012 Finals would be as far as this group got.

June 23, 2016: Ibaka shipped to Magic for Oladipo, Ilyasova, draft rights to Sabonis

Fast-forward to 2016 when Presti swung a draft-night trade with the Magic and acquired Victor Oladipo, Ersan Ilyasova, and the rights to the No. 11 pick, Domantas Sabonis, in exchange for Ibaka.

On the surface, it's a deal that made sense for both sides at the time. Ibaka was expected to contribute at a level similar to his final seasons with the Thunder, and Oladipo was approaching a contract year and reportedly wanted a max deal. Rob Hennigan, then the Magic's general manager, presumably thought attaching a lottery pick to Oladipo and Ilysasova was necessary to get the deal over the line.

Ibaka would appear in 56 games for the Magic before being flipped for Terrence Ross and a first-round pick that eventually became Anzejs Pasecniks, who we'll assume is a real person for the purpose of this exercise. The Magic should have stopped doing business with Presti at this point.

July 6, 2017: Oladipo, Sabonis traded to Pacers for George

This transaction between the 2025 finalists highlighted two truths about small-market teams competing in the NBA. The first is that recruiting All-Star caliber talent is difficult, and George checked off all the boxes for the Thunder. The second is that drafting and developing a bona fide star, only to see him submit a trade request, is the worst thing that can happen to a small-market team, as the Pacers were reminded.

Considering these harsh realities, this was ultimately a win-win trade. After a ghastly leg break signaled the end of his Pacers tenure, George had two standout seasons with the Thunder, including a career-defining 2018-19 campaign in which he earned All-NBA first team honors.

Oladipo, meanwhile, was named Most Improved Player in his first year with the Pacers and reached new heights before a devastating quad injury, and Sabonis spent four-and-a-half seasons with the team before being traded to the Sacramento Kings for a package that included Tyrese Haliburton. It worked out for the Pacers in the end.

July 10, 2019: George sent to Clippers for Gilgeous-Alexander, every draft pick ever

Unlike the time when George's trade demands with the Pacers went public, the Thunder benefited from his reticent approach in this instance, and his desire to leave coincided with Presti's decision to move on from Westbrook.

There's no escaping the fact that the Los Angeles Clippers were ready to move mountains to pair him with Kawhi Leonard, and the prerequisite for Leonard's free-agent signing following a title-winning term in Toronto was George.

Not only did Shai Gilgeous-Alexander develop into an MVP who spearheaded a run to the NBA Finals, but the addition of the draft capital in return for George allowed Presti to construct a young team of emerging players whose ascendancies were harmonized. Among them was Jalen Williams, who was selected with the Clippers' 2022 pick (10 spots after the Thunder selected Chet Holmgren at No. 2) and was a first-time All-Star this season.

In hindsight, two trades involving George helped build two title-caliber teams in Oklahoma City and Indiana.

None of this is to say that Presti is infallible. The Thunder failed to win a ring with Durant, Westbrook, and Harden, and that failure falls partially on his shoulders. He also lost Durant for nothing in free agency and traded a future MVP in Harden to the Rockets for Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, and two picks.

His infatuation with draft capital isn't without its flaws and can come at the expense of the current roster. And while his draft record is very good, there have been misses.

But this isn't a referendum on Presti's place in the annals of NBA front-office moves; rather, it's a look at the ripple effect of an $8-million trade exception nearly two decades removed and the impact it had on a franchise. Newton's Third Law of Motion and the NBA exist in different universes.