Oklahoma City Thunder executive vice president and general manager Sam Presti has long been regarded as one of the savviest team-builders in the NBA, and now he has the hardware to prove it. On Tuesday, the league announced that Presti has been named the 2025 Executive of the Year.
Unlike other honors, which are voted on by the media, the Executive of the Year award is chosen by other executives around the league. The executives cannot vote for themselves and submit a ballot with their top three candidates.
Presti received 10 first-place votes, the most of any candidate, as well as six second-place votes and six third-place votes for a total of 74 points, which put him ahead of Cleveland’s Koby Altman and Detroit’s Trajan Langdon in a fairly close race.
Presti got his start with the San Antonio Spurs, and has been with the Thunder organization since 2007, back before the relocation when they were still the Seattle SuperSonics. Along the way, he’s turned the team into a title contender on multiple occasions, though this current iteration may be his most impressive work.
Over the last few years, Presti has used every available avenue — the draft, free agency, trades — to craft a title contender. While his most important work, including trading for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and drafting Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams, was done in past years, his moves last summer put the Thunder over the top.
Most notably, Presti was able to flip Josh Giddey into Alex Caruso without giving up a draft pick in the process. Giddey, while capable of putting up numbers, didn’t fit into the Thunder’s system. Caruso was a perfect match. His arrival was a big reason why the Thunder were a dominant defensive team this season, and despite their late collapse against the Denver Nuggets in Game 1 on Monday, he was a monster on that end of the floor. All told, Caruso finished with 20 points, six assists, five steals and two blocks.
Another key move Presti made was signing Isaiah Hartenstein in free agency. The big man averaged a double-double this season, and despite missing some time with injury himself, gave them frontcourt insurance when Holmgren went down with a long-term injury. When both were healthy, the Thunder were able to deploy a terrifying double-big lineup. Hartenstein put up career-highs across the board with 11.1 points, 10.7 rebounds and 3.8 assists.
Presti also signed Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins to very reasonable long-term deals during the summer. While those moves largely went overlooked, they helped solidify the Thunder’s depth. Both Joe and Wiggins had strong 3-point shooting seasons and helped space the floor around Gilgeous-Alexander.
Thanks to Presti’s moves, the Thunder went 68-14, which was tied for the sixth-best record in a season in NBA history, and earned the No. 1 overall seed. They then swept the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round of the playoffs, and remain the favorites to get out of the Western Conference despite dropping Game 1 to the Nuggets.
A few months from now, Presti may be lifting another trophy.
