March 29, 2010

Thunder's road to playoffs mapped out years ago

By Ken Berger | CBSSports.com Senior Writer
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OKLAHOMA CITY -- On a summer day in 2008, Sam Presti arrived at Will Rogers World Airport, climbed into a car with Clay Bennett and set out on an adventure the likes of which he had never known.

The Oklahoma City Thunder didn't even have a logo yet, much less a practice facility. The organization's summer league team wore generic black-and-white uniforms. Presti, who had been hired a year earlier as GM of the Seattle SuperSonics at age 29, quickly learned after getting off the plane in Oklahoma City that he didn't have an office. Once he got an office, there was no phone.

Hired in Seattle, Sam Presti is making a name for himself in OKC. (Getty Images)

They've done it with the NBA's lowest payroll at $49 million, the youngest starting lineup in the league and the youngest GM -- likely the only one who emulates renowned prog-rock drummer Neil Peart in his spare time. Throw in Kevin Durant, the lowest-maintenance superstar in basketball, and former journeyman point guard Scott Brooks as the head coach, and you have the perfect storm for making arduous, long-term vision seem like an overnight success.

"My message is the same every day," said Brooks, who in one season has gone from interim coach to Coach of the Year candidate. "Sometimes I try to spice it up with different ways of saying it. But we have to get better every day and there has to be improvement on the defensive end. The effort has to continue to be there and you have to continue to play for your team. No drama comes out of that."

No drama, just winning -- in a raucous environment with loyal fan support, overflowing season-ticket rolls and a young, improving roster that fans in any market would support.

"A lot of guys want to go to bigger markets, I guess to get more money," said Durant, who played down the road at Texas and demands nothing from his teammates other than their ears and effort. "But all NBA players are wealthy enough. It's just all about playing basketball now."

What the NBA has awakened to -- a franchise on pace to win 50 games and make the playoffs for the first time since the 2004-05 season in Seattle -- started with Presti, the unassuming, bespectacled, now 33-year-old GM. He left his comfortable surroundings in San Antonio in June 2007 for the opportunity to rescue a dying team in Seattle, having no idea how permanent his new address would be.

Within weeks of getting the job, Presti began the process of dismantling an aging roster that had run its course. He traded popular shooting guard Ray Allen on draft night in a deal that yielded No. 5 pick Jeff Green. He selected Durant with the second pick, the supposed consolation prize in the Greg Oden draft.

Russell Westbrook and James Harden were added in the next two drafts, likely the final lottery picks Presti will have at his disposal for some time. This collection of 20-somethings -- Nenad Krstic is the oldest starter at 26 -- has been from time to time chastened by the proper dose of veteran presence. Malik Rose, Kurt Thomas, Joe Smith, Adrian Griffin, Desmond Mason and now Kevin Ollie have passed through, leaving behind pearls of wisdom for impressionable minds without demanding playing time or accolades in return. Presti calls them "guys who know what it's supposed to look like."

The same can be said of Oklahoma City's fans. The locals credit Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets for getting this college sports town hooked on the NBA when the franchise set up its temporary home in Oklahoma City for two seasons after Hurricane Katrina. Now, a fan base whose loyalty is split between the Sooners and Cowboys has a team that everyone can root for.

The community -- and, unlike New York or L.A., that's what it is -- has embraced Durant, who at age 21 finds himself in a nightly duel with LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony for the league scoring title. The players have rallied around Brooks, whose defensive philosophy and passion for endless work have resonated in the locker room. With the sixth-largest season-ticket base in the NBA, the Thunder have become one of the rare success stories in an era marred by dwindling revenues, a falling salary cap, and looming labor strife. Only five teams -- Boston, Dallas, the Lakers, Portland and Utah -- had sold more season-ticket plans than the Thunder heading into the 2009-10 season.

Timing is everything in the NBA, and timing was on the Thunder's side Friday night. In front of their 23rd sellout crowd of the season, the Thunder throttled the defending champion Lakers 91-75 -- ending a 12-game losing streak against L.A. that dated back to the franchise's last days in Seattle. As luck would have it, three hours after the final buzzer came the deadline for season-ticket holders to renew for the 2011-12 season. Season tickets for the team's first season in OKC -- 2008-09 -- sold out in five hours.

"Going into the season, we never put a limit on how far we could go," Brooks said. "We didn't know. We didn't know how many games we'd win -- still don't know. We haven't talked about the playoffs. We haven't focused on the playoffs. All we've focused on is improving every day and getting better as a team and let's see where it takes us."

With seven career starts in a 10-year career with six teams, notable mostly for his persistence, Brooks has been a natural for this job of connecting with young players. A member of the '93-'94 Rockets, Brooks often refers to himself as the best cheerleader ever to play for an NBA champion.

"That's always been the way I made it as a player," Brooks said. "You have to be diligent in your work every day. You can't change. And you can't have bad days -- bad days of no work."

Brooks, 44, is oh-for-his-career at the press conference podium, but shows a different side within the locker room walls. Filling in on the Kings' bench during a stretch in 2006-07 when head coach Eric Musselman had been suspended, Brooks was almost in tears during a locker room speech that former King Ron Artest says he'll never forget. When Musselman was fired after one season, Artest led a group of veterans lobbying for Brooks to get the job. Instead, the Kings hired Reggie Theus, who didn't last two seasons. The same summer, Presti watched video of the games Brooks coached in Sacramento, interviewed him for the Seattle job and wound up adding him to P.J. Carlesimo's staff.

"Great motivator," Artest said of Brooks. "He just wants you to go out there and play, and he'll give you the speech. And you know when he gives you the speech, he's going to be damn near probably crying. He's filled with passion when he's talking to you. Everybody really enjoyed playing for him."

Scott Brooks inspires loyalty in his players, getting them to play his defensive game. (Getty Images)

So after Durant struggled defensively on a 23-win team last season, Brooks sent him away for the summer with an assignment: Get stronger and pick your defense up.

"I'm skinny and I'm long, and I guess people haven't seen that in a while," said Durant, who is 6-feet-9 and still growing. "I'm glad. I like my frame, I like the position I'm playing, and I just have to keep working to get better. George Gervin is a legend. As an individual player, that's what I want to get to -- being one of the greats to play this game. I know I have a long way to go."

The journey needed to be accelerated considerably this season once the Thunder started winning -- and kept surprising everyone they played. With a playoff team in his control, no longer could Durant hide behind his birth certificate; it was time to lead.

"I get more and more comfortable with that aspect of it," Durant said. "The guys take it. They don't get upset. They listen."

As a first-time All-Star at Cowboys Stadium last month, Durant's eyes were wide open. In what he had heard was a meaningless exhibition, he noticed how James, Anthony, Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade were talking it up on defense, making their impact felt on both ends of the floor.

Brooks rarely accedes to Durant's request to guard the opponent's best player; Presti went out and got Thabo Sefolosha from the Bulls at the 2009 trade deadline to do that, and Sefolosha handcuffed Bryant into a nine-turnover meltdown in Friday night's blowout, a signature moment in the Thunder's ascent. Nonetheless, there was Durant, a hapless defender only a year ago, fighting over the top of screens and quarterbacking the defense. Brooks now calls him "as good a defender as we have."

"When he got drafted, he said he was gonna work," Artest said. "And you see everything he worked on. You can tell."

In a downtown hotel lobby Friday, two hours before tipoff against the Lakers, I put Presti on the other end of a question he has heard at least a dozen times this season: What next? The Thunder (44-28) could wind up seeded anywhere from second to eighth in the Western Conference. However that works out, don't expect any major departures from the plan Presti arrived in Seattle with three years ago.

Depending on what the cap is this summer, Presti will have about $12 million to spend. Don't hold your breath. Oklahoma City was one of a handful of teams with cap space this season, and Presti opted to use only a smidgen to acquire backup point guard Eric Maynor from the Jazz. Maynor, the 20th pick in 2009, fills a need behind Westbrook and gets to grow up in the culture that Presti and Brooks have created. There will be no splurging on free agents who would take playing time away from the young core. Acquiring a high-priced veteran at the deadline, for example, would've taken minutes away from 2008 pick Serge Ibaka, who has played a prominent role off the bench since the All-Star break.

With the foundation already solidified through the draft, Oklahoma City will be flush with picks again, possessing two firsts and two seconds in 2010. After the draft, extension talks will begin with Durant, for whom big-market wanderlust is hardly an issue.

"Kevin loves it here," Brooks said. "We have a great opportunity to make this place a place that can be good for a long time."

That was the plan, and it hasn't changed. Neither has the man who put it in place. As the town started coming to life for the Lakers game Friday night, Presti was just another anonymous guy with a BlackBerry and Dolce & Gabbana glasses waiting for his car at the valet stand. He has no entourage, no pretense, no desire for the limelight -- except when it comes to his hobby.

In his spare time -- and he confessed to having 30 minutes now and then -- Presti unleashes his inner percussive demons. A drummer long before he was a GM, Presti has been a devoted fan of Rush's unique, syncopated sound and its incomparable drummer, Peart, since his youth. In between scouting, working the phones and attending games, Presti has been known to turn on the iPod, sit down at the drum kit, and travel back to teen-age years spent deciphering Peart's progressive-rock genius.

With 10 games left and playoff positioning at stake, Presti's nerves are understandably frayed. But it's nothing compared to the fear he'll confront when he sits in for a few songs with a local cover band at an upcoming gig. Presti just hopes he doesn't embarrass himself. Thunder fans hope he keeps his day job.