NBA: The 5 best candidates to never win an individual league award

Executive of the Year: Sam Presti

Consider that Pat Riley, R.C. Buford, Masai Ujiri, Bob Myers, Daryl Morey, Lawrence Frank, Jon Horst, Danny Ainge, and James Jones are other current executives who’ve won this award. None of them have made the catastrophic trades (not just trading away James Harden, but trading for Enes Kanter) Sam Presti made that shrunk the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 2010s championship windows. But those windows being open in the first place is a testament to Presti’s competence.

While taking Kevin Durant at No. 2 in 2007 was an absolute no-brainer, selecting Russell Westbrook and Harden so early in the 2008 and 2009 drafts was far from safe bets. Nor was selecting Serge Ibaka, Steven Adams, and Andre Roberson well outside the top 10.

Add to his bona fides both Paul George trades, and the Westbrook trade (Morey’s single biggest black eye,) and that’s a hell of a career.

Undermentioned in the history of those post-Harden teams was Presti’s inability to surround Durant and Westbrook with even one legitimate 3-and-D player. So he makes for our exercise’s most compelling honoree: one with extremely high highs, and fewer, but still multiple, low lows.

I’d say it’s a career better than 20-something other current Executives in the league.