The Oklahoma City Thunder will be entering Year Two of their rebuild and are still not near the group of teams competing for a play-in spot.
However, that is fine for general manager Sam Presti, who went into this teardown and rebuild of the roster with a goal of building long-term success, not just returning to the postseason for a single year.
"I don't think Oklahomans expect things to be given to them," Presti said at media day. "I don't think they expect things to be handed to them. I never really heard Oklahomans talk about taking the easy way or shortcutting things or not putting in a hard day's work or not earning what you get. And they're definitely not about acting like they're doing one thing and doing another. The most competitive thing to do, in my opinion, is to really try to do something great and build it from the ground up."
Presti is accustomed to building teams from the ground up.
He took over a 31-51 team in 2007 and after two lean years (20-62 and 23-59), the Thunder reached the postseason in 10 of the next 11 seasons.
So how should the Thunder approach this offseason, when they'll have reduced cap space but a bevy of draft picks?