Sam Presti Made A Mistake By Not Consulting With Stars

Last night, ESPN’s Marc Stein sent out a Tweet reporting that the Oklahoma City Thunder and Billy Donovan were nearing a deal to make Donovan the team’s next head coach.

Whether the hiring of a rookie coach like Donovan is the correct move for the team to make is uncertain. But I can tell you it was wrong of general manager Sam Presti to not consult Kevin Durant or Russell Westbrook about the decision.

I’m not sure if Presti realizes this or not, but Durant and Westbrook could both be gone within the next two years. Instead of making calls like this on his own, he should probably at least let the two most important people in the organization know what he is thinking.

Donovan seems like a decent guy though, and could end up being a good fit for the team. His former players like Joakim Noah and Al Horford have nothing but love for him.

But even with endorsements from other NBA All-Stars, I just don’t feel comfortable about Presti going behind the backs of his players with something as important as the hiring of a head coach. After all, Durant and Westbrook loved Scott Brooks.

The situation kind of feels like a divorce. KD and Russ are the children of Presti, who abruptly brought home a new spouse and introduced them without any heads up. Sure they might like him at first in order to be polite, but things could get really ugly down the line.

Remember when the Los Angeles Lakers hired Mike Brown without letting Kobe Bryant know about it?

The Lakers were able to get away with it, because Bryant’s loyalty to the franchise had already been established. At that point in his career, the Mamba wasn’t going to go anywhere else. But if it would’ve happened back in 2007 when Bryant was in his prime and fed up with losing, this would have been a much different story.

I understand neither Durant nor Westbrook have accomplished as much as Bryant has with the Lakers. They might not be entitled to the same sort of opinion as Bryant, but they deserve to at least give their two cents.

If Donovan ends up coaching the team, his job may not be too hard. They are already an experienced bunch with championship potential. But at the first sign of trouble, Donovan is going to be on the receiving end of the media’s attacks.

If a rookie head coach like Donovan fails to bring his team a championship after one year (which is definitely possible), they could potentially lose not one, but two franchise superstars.

The least Presti could have done is have his two stars’ endorsement in order to avoid a potential meltdown from within the organization.

At this point though, there isn’t much Presti or Thunder fans can do other than hope things don’t fall apart as a result of this. Because if things don’t pan out, Durant and Westbrook could very well be gone, very soon.

Next: Golden State Warriors: 5 Keys To Second Round Series

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