NBA: Top 5 candidates for Executive of the Year Award in 2017-18

1. Sam Presti

You could make a case for swapping Bob Myers or even Scott Layden here, but that really depends on your opinion of Jimmy Butler vs. Paul George. Here’s the case for Oklahoma City Thunder GM Sam Presti getting this spot, however: Neither Myers nor Layden had nowhere near as much pressure on him this summer.

The Warriors have won two titles in the last three years and it was pretty apparent everyone wanted to return, so their impressive summer comes with caveats in this conversation. If the Timberwolves sat idly by this summer, choosing to simply retool the bench, that would’ve been fine. They still had a trio of promising 20-somethings and their development to fall back on.

The Thunder, however, just watched their one-man triple-double show earn MVP honors, knowing full well his teammates weren’t good enough to A) help him advance in the playoffs or B) convince him to sign a mega-extension to remain in OKC beyond the upcoming season.

That meant moves needed to be made, but with such limited wiggle room on the books, how were they supposed to do it? Offloading Victor Oladipo‘s overpriced deal in the most shocking, out-of-nowhere trade of the summer was a pretty damn fine place to start.

You could argue the Thunder got an even better deal for Paul George than the Wolves got for Butler, giving up only Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis in the exchange. Though PG-13 could just be a one-year rental, thereby making him less valuable of an asset than Butler, he’s also the two-way defensive presence and 3-point threat OKC needed.

The trade shows Westbrook this front office is still committed to chasing championships even with Kevin Durant gone. Going from losing one of the game’s top three players to regrouping as a Western contender in the span of one summer is remarkable.

But Presti wasn’t done, swinging yet another blockbuster deal by trading Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott and a 2018 second round pick for Carmelo Anthony. Melo may be 33, but he still put up 22.4 points per game last year and was one of the NBA’s best spot-up 3-point shooters.

Sure, there’s the nightmare scenario where Westbrook doesn’t sign his extension and he, PG-13 and Melo all flee for greener pastures next summer, leaving OKC without a single player from that Westbrook-KD-Harden-Serge Ibaka foursome that was supposed to be the NBA’s next dynasty.

But with his back to the wall, Presti sneakily came away with Paul George, Carmelo Anthony, signed Patrick Patterson to one of the summer’s best bargain deals, added Raymond Felton as a legitimate backup point guard and drafted Terrance Ferguson.

He brought in 3-point shooting to spread the floor for Westbrook, added a two-way star and a go-to scorer to make Westbrook’s life easier and now, the Thunder are one playoff run away from keeping this crew together and building something special.

Next: Complete 2017 NBA offseason grades for all 30 teams

No matter what happens next summer, this summer’s tight maneuvering has to earn Sam Presti serious consideration for the Executive of the Year Award.