Oklahoma City Thunder: 3 takeaways from the 2019 offseason

Presti is preparing for the city’s first rebuild

Throughout the history of the Oklahoma City Thunder (not including their long stint as the Seattle SuperSonics) things have been icing on the cake.

Sure, the inaugural 2008-09 season featured a team that won 23 games and infamously started the season 3-29. But that didn’t matter. For the first time in its history, Oklahoma City had its very own team.  Fans were excited and attendance soared.

After that first season in a new city the team took off. The next 10 seasons included nine playoff berths, four Western Conference Finals runs and one appearance in the NBA Finals. The team featured two MVPs and an All-Star on roster every season.

The Thunder enjoyed long-term, sustained success.

The 2019-20 season will be the first time since the team’s relocation with subdued expectations. This rebuild was eventually going to happen. Russell Westbrook and Paul George wouldn’t stay young forever. It just comes a year sooner than everyone thought it would.

So now general manager Sam Presti embarks on a massive rebuilding phase in one of the league’s smallest markets. Will a fan base that has only known success continue to be insanely rabid over a young, developing team?

Will attendance at games continue to be stellar, especially on a random weeknight in January against, say, the Charlotte Hornets?

Rebuilding a team isn’t just about bottoming out the roster and starting an overhaul. It’s also about rekindling the excitement of the fans.

For the first time in the Thunder’s brief history they are hitting the reset button and the journey should be just as interesting and exciting as their initial 10-year run.