Which NBA Team Has Top Front Office? Execs Reveal Rankings in New Poll
After winning their first championship since relocating from Seattle in 2008, the Oklahoma City Thunder were the runaway winners in the latest NBA executive poll to determine the league's best front office.
The Athletic's Sam Amick, David Aldridge, John Hollinger, Fred Katz and Mike Vorkunov conducted an anonymous survey of 36 NBA execs, asking them to rank the league's top five front offices.
OKC garnered 31 out of 36 first-place votes and 341 points in total, blowing out the second-place Boston Celtics, who received one first-place vote and 110 points. The top 10 finishers were as follows:
- Oklahoma City Thunder: 341 (31 first-place votes)
- Boston Celtics: 110 (1 first-place vote)
- Houston Rockets: 100 (1 first-place vote)
- Miami Heat: 76 (2 first-place votes)
- Indiana Pacers: 61 (1 first-place vote)
- Cleveland Cavaliers: 50
- Minnesota Timberwolves: 43
- New York Knicks: 36
- San Antonio Spurs: 31
- Golden State Warriors: 23
Led by general manager Sam Presti and owner Clay Bennett, the Thunder were the class of the NBA last season, going a league-best 68-14 and beating the Indiana Pacers in seven games in the NBA Finals.
That success has carried over to this season as well with OKC posting a league-leading 23-1 mark thus far.
Since becoming the organization's GM in 2007 while they were still the Seattle SuperSonics, Presti has brought in no shortage of elite talent.
The trio of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden brought the Thunder to the Finals in 2012, but the current roster is even more impressive.
Presti selected Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams with the second and 12th overall picks in the 2022 NBA draft, adding to the core led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
The course of the franchise changed in 2019 when the Thunder acquired SGA as part of a package from the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for Paul George.
Along with Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder received five first-round picks and two pick swaps in that trade, setting them up for years to come.
Gilgeous-Alexander won the NBA MVP Award and NBA Finals MVP Award last season, and Presti managed to lock all of SGA, Holmgren and Williams into long-term deals, which suggests the Thunder should be a force to be reckoned with for the foreseeable future.
Of the front offices that earned the 10 highest point totals in the vote, nine of them went to the playoffs last season. The lone exception is the Spurs, who are fifth in the Western Conference with a 16-7 record this season.
All four teams that reached the conference finals last season (Thunder, Pacers, Knicks and Timberwolves) made the list, as did the 2024 NBA champs in the Celtics.
While there are plenty of good teams in the NBA right now, there seems to be a sizable gap between the Thunder and the rest of the league, and The Athletic's poll illustrated that narrative.
