Oklahoma City’s latest move has people wondering whether Sam Presti is doing more than building a contender - maybe he’s also laying traps for everyone else.
The chain reaction started with the Thunder signing restricted free agent Spencer Jones to a two-year deal worth $12 million. Denver had the right to match, but only had 48 hours to make its decision. Then Shams Charania reported that the Nuggets did, in fact, match the offer, which pushed them over the second apron.
That matters because Denver is already in a tight financial spot. The Nuggets haven’t really added anyone to their rotation this summer, and Oklahoma City’s attempt to pry away Jones forced them into a choice they probably wanted no part of: lose a useful player or cross into the second apron.
That’s where the speculation took off. Fans started asking whether the Thunder were playing a deeper game from the start, setting up Denver from both directions. If Presti really is operating on that level, the joke goes, then nothing he does can be dismissed as random.
Which brings the conversation to San Antonio.
The idea sounds wild on its face: one front office moving pieces around the league with the goal of creating headaches for rivals. But Presti has earned the reputation that makes that kind of theory stick. Every spring, people are reminded of the mountain of draft picks Oklahoma City has collected from teams that suddenly look worse than expected when a pick is about to convey.
So when you look at San Antonio holding Atlanta’s 2027 first-round pick, the imagination starts running. The Hawks have already been better than expected, but depth always matters. And this summer, Oklahoma City sent Lu Dort and Aaron Wiggins to Atlanta less than a month apart.
That’s enough to get the conspiracy wheels spinning. Was Atlanta really the only team for those deals?
The only one interested in those players? And it just happens to be the same franchise whose 2027 first-rounder belongs to San Antonio?
For some fans, that’s a coincidence too far.
In Other News...
Karl-Anthony Towns Had A Blunt Take On Why Knicks Won
The Spurs run to the 2026 NBA Finals already carried the usual questions about how a young group would handle the biggest stage, and Karl-Anthony Towns had a pretty direct read on why the New York side came out on top. He pointed to the difference between a roster built around experience and one still learning how to navigate the pressure of a Finals series, framing the matchup less as a talent gap than a test of poise.
Towns broader point was that San Antonio looked like a team trying to protect what it had instead of forcing the issue, while the Knicks played with the confidence of a group that knew how to win the moment. For a Spurs team that had already shown it could get to the end, that kind of critique lands hard because it goes beyond one bad stretch and gets at the identity of a contender still figuring out how to finish. [Read more 🡒]
Wembanyama May Have Started A Spurs Trend That Changes Everything
Victor Wembanyamas rookie-scale deal already gave the Spurs an unusual kind of flexibility, because he agreed to take less than he could have commanded and helped San Antonio keep more room under the cap. In a league where young stars usually push every possible dollar to the limit, that kind of move stands out, and it has put the Spurs in a very different conversation as they try to build around their franchise center without boxing themselves into a roster crunch.
The real intrigue is whether that mindset can spread inside the locker room. If other key players were willing to follow Wembanyamas lead, the Spurs could create the kind of breathing room that helps teams avoid the NBAs second salary cap apron and keep a deeper, more expensive roster intact. It is the same kind of hard-choice territory that has forced contenders elsewhere to make painful moves, and San Antonio now has a chance to see whether a rare bit of self-sacrifice can become part of its identity. [Read more 🡒]
Wembanyamas Finals Edge Has Spurs Fans Facing An Uncomfortable Question
The Finals gave Victor Wembanyama the kind of stage that can sharpen a superstars reputation in a hurry, and not all of it was flattering. The 22-year-old Spurs center spent much of the series in the middle of the action, mixing dominant stretches with a physical edge that had Knicks fans and the national audience talking as much about his temperament as his talent. For a San Antonio team building around him, it was a reminder that the line between intimidation and controversy can get thin when the games get bigger.
What made it feel especially uncomfortable for Spurs followers was how quickly the conversation hardened around him. One sequence after another pushed the same storyline, with Wembanyama drawing scrutiny for the way he handled Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, and the broader image of him as a villain starting to take hold by the end of the series. For a franchise that wants him to be the face of its next era, the question now is whether that edge is part of what makes him special, or the first real test of how he wants to be seen. [Read more 🡒]