2025 NBA Finals: How They Got Here Through Transactions
In lieu of my Game 7 notes (my big ones were that OKC played natural with their style, I feel horrible for Tyrese Haliburton, and the tosses on the jump balls were not good), my final post related to the 2025 NBA Finals is one of my favorite annual posts that I do: a dive on how the Finals teams constructed their current rosters. I will give the caveat that I didn’t go quite as far with certain things as some others did with certain trades (for instance, I didn’t go all the way back to the Rashard Lewis trade exception that eventually led to the draft pick where Serge Ibaka was selected, resulting in a series of trades that created OKC’s current core). Both teams have had several interesting moves, especially including a major trade between the two teams that involved a superstar. Oklahoma City Thunder June 7, 2007 – Oklahoma City hired Sam Presti to be their General Manager. It was an interesting move since they demoted multiple individuals to give Prest...