The Oklahoma City Thunder just won their first NBA championship in franchise history, and the way they did it should be an inspiration for the Tennessee Titans.
Thunder general manager Sam Presti has been with the franchise for nearly 20 years. Presti has seen the highs and the lows of the business. He was hired away from the dynastic San Antonio Spurs, where he learned the path to titles by watching his team win them from the backseat.
Presti saw his team rise to the NBA Finals, only to lose and then slowly trickle back down the NBA standings until they fell into irrelevance for years. However, Presti knew he could build a champion if he was given enough time and if ownership didn't pull the plug on him.
In an interview in 2021, Presti was answering questions after a season where the Thunder were one of the worst teams in the NBA.
"We can't be reactionary or emotional about it, we just have to keep chipping away, every single day, knowing that over time we will achieve our goals, if we have the poise, the patience, and the willingness to adjust to the setbacks that we will inevitably encounter. As they say, 'shortcuts cut long runs short' and we are going to do everything in our power to not let that happen. And when we do get back to the postseason, we want it to be an arrival and not an appearance. An arrival, meaning that we can return, we can be there, we can take some chance or bad fortune and not have it sink us completely. We have seen the benefit of that during our earlier years. We don't want to be in a position where we get there but we have no way to get back. That is the focus and precision with which we are working. We understand the ecosystem of the NBA I think very very well. We understand how that works, we understand what we have to work with, and I feel extremely optimistic and confident about the future we have here we just have to continue to stick with it."
That short segment is a great example of patience during a lengthy team-building process. It boils down to the standout quote above, the thesis of every great rebuild. "Shortcuts cut long runs short."
It's about building around keynote positions instead of rushing to collect well-known names or trying to fit square pegs into round holes. If you don't follow those rules, you are risking the integrity of the whole rebuild in search of instant gratification. Ran Carthon proved that by failing miserably as a reckless spender in last offseason's free agency.
As the Titans rebuild their roster, they have to take their time. That could look a lot of different ways. Maybe it means that instead of trading a late-round pick before the season, they use their place on the waiver wire to add talent to the bottom of their roster. It could mean passing on adding a blue-chip linebacker in free agency because Mike Borgonzi believes that linebacker is an overpaid position in the NFL, and you can use your resources better in different areas.
Borgonzi has taken a patient approach this offseason. He's touted a draft-and-develop model to rebuild the Titans. He's smartly added assets along the way. In many ways, Borgonzi has a similar background to the Thunder's Presti, having watched his Kansas City Chiefs build a Super Bowl-winning dynasty before getting his own shot to replicate that with the Titans.
There is no magic bullet that is going to rebuild the Titans' franchise in one move, though quarterback Cam Ward is already exciting those within the building.
Borgonzi isn't getting too emotional and he's making smart decisions. Everything Borgonzi and Chad Brinker have achieved this offseason has been rooted in the long-term health of the franchise. The Thunder just proved why that's the right approach.