After the Oklahoma City Thunder were eliminated from the playoffs in the first round by the Houston Rockets, Sam Presti handed his top lieutenants notecards with a picture of MacGyver on it.

Presti's message was obvious to his front office colleagues.

“We’ll have to use some tools we don’t have yet or some tools we haven’t had,” said director of basketball operations Paul Rivers, “and look from a perspective we haven’t had to look from before.”

The Thunder possessed less assets than many other teams but still found a way to trade for Paul George.

Presti conveyed an empathetic message to Kevin Pritchard as he recently went through a similar situation with Kevin Durant.

“I’ve been in this situation,” Presti told Pritchard. “It’s hard. I wish we weren’t talking about it.”