Yesterday, 04:05 AM
NBA cap system is designed in a way that is almost impossible to dominate for years. 8 different champions in last 8 years are the biggest proof of that. There are always several teams that have a good chance to go all the way and than you have to be lucky that everything goes right.
The first step in creating a dynasty is to hit right in several drafts in row. Worked out for some (OKC, SA, GSW), didn't work out for a much larger number of other teams (Philly, Washington, Utah,...). Mavs had a misfortune that Luka was "too good too soon". It would be probably much better in a long-term to tank a couple of more seasons and slowly build around him.
In order to become a champion, a team usually spends most of their assets to build a right team. Once you succeed and win it all, than everyone starts to get paid and becomes difficult to keep the team together. Happened for example to Denver. Other teams stole some key pieces on unrealistically high deals (first Brown, than KCP) while Denver had to (over)pay other role players like MPj and Braun, even Gordon to an extent. As soon as you don't win it again, all these contracts become negative value. From then on, you are basically on a downward spiral which is probably not possible to get out of unless you do a soft rebuild by tanking a season or two. That is of course not easy with your star in his prime. Happened to Milwaukee and is now happening to Denver.
Previous CBA offered a cheat code if the owner was willing to overpay for the team, which was a strategy GSW was using for years. But first they still needed to do the things right by putting together the cheap core in prime Curry, Klay and Draymond. This cheat code is gone with the apron system.
Wemby introduced the other possible cheat code - taking less money to allow team more ability to build around him on a long-term. Of course this strategy comes with significant risks. If SA dominates for years and wins several chips, Wemby will be forever hailed as one of the greatest. But if things don't go right, which is always possible, Wemby will just lose significant money.
OKC is the one example where most of the things went right for them. They managed to gather their young core. No one expected SGA will become this good when they traded for him. They got a great player in Chet with a high pick and struck gold with JDub. They were also extremely smartly capitalizing on their cap strategy in the tanking seasons. They gathered assets for taking on what were seemed like bad contracts, revitalized the players and then sold them for more assets. Many teams try this strategy, but OKC is the one team that actually made it work to perfection. I guess they did a lot of things right in the personnel part of the team - coach and his staff, analytics. Obviously something that is not easy to do, since everyone understands the idea but not many succeed in implementing it. Accumulated assets will allow OKC to rotate role players around their core trio SGA, Chet and JDub for a long time. But there is of course no guarantee, they will be good enough to win more chips.
While SA is also doing a lot of things right, they were also extremely lucky. They got a number one pick in a draft with out of the world talent in Wemby, which they patiently followed by two more tanking seasons where they also hit on top5 picks in Castle and Harper.
NY is the one team that basically put their team together by trading. They identified the right pieces and managed to get them together. Didn't look like they have a real championship potential, but everything just clicked together at a right time for them. We will see if they will manage to stay at the level they finished.
The first step in creating a dynasty is to hit right in several drafts in row. Worked out for some (OKC, SA, GSW), didn't work out for a much larger number of other teams (Philly, Washington, Utah,...). Mavs had a misfortune that Luka was "too good too soon". It would be probably much better in a long-term to tank a couple of more seasons and slowly build around him.
In order to become a champion, a team usually spends most of their assets to build a right team. Once you succeed and win it all, than everyone starts to get paid and becomes difficult to keep the team together. Happened for example to Denver. Other teams stole some key pieces on unrealistically high deals (first Brown, than KCP) while Denver had to (over)pay other role players like MPj and Braun, even Gordon to an extent. As soon as you don't win it again, all these contracts become negative value. From then on, you are basically on a downward spiral which is probably not possible to get out of unless you do a soft rebuild by tanking a season or two. That is of course not easy with your star in his prime. Happened to Milwaukee and is now happening to Denver.
Previous CBA offered a cheat code if the owner was willing to overpay for the team, which was a strategy GSW was using for years. But first they still needed to do the things right by putting together the cheap core in prime Curry, Klay and Draymond. This cheat code is gone with the apron system.
Wemby introduced the other possible cheat code - taking less money to allow team more ability to build around him on a long-term. Of course this strategy comes with significant risks. If SA dominates for years and wins several chips, Wemby will be forever hailed as one of the greatest. But if things don't go right, which is always possible, Wemby will just lose significant money.
OKC is the one example where most of the things went right for them. They managed to gather their young core. No one expected SGA will become this good when they traded for him. They got a great player in Chet with a high pick and struck gold with JDub. They were also extremely smartly capitalizing on their cap strategy in the tanking seasons. They gathered assets for taking on what were seemed like bad contracts, revitalized the players and then sold them for more assets. Many teams try this strategy, but OKC is the one team that actually made it work to perfection. I guess they did a lot of things right in the personnel part of the team - coach and his staff, analytics. Obviously something that is not easy to do, since everyone understands the idea but not many succeed in implementing it. Accumulated assets will allow OKC to rotate role players around their core trio SGA, Chet and JDub for a long time. But there is of course no guarantee, they will be good enough to win more chips.
While SA is also doing a lot of things right, they were also extremely lucky. They got a number one pick in a draft with out of the world talent in Wemby, which they patiently followed by two more tanking seasons where they also hit on top5 picks in Castle and Harper.
NY is the one team that basically put their team together by trading. They identified the right pieces and managed to get them together. Didn't look like they have a real championship potential, but everything just clicked together at a right time for them. We will see if they will manage to stay at the level they finished.
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