To build and manage a successful NBA team the following concepts are helpful to understand. Try as they might, most front offices in the NBA really do not practice these principles as consistently as they should. Being able to generally abide by these concepts is the best way to build and maintain a strong NBA roster:
- Understand teams are only as good as their top two or three players. This is the essence of the big picture. Essentially players 4 through 15 usually do not matter much. It sounds cruel and it’s the truth.
- Stats are right most of the time. We can usually quantify who the best players are in the league based purely on stats. There are of course other factors that decide a player’s total value, but even a single stat like PER or WARP usually gives us just about all the information we need in terms of where to rank or group a player.
- Try your hardest not to overpay adequate to good players. It is very hard to do, since it is standard practice to overpay such players. Understand that most players are interchangeable and relatively not that important. Do no pay easily replaceable players lots of money. Most players are perfectly replaceable. - Only pay All-Star type players high (i.e. max) salaries. They deserve it. The top 10 players in the league are actually usually vastly underpaid in relation to their value.
- Focus on building a top heavy roster. Try (if possible) to have three players who are among the 50 best in the NBA (if you’re lucky one of them will be in the top 5.) You can pay these superior players big money – they deserve it. Don’t worry too much about the rest of your roster, it usually takes care of itself. There are always adequate replaceable players available for cheap.
- Championship teams almost always have a top ten player on their roster, and usually a top five talent. This is not a coincidence. The two or three best players in the league are a good deal better than the 15th best player. And the 15th best player is a good deal better than the 50th best player.
- Besides maybe the 100 best players in the league it doesn't even make that much sense to formally rank a player's value. The vast majority of NBA players are easily replaceable because their value is so comparable. Most players on your roster you just want to be decent, fit the system, and not be paid a high salary. - Be risk adverse. Injuries happen, many of them are by chance and extremely hard to predict. That said do not give long-term, expensive contracts to players with an injury history. It is unfortunate to have a very good player signed for one year at $15 million and then have him injured. It is a catastrophe to sign a player for $100 million over five years and then have him constantly injured or a shell of his former self. Long-terms deals like this cripple your team’s financial flexibility. Only give big, long-term deals to players who have consistently been exceptional for several seasons and project well for the future.
- Role players are hardly ever worth big salaries (i.e. anything over the mid-level exception.) There are too many similar players available for the fraction of the price.
- Allot the majority of your budget to only your top 2 or 3 players. If your top players do not deserve such high salaries try trading them for players that do. Ideally your top three should take up a considerable majority of your salary cap. This might sound excessive. It’s not.
- The only way to build a team is through the draft, unless you get lucky. The best skill a general manager can have is the ability to draft well. If you draft well your relatively cheap drafted assets will either develop into star players or you will be able to trade them for star players.
- Every part of the draft is valuable. A very high draft pick should mean a potential star. Later picks are excellent ways to cheaply fill holes in your roster and to cultivate attractive, tradeable assets.
- Be patient, understand there are always exceptions, try to remain consistent, and understand that you will always make mistakes. Your goal is simply to minimize those mistakes.
- Be obsessed with the big picture and do no generally worry about the small stuff. The day-to-day problems a team faces should usually be the coaching staff’s responsibility.