by Kevin Serrano
In most sports leagues, every season begins with the objective to create a perfect team. Team owners hire several employees including front office staff, personnel scouts, and the vital general manager position to create a team. The general manager can be described as the second most important position for any sports organization because of the multitude and magnitude of the decisions that they must make for the sake of their team.
In the NBA, for example, general managers create the blueprint for the teams’ success. They decide which players to sign into free agency, they propose and finalize trades with other teams, and they choose which players to select from the draft. The general manager’s final goal is to put together a team of players that will be able to win championships, but the amount of rules and regulations that they have to work around make their job increasingly difficult. With the salary cap, luxury tax, and the hard cap, which limits the amount of money an organization can spend on their own team, the GM must utilize other means of assembling a team through free agency, trades, and draft selection. Free Agency is when a player’s contract ends and they become free agents, meaning they can sign to any team. The importance of free agency is because a single player’s decision can change the entire competition for the rest of the league.
The NBA has a set of rules for teams when they are making trades and signing players. A rule that drastically affects every team and their road to perfection is the NBA salary cap. In theory, the NBA salary cap prevents teams from overspending to create a team with a multitude of superstars, referred to as a super team. This works in part due to how most basketball players will play for the team that offers them the most money.
According to the NBA, the 2019-2020 season salary cap was $109.14 million, which is the total amount that the team can spend on all of the players’ contracts. One example of a team who has gone over the cap is the Houston Rockets, who, according to basketball-reference.com, have accumulated a salary total of $136 million. This means that they are responsible for paying a penalty for going over the salary cap, which many teams dislike doing for obvious reasons. This penalty fee is known as the luxury tax. This rule is to prevent teams from signing the best players and destroying the balance of the competition. Teams in larger cities are regarded as higher market teams and have an advantage in signing free agents looking to improve their marketability off the court.The salary cap and luxury tax provide a balance between large and small market teams. Perfection in the NBA is what most general managers want to attain.
In all major sports leagues, the word “perfect” is accepted as unrealistic, and yet that ideal is still sought after. It is almost impossible for a team to go through the whole season and not lose any games. There is, however, one team that came close, which was the Golden State Warriors from 2016-2017. The team consisted of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala, and Draymond Green. They revolutionized the NBA landscape with the 3-point shooting duo of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. These two are recognized as the “Splash Brothers,” and reached historic career numbers of at least 200 made 3pointers during the season. Their system revolved around the 3-point line, mid ranges, and getting into the free throw line, because it is the modern NBA system for winning games. Their combination of all-star players covered every aspect of the game well regardless of who was handling the ball, which explains why this team is regarded as one of the greatest teams of all time. The term “perfect” in this case can be described as the team with the best system and great players who execute the system well while moving up to the championship. Bob Myers, who is still the general manager for the team, created this squad through free agency and the draft. Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green are previous draft selections and was able to convince a superstar like Kevin Durant to sign with the Warriors in Free Agency. This could be considered a success in terms of putting together that operated with a single purpose.
The general managers uses trades in their attempts to create a “perfect” team. There are great success stories, but this approach often can lead to failure which can set their organizations back rather than propel them forward. The failure to create a championship team, can be due to bad scouting, overpaying players, or not having value returned in trades. One example of one of the worst trade transactions that happened in the NBA was the Celtics-Nets trade in 2014. This ruined the Brooklyn Nets future for the next 4 years, because they traded their 2014 first round pick, 2016 first round pick, and 2018 first round pick to the Celtics. In hopes of creating a championship team ready to contend with the best teams in the league; the Nets received veteran Jason Terry, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett. These players were previous champions who were traded for with the intention of still being able to lead and encourage younger players on the Nets team, but unfortunately, the three players were noticeably past their prime. At the time, the general manager of the Brooklyn Nets, Billy King, was confident in his creation, but now is regarded as one of the worst general managers of all time by NBA fans. He not only put the faith and money of the organization in these aging stars, but also had to give up quite a good deal of valuable assets in terms of future draft picks, which hurt the long term success of the team. While the Celtics received the 3rd pick in 2016 and 2018, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are the players that were selected. These selections became game changers for the Boston Celtics’ future.
Being perfect at any job is unrealistic, because no humans are perfect. We are made to make mistakes in our lives and learn through it. Perfection is what we tell ourselves when we want to be the best at and build self-confidence. The general manager position is the hardest job to perfect, because of the vast amount of decisions that need to be made while dealing with mind games and thinking about the future of the organization.
Daryl Morey, the current general manager for the Houston Rockets, is known for utilizing and heavily relying on the statistical analysis of certain players and statistics when determining who to trade for. Additionally, he relies on analytics to decide how exactly the teams play style could be most efficient and successful. As a result, the team is scoring most of their points from the 3-point line, driving into the lane, and scoring from the free throw line after securing fouls on the offensive end. An example of a perfect trade completed by Daryl Morey was the trade for the franchise player James Harden. In 2012 James Harden was traded from the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Houston Rockets, which solidified the Rockets future. He is now considered the best player to play for the Houston Rockets since Hakeem Olajowon. Rockets fans like to consider this trade as the perfect trade deal in the NBA, due to how James Harden changed this franchise, increase of fanbase, and creating memorable moments for the Rockets. Daryl Morey is known as one of the best general managers in the NBA, because when he was hired for the position in 2010, he changed the landscape of the Rockets organization. By depending on analytics and trading first round picks, he was able to secure players with high volume shooting, high free throw percentage, and a significant number fouls contacted. Although he has had some great signings, trades, and acquisitions in the draft, Daryl Morey is not a perfect general manager, and one of his worst signings was in 2016 when he signed free agent Ryan Anderson to a 4-year $80 million deal. This deal exceeded the salary cap that made it harder for the Rockets to sign future players, and he had to trade many players away in order to avoid paying the luxury tax. However, Anderson was traded in 2018 to the Phoenix Suns.
The NBA doesn’t want to have any team become perfect, nor have all teams perfect, as because it is unrealistic. Rather the association wants to create the best competition, entertain the fans, and create memorable events that will stick with NBA fans and keep them returning as fans of a specific player, team or entire league.
One of the toughest decisions a general manager has to make is create and balance a team that works around the salary cap, by signing players to a reasonable amount, and drafting the players from the draft class without drafting a “bust”. One example of the perfect draft is when the New Orleans Pelicans drafted Zion Williamson from Duke University. In 2019 their franchise player, Anthony Davis, was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers that led to the pelicans drafting Zion. Who was coming with so much hype from college was compared to Lebron James, which in my opinion is ridiculous, because Lebron is a once in a lifetime player. Zion is known for his athletic moves for a 6’6”, 284 lbs, and great dunking ability when he drives into the paint. His comparisons draw to an all star, Blake Griffin, because of the similar ferocious dunks and powerful moves in the paint that require nice footwork when playing in the post, which is very important for a PF.
Perfection is unrealistic in most sports leagues, because every team has their flaws that creates a balance in competition levels. Championships drive players and general managers alike to strive for perfection and success. This feeds into the idea of a positive feedback system where wins lead to more fans, which leads to increased revenue and the ability to spend more to attain better assets to increase the chances of winning even more in the future.
