1. Star Power: The state of the Western Conference is pretty astounding. The top nine teams are separated by only a few games in the standing. In fact, it seems almost certain that the eight seed in the West will break the wins record for an eight seed (currently held by the 2000-01 Minnesota Timberwolves at 47-35). The concentration of great teams and great players, particularly after Paul Gasol came to the Lakers, has some harkening back to the 1980s and those Celtic and Lakers squads that were chock full of Hall of Famers.
While the idea that there was a huge concentration of stars in the 1980s is a bit of a myth outside of its dynastic teams, it is clear that dynasty teams tend have more stars than most other teams (I know it’s a big surprise!). But the concentration of stars/Hall of Famers shouldn’t be attributed to the fact that the league was more talented in the 1980s or any other time. Rather, getting a bunch of stars on one team is part planning and part luck.
Just like the Lakers now look a title contender because the Grizzlies deigned Gasol to L.A. for Kwame Brown, so have many other dynastic teams been rewarded by their generous competitors. I thought I’d run through the dynasties in NBA history to see to what extent their stars were acquired through luck or just plain stupidity of another team, versus nice planning (though the two are often related). Well, here’s a list of the Hall of Famers/stars for each multiple title team together with an assessment of whether they were acquired by skill (ie scouting or a value for value trade) or whether luck or bad decision making of another team was primary reason (note that we aren’t going to count some Hall of Famers like K.C. Jones who are in for being associated with great times more than for actually being star players):
1950-60s Celtics
Primarily, this dynasty was built on skill. Bill Russell was acquired via a great trade but it wasn’t like the Celts didn’t give up value in two Hall of Famers (Ed Macauley and Cliff Hagan) and the third pick of the draft. Red Auerbach also drafted and or found John Havlicek, Sam Jones, and Bill Sharman. But Red had one really luck moment, with Bob Cousy.
In fact, Auerbach hated Cousy, who was a local college star at Boston College, and didn’t really want him for the Celtics. Auerbach didn’t draft Cousy and only got him after Cousy’s original team folded. When the Boston media pressured Auerbach to draft Cousy, Auerbach was publicly disdainful. According to Bill Reynolds’ “Cousy,” Auerbach told the press after getting Cousy that “I don’t give a damn for sentiment and that goes for Cousy and everybody else. The only thing that counts for me is ability and Cousy hasn’t proven to me he’s got that ability. I’m not interested in bringing someone in just because he’s a local yokel That won’t bring more than a dozen people into the building on a regular basis. What will bring fans in is a winning team, and that’s what I want to have.” Despite his bluster, Auerbach actually played Cousy right away and he got an MVP level player.
Cooz was the one really huge luck stroke for Auerbach in the 1950s. Auerbach rounded off the later Celtic dynasty by pilfering Bailey Howell for young seven-footer Mel Counts. This was part skill/part luck trade. Counts had shown some promise and had some value but Howell was an established pro and you’d think he would’ve demanded more than a single prospect.
1970s Knicks
The Knicks were also artfully built, drafting Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Bill Bradley, and trading Hall of Famer Walt Bellamy for Dave DeBusschere. They did have their lucky moment when Earl Monroe was stolen from the rival Bullets because he wanted a new contract and Baltimore didn’t want to pay. It didn’t take a genius to take what the Bullets were offering.
1970s Celtics
You could argue whether the 1970s Celts were a true dynasty but their core was all Auerbach draftees (Dave Cowens, Jo Jo White, Havlicek). No really lucky moment for this team.
1980s Lakers
A great team, perhaps the best team ever. Nevertheless, their core had tons of luck involved. They got Kareem Abdul-Jabbar because he was able to force the Bucks to make a trade. The draft pick used to draft Magic Johnson was taken from New Orleans as compensation for the Jazz signing a nearly done Gail Goodrich in the late 1970s. James Worthy’s pick was acquired for journeyman Butch Lee from the Cavs. Even in value-for-value trades they did pretty well, when they traded star Norm Nixon for rookie Byron Scott, Scott blossomed and Nixon promptly blew out his knee. Jerry West (and his predecessor Bill Sharman) were very good GMs but they definitely had some good fortune on their side.
1980s Celtics
Once again, Red Auerbach built a dynasty with shrews finds. Larry Bird was the ultimate vision pick. In addition, the great Kevin McHale and Robert Parish trade, though a big win for the Celts, was created by giving up something of value, the number one pick in the 1980 Draft. The one steal came in 1983, when Auerbach took All-Star guard Dennis Johnson from Phoenix for backup big man Rick Robey. The Suns were looking to dump DJ because he had run ins with management and the team disappointed in the playoffs with him. Still, trading Johnson for Robey is even less of a return than the Grizz got for Pau Gasol this year. The value of this trade for the Celts can’t be understated. Their backcourt of the early 1980s had hit the wall and they couldn’t compete with the Sixers and even the Bucks by 1982-83. Bringing in DJ revitalized Boston and was a key to bringing the Celts two more titles.
1980s Pistons
The Bad Boys were a carefully assembled group, primarily through the draft and free agency. Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Dennis Rodman, John Salley, and company were all drafted. The only steal of the group was Bill Laimbeer, who was taken for the Cavs for Phil Hubbard, Paul Mokeski, and a couple of draft picks. It didn’t seem like a steal at the time, Laimbeer was just a nice young player, but it certainly ended up being a nice little trade for Detroit.
1990s Bulls
The Bulls were also built by draft. More precisely, they built by drafting Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. Pippen’s draft was a bit of good fortune, the result of a nice little trade where the Bulls got the Sonics right to take the Knicks 1987 first rounder, essentially as compensation for the Knicks signing Jawann Oldham (the Bulls traded that pick for the Sonics’ pick which ended up being Pippen). Outside of Pippen, the Bulls did receive one more bit of luck when they acquired Dennis Rodman from the Spurs in 1995 for Will Perdue. The Bulls desperately needed a power forward to round out MJ’s return to the NBA (they were knocked around by Horace Grant in the Conference Finals the year before). Rodman was still good but had alienated himself in San Antonio with all sorts of stupid antics (fighting with the coach, insisting on taking off his shoes when he was taken out of games, criticizing David Robinson for being too soft, and his usual counterproductive referee baiting). Consequently, the Spurs were willing to take anything to get rid of him and the Bulls complied with “anything.” Rodman had his crazy moments in Chicago but imparted a great deal of value to the Bulls’ second three-peat.
1990s Rockets
This wasn’t an overly loaded team. It had Hakeem Olajuwon and some nice complementary players, almost all of whom were acquired via the draft (Sam Cassell, Robert Horry) or fair trades (Otis Thorpe, Kenny Smith). The one nice steal was Clyde Drexler in 1994-95. Drexler was a gift from the Blazers, whose title aspirations were fading. Drexler was a good citizen and the Blazers were nice enough to trade him back to his hometown for Otis Thorpe (whose value was as an expiring contract) and a late first rounder. Drexler, of course, ended up leading the Rockets to a miracle title run in the 1995 Playoffs.
2000s Spurs
The Spurs were never really gifted any stars from another team. We see that the team was built primarily through the draft (David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili). Still, the Spurs have had luck in the sense that their only bad season in about 18 years yielded Tim Duncan.
2000s Lakers
The Shaq-Kobe Lakers were built on very good fortune. Shaq left what seemed like a potential dynasty in Orlando because he was determined to come to the Lakers. Orlando tried to offer the moon to keep Shaq but Jerry West cleared cap room by dumping Vlade Divac (for a draft pick name Kobe Bryant, who also demanded to go to the Lakers), as well as some solid reserves (George Lynch, Sedale Threatt, Derek Strong, and Anthony Peeler) to create the cap room. Is this luck or good planning? A little bit of both, I guess.
So, nearly every dynastic team has had a bit of help and, obviously, some nice planning by the front office. Of the group, the Lakers of the 1980s are the only team with a significant amount of help in building the dynasty. The 1970s Knicks, 1980s Celtics and 1990s Bulls and Rockets each rounded out their cores with a gift trades. Everybody else, however, were built almost totally through good old fashioned hard work (I’m still not sure what to call the 2000s Lakers).
2. A Quick Note On Threes: A few weeks ago, we examined how Anthony Carter had greatly raised his three point shooting this year and examined the trend. An astute reader caught that another Nugget, Ed Najera, had also increased his three point shooting this year. Najera is 33-90 from three this year (.367%). previously, Najera was 14-55 from three for his career and barely shot the three even when he played for Don Nelson. Clearly, George Karl has decided to change their style of play for this season.