On Friday - along with David Berri of the Wages of Wins Journal, Arturo Galletti of Arturo's Silly Little Stats, and Mosi Platt of the Miami Heat Index - I participated in a WOW network podcast, which you can listen to here. We talked about "Small Market Teams" and "Super Teams", the NBA draft, and the NFL labour (yes, that word is spelt with a 'u') issue.
Dave also has a short little summary of the podcast on his site.
It was definitely an interesting conversation to be a part of; even though I don't follow the NFL, a lot of what happens with that league is relevant to the NBA and sports in general.
I'm still getting used to the different format - talking on the spot is a lot different than creating a written piece and being able to edit your work to make it more coherent. I think Mosi asked me a question along the lines of 'if you were in charge of the Raptors, what would you do?', and after I came up with 'remove the unproductive players' and 'get as many draft picks as you can', I was kind of at a loss and mumbled around at the end of my answer. Given more time to think about an answer, I would say that the keys are:
- remove the unproductive players at (almost) all costs
- get as many draft picks as you can
- retain all your productive free agents
- convince other, productive free agents to sign
- create a positive and healthy culture, which will boost the franchise's reputation amongst players and coaches
That last one is the trickiest. To do it, you'd need an owner who is okay with spending lots of money on facilities and perks.
You know what? Just go and look at Arturo's "Build me a winner" series. He's already got everything covered. I guess that's why he makes the big bucks.
- Devin
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