Rank Team Management

Post #1 » by **NuggetsWY** » Sun Aug 14, 2016 1:18 am

Denver may be overlooked by many, but once players become a part of the team, they don't want to leave. The current version of Nuggets management seems to be particularly good at this aspect of the game. In thinking about that, the question arises, which teams do well at making players feel welcomed, wanted, loved? Sure the fans play a part of that and so does the head coach (a big part there) but the front office/ownership is maybe the most important aspect of this relationship.

The following list is my attempt to rank the teams that I think do a good job on this. My biggest problem is in being objective regarding the Nuggets. Without a doubt, many will disagree with the order they are listed in and no doubt some will say "Not that team" or "xxxx should be included"". Feel free to comment on any/all of these (like RealGM forum members need THAT encouragement LOL).

San Antonio
Golden State
Boston
Memphis <---- Denver?
Portland
Utah <---- Denver? Somewhere from #4 to #7
Detroit
Cleveland
Indiana
OKC

skywalker33 · Post #2 » by **skywalker33** » Sun Aug 14, 2016 3:18 am

Not to disparage the Cav's, but if LBJ wasn't there would they be on this list ?? Once he left for MIA, the owner just went off on him and had to make SERIOUS butt-kissing to smooth it over. Not the kind of impression to make players want to flock to CLE...

And OKC, Durant left for a reason, does WB provide a real "team first" platform ??

Just a few thoughts...

Post #3 » by **NuggetsWY** » Sun Aug 14, 2016 3:50 am

skywalker33 wrote:Not to disparage the Cav's, but if LBJ wasn't there would they be on this list ?? Once he left for MIA, the owner just went off on him and had to make SERIOUS butt-kissing to smooth it over. Not the kind of impression to make players want to flock to CLE...

And OKC, Durant left for a reason, does WB provide a real "team first" platform ??

Just a few thoughts...

Thought long and hard about both of those and I will find it hard to defend my thoughts, thus they were at or near the bottom of my list. Cleveland definitely screwed up in the past, but they seem to have players that want to stay and you know some of their guys could have left. Championships are attractive, but most people won't spend their life playing where they are miserable when they have other choices. OKC leaves me wondering, but KD made it sound like he wanted to stay and I believed him. I suspect he wanted a better shot at a championship plus, going back to my Cleveland thoughts, I'm just not convinced he wanted to play with RW. Their styles just don't seem compatible. That's not a "wrong" on either player's part. It's just the way it is. RW seems to want to stay and Harden didn't want to leave all those years ago.

Dropping even one of them leaves us with ten teams that seem to "get it" when it comes to managing their players. Is the league that bad? Maybe that's why players like to change teams?

psimanic1 · Post #4 » by **psimanic1** » Sun Aug 14, 2016 8:35 pm

Almost every NBA team you mentioned kept their players when they were too good for players to leave...
You think POR would be able to keep Lillard if he had better team to sign with right now? Why didn't they keep LMA?
GSW? You think anyone is stuppid enough to leave GSW when you have team like that and chance to even get better than it was last year(talking about time before they signed Durant)?

My guess is, in this type of lists you should only count teams that are bad enough for few years, and where best players CAN find better team if they are out of contract, and they still come back...Just my thoughts

Post #5 » by **NuggetsWY** » Sun Aug 14, 2016 9:10 pm

Having lived in more than one of those cities over the years, I can testify that while a star may leave now and then, but players tend to like to be in certain cities. Portland has more than their fair share of retired NBA players living there. It's like Denver where Arthur & Faried & Gallinari & Chandler & Miller all had a choice and they chose to stay in Denver but Anthony left. One person's decision does not negate the decisions of other players.

Powder Blue · Post #6 » by **Powder Blue** » Mon Aug 15, 2016 5:57 pm

Denver being a likeable city is more responsible for low-mid tier players staying here than management. The current crop of players do seem to like the culture but that's only in the past year with Mike Malone taking the reigns....and because we offered them extensions or deals no one else would have.

We haven't had any high priority free agents with this front office to really test your theory that the culture of the team and the city can keep someone here assuming the money is the same.