SK21209 wrote:It's not as simple as questioning why star players aren't flocking to the weaker Eastern conference. I mean which player currently in the West had an opportunity to go East and join a well-run organization with promising talent?
A poster earlier in this thread made the point, but, drafting is the most important thing. A team that drafts a star player has a huge edge in keeping that star player for his entire career: they can always offer him more money and more years. After year three, the team that drafts a star can always offer him a big contract that he pretty much has to sign. If you draft a generational talent, he is under team control for what amounts to the first eight years of his career, and if he's been in one place that long, and you've won enough, your chances are good of holding onto him going forward.
KAT just won rookie of the month for every single month of the season, and looks like a generational talent. Guess what? Minny has him locked in for SEVEN more seasons (essentially, if they offer a max extension after year three, which at this rate, they will). Anthony Davis is also a generational talent, he's played his first four years in NO, and he's got four more left to go (after that monster post-year three extension he signed last year). Cousins is one of the most dominant bigs in the league, and the Kings own his rights for three more years, on top of the five they've already gotten. Curry was drafted in 2009, and is a true FA for the first time in his career in 2017, eight years after he was drafted. Klay will be a true FA in 2019, also eight years after. Ditto Green and 2020, and eight years after. All three of those guys signed big extensions post-year three. That's the edge in drafting star players.
Look at the all-nba teams. Leonard, Curry, Durant, Westbrook, Jordan, Thompson, Green, Drummond, George, Cousins, and Lilliard, that is, 11 of the 15 spots on the three all-nba teams are occupied by players who were drafted by their team. Aldridge was a FA signing, Lowry was a FA signing, Lebron was drafted by the Cavs, went to the heat then signed with the cavs, so kinda counts, and Paul, who started with the NO hornets. Of the 11 western conference players who made All-NBA, nine were drafted by their team, of the four eastern conference players who did, two and a half were drafted by their team (the half being Lebron). Look at the old guys in the league who will be gone soon, and who dominated the last generation of the western conference, and you have Duncan and the Spurs, Kobe and the Lakers, and Dirk and the Mavs, home grown super-stars who were drafted by and played their whole career in one uniform. The backbone of the west's dominance over the post-Jordan era in three really great teams who were perenial contenders and who found their foundation in the draft.
That is the basis of the warped logic behind Hinkie's Process. The fastest way to turn a team around is a hit on a really good draft pick. OKC hit on so many, that they couldn't keep all of their hits (Harden and Jackson). The west has simply hit on more picks, and with the draft age limit being raised to 19, from 18 that it was before, that eight year window that you have on a drafted player now encompasses more of that player's prime years.
