History of contenders and importance of FA in building them

Build through the draft? Leslie ain't got time for that.



I know you're not talking about just this year but yes, the Rockets put themselves in a tough position this year, having to retool through free agency only. No first round pick (second round picks unlikely to contribute) and very few tradeable assets. So now they're left to do the heavy lifting in free agency. Not ideal.

 

Great points, but Les won't let us tank and build through the draft. So we have to find another way.

 

Don't worry, Les will move this franchise to Shanghai soon and then we won't have to worry about this stuff anymore.

 

Some of it is luck. You usually need a pretty high draft pick, and then you need to hit on it. Many teams get multiple chances and still don't do it. I don't think you should frame this with the Rockets' situation. They currently have a player that would be #1 in most drafts. Those players usually don't become available as early as Harden did. They need to try to build around him as quickly as they can, as most teams would. If he decides the efforts weren't worthy and bolts at the end of his contract... start over. But don't think you can't build through free agency. Especially when you have a cornerstone piece acquired as young as Harden was when we got him.

 

Harden was essentially our # 1 pick. It was a long shot trade that we got after acquiring a lot of assets.

Now we're just losing assets.

 

Patterns and trends are obviously worth paying attention to, but we nearly had a superteam built primarily through free agency.

Harden/Howard/Bosh/Parsons

(Ignoring the fact that Bosh and Parsons ultimately ended up having severe health issues)

 

100% true. And we recovered nicely from what looked liek a debacle at first (following the Bosh 180). Lawson didn't work out, but it was a valiant effort coming off the WCF. So after losing Howard, we are starting almost competely over. Luckily, the cap expansion is going to help us out. Other teams will be maxing out the Conleys and Batums, while we will spend our money wisely. And while it looks bleak on the surface. I am confident we will be improved (maybe significantly) over last year.

 

Lolwut?

Cavs: free agency/ trade was their route to a championship (traded AWAY a high pick to get Love, and signed Lebron via free agency - note: when they drafted Lebron they didn't win, and then building via the draft after him didn't see them win, it wasn't until he returned as a FA)

Warriors: The free agent acquisitions of Iguodala and the trade for Bogut were enormous for the Warriors. They didn't get their main stars via free agency, but hard to argue against them being influenced via free agency when they scooped up a max guy...

Spurs Draft (nuff said)

Heat Free agency (nuff said)

I've run out of steam already in this reply!
But the thing you're reaching for is that to be a championship quality team, you need star power, whether acquired via the draft, or via free agency, or via trade.

I don't think the dots point to 'draft only' for most of those cases - in fact, for most of them free agency/ trade plays a bigger part

 

The problem with free agency is bad teams throw big money at players and bring on championship expectations when the team is still bad. Basketball is so tricky though because one player can drastically change the performance of the team (unlike most sports).

My personal opinion will always be to build the foundation of your team through the draft and add smaller pieces (but still pieces) via free agency. A majority of NBA dynasties all have their best players acquired via the draft. The day Les realizes this or the day the team is sold to someone who does will be the day the Rockets are true contenders for an extended amount of time. Kicking the can and aiming for big signings or trades gets us to where we are now... Only a couple of playoff runs that went past the first round for almost two decades.

 

The best player on the first edition Lakers team with Kobe was Shaq. If they didn't sign Shaq through free agency it's possibly they would have never won a single championship. I definitely know Kobe wouldn't have carried those teams to a championship without Shaq, and those banners certainly helped attract other players.

So while I think you're right - that most teams have built through draft and trades, there have been at least two examples of teams who bought their championships in free agency.

 

Have you considered that by not being able to tank, the only way to build a contender is through FA and picks at the end of the lottery?

We aren't the Knicks and we wouldn't squander having that type of destination advantage.

We just got knocked on our butts but let's see how this free agency (since we have no choice) shakes out before we start acting like it's such a terrible thing to be where we are at.