Get ONE player to dominate at an all star level for a year or two. Other players will see the potential and will be drawn to join him. See Miami with Wade, NO with Chris Paul, NY with Amare, LAC with Griffin, etc. It's not about the media market, it's about the players. Rockets fans should be hoping that Lin plays incredibly well this year and blossoms into a dominant first class player. The other dominos will drop. If not Lin, some other Rocket player but right now Lin's the best chance.
Small problem with your thread, (I'm just going to point out 1 for now).....Chris Paul left NO, nobody wanted to go to New Orleans, nobody went to join Amare in NY, Carmelo is from there so he wanted to go there no matter who was there, and Chris Paul didn't want to go the Clippers because Blake Griffin was there, he wanted the Lakers then got shipped to the Clippers. Ok problem #2 (I lied I'm gonna point it out anyway), the reason we're having these super teams is because of the exact opposite of your entire premise. If players only wanted to join other elite players regardless of media market, Denver, Orlando, and Cleveland, would all still have their superstars (Melo, D12, LeBron). What we're finding out through all of this is that as of now money and media markets talk! If you aren't a big media market along the coast, your best bet is to draft your franchise player otherwise you may never get out of the cellar. Problem #3 Players are NEVER drawn to other players/teams because of "potential", its all about what that player/team is capable NOW not later on down the road. If that was the case everyone would've been dying to go to OKC 4 years ago when they were drafting in the top 5 every year.
I don't know if Lin is the formula, but I know this is Spoiler <object width="420" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZFJGXEaKHFM?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZFJGXEaKHFM?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>
I think Lin could draw even without him being "the man" on this team. Lin is a genuine dude from what I can tell. Down to earth and cool with everyone in the league, except Melo (lol) Lin could prolly get T. Chandler to Houston is he was available (i know he isnt)... ....but if he was I bet Lin could talk him into it. Beyond Lin tho.....if any one of the 4 rooks becomes great, that would be an added bonus to make a marquee player wanna come and play in the H. Glasses red, but I can see Lamb, DMo and Jones being all-star caliber at some point in their careers. That happens....cats will be lined up here BEGGIN to play in Houston. And don't let us get someone like Shabazz, Nerlens or McAdoo to add to that mix next year. Won't even be fair.
This assumption that people in the league will "like lin so much" because he's a genuine dude is dumb IMO. There are a lot of genuine guys in the NBA and regardless of how "nice" a player is everyones goal is to win not be best friends. Kobes/Dwight are both a**holes but I'm sure they're both happy they will be playing with one another. Anyways I agree to a point but there needs to be more than just "one star". Kevin Love is a star but I don't think anyone is itching to go to Minny with him.....
I do agree for the most part it's about the players though. OKC and SA are proof of that. Having said that it's still harder for small market teams to succeed because big markets attract players regardless of how good/bad the team is....
It's Minny... The worst of both worlds. Too damn cold AND podunk Godforsaken locale. You get drafted there or traded there (and then leave once ur a FA)....never do you willingly go there (unless ur crazy).
Our dominant player is most likely to come from among Lin, Motie, and Royce. Of the 3, Royce has the dominant mindset and the dominant leadership skills. But he needs to clean up his game, which has great potential.
Lin has great potential, especially in the PnR. However, Asik and Motie are going to have to show they have the game to finish at the rim or else Lin is not going to look as good here as he looked in NY. Right now we do not have a 50% 3 point shooter like Novak for Lin to toss the ball out to and we don't have a couple pogo stick bigs like Amare and Tyson for Lin to toss the ball up to. Patterson is decent on the pick and pop but that ain't the same as a big man flushing the ball as it comes out of the sky at the rim.
Loss for words Not sure what the Rockets can do now. They went from a mindset of D. Howard to Bynum to nothing. The Orlando Mgmt thought the Rockets offer to be too confusing (in other words they do not want to work with us). We stripped our team of any quality players and overpaid for two lower quality substitutes. I hate to hear Morey talk about how successful our organization has been in the last 20 years with the two championships in the mid 90's. But he has nothing to do with, we should ask him "how many playoff wins do we have under your management?" Real question is how much longer can we the fans drink the Kool-Aid that he knows what he's doing and not over his head?
*Fixed* Other factors are involved, as primtim24 said, it changes from individual to individual. An player who values winning will take a paycut to play for a great squad or team. Going the "The Patriot Way." Other players say screw the Patriot Way (and other nonsensical way that helps the team and doesn't necessarily benefit the player) and give me my actual dollar value to a T. The mercenary player. Other players seek out playing in a certain city, some players specifically want to play for Dallas, New York, Atlanta, Miami, or etc. Personal reasons.
I don't think it's all about media market size, even though that helps. If it was why isn't everybody going to Philly they are #4? And why is Lebron in Miami, they are #16? Of course Miami is about location and not media market, plus Wade was there.
