Six Pitfalls of NBA Mismanagement: Noncontenders Should Rebuild! (Part Three)

This is part three of a six-part series dedicated to the Six Pitfalls of NBA Management. For parts one and two, look below.

Fans of bad NBA teams, perpetually bad teams, will try to tell you their plight is a result of plain, old bad luck. This six part series explains why I don't agree.

Instead, I see six things that perpetually bad franchises do that make them perpetually bad franchises. And, as luck would have it, there are six things that good franchises don’t do to continue being good franchises.

Believe it or not, they are the same six things. On to the third of the six most common pitfalls of NBA franchises:

3) If you’re not contending, or getting ready to contend, you’re rebuilding. There are only three types of teams in the league in any given season: the contenders, the up-and-comers, and the rebuilders. Unfortunately, most rebuilders think they’re either up-and-comers or contenders.

Teams that fail to accurately analyze which category they fit into make all kinds of horrific personnel decisions, including No. 2 below.

Take a look at some of the moves made by the New York Knicks in just the short window from 2004 to 2007. Bear in mind that their record in 2003 was 39-43 (hardly contender status).

Over that span, they either traded for or signed all of the following: Jamal Crawford, Jared Jeffries, Zach Randolph, Jerome James, Eddy Curry, Malik Rose, Steve Francis, and Quentin Richardson. In the process, they traded away two first-round draft picks (both for Eddy Curry).

Ok, now, I’m not saying that every one of those players is rubbish, but if you’re a team with a losing record, the only reason you should be signing role players is because you firmly believe you are an up-and-comer with great, young talent, who has shown marked improvement over at least two seasons, and only needs experience for its younger players and a few additional pieces to fill in the gaps in order to graduate to contender.

But the Knicks actually got worse over the next two seasons.

This should have been a clear sign the team was in full rebuilding mode, and rather than giving up draft picks and saddling their team with big contracts, they should have been shedding salary and accumulating draft picks in order to give themselves a fair shot at building a solid team from the ground up.

People rail on the Grizzlies for giving up Pau Gasol without getting anything of great value in return, but they did exactly what a team in their situation is supposed to do. They weren’t young up-and-comers anymore (they had peaked in 2004 and gotten worse in every subsequent season) and at 22-60, they certainly weren’t contenders.

So they shed their main trade piece for exactly what you’d expect, cap relief, draft picks, and younger players. As a result, the Grizzlies have Marc Gasol, added draft picks, gobs of cap space, and a winning record to boot!

They knew they were rebuilders, and they acted like it…just what a good franchise should do.

As always, for more go to www.buytheclippers.com, and learn how you can pledge to buy out Donald Sterling.