NBA Playoffs: The Rise of Small Market Teams
San Antonio and Oklahoma City should definitely expect a Christmas card from David Stern this year.
With team owners like Dan Gilbert breathing down his neck, Stern and the rest of the NBA brass can rest easy that their promises of more competitive balance between small and large market franchises have been fulfilled... for now.
OKC and San Antonio for the Western Conference title is easily one of the most highly anticipated playoff match-ups in recent memory. Both teams blew past the competition from major market cities Dallas and Los Angles in the first and second rounds, feature superstars they acquired through the draft, and have a combined value that doesn’t come within $100 million of the Lakers.
Obviously, the changes in the latest CBA to protect teams from losing their superstar players are too new to have made a significant effect on this season, but the success of small market teams should give hope that the players and owners find continued peace on this issue. Of the 12 franchises with a payroll of $60 million or less, four made the playoffs (OKC, Utah, Denver, Indiana) with the Pacers and Thunder moving past the first round.
Conversely, Boston and Miami are the only teams with a payroll of $75 million or higher to survive to the second round. The Portland Trailblazers, whose payroll exceeds $80 million, failed to even make the playoffs and finished ten games under .500.
With a plan in place that will triple the amount of money devoted to revenue sharing and provide incentives for free agent players to remain with their current teams, the league could look more like it did in ‘70s when eight different teams won the title in ten years. However, the NBA during that decade lagged way behind in popularity to even the college game, and it wasn’t until the eight combined titles won by the Showtime Lakers and the Larry Bird Celtics that the league soared to new heights on the national stage.
But Stern and company seem bent on satisfying owners from even the worst run franchises, and his intervention of the Chris Paul to the Lakers trade speaks to the extremes he and the rest of the league office are willing to go to in order to make this parity happen. With products like NBA League Pass as well as articles, highlights, rumors, interviews, and even pics of girlfriends available for every team, the NBA is banking on competitive balance as a way to increase attention, similar to how the NFL makes nearly every game a can’t-miss event.
So for now, Stern can breathe a sigh of relief that his unofficial status as “best commissioner in American sports” is still relatively in place despite a lockout shortened season. But with the threat of Dwight Howard jumping from Orlando to LA, Brooklyn, Dallas, or just anywhere bigger than Orlando, the commissioner may need to revisit the issue again sooner rather than later.
