The Ten-Step Method To Building a Champion

Basketball is really more science than art. Perhaps someone might wish to mention that to the new age General managers and coaches who build teams on run-and-gun principles and claim that a new age of basketball is upon us.

These pioneers of the twenty-first century feel that the game has evolved to the point where the traditional method of building championship teams can be tinkered to usher in a new era of entertaining basketball.

However, we've seen talent and art fall to its knees in the face of toughness and tradition far too many times to believe that this new era so-to-speak will ever change this game when it counts.

Forty-two wins the right way beats Sixty-five the wrong way ten times out of ten.

When you look at the teams that win Championships, it isn't just a random fact that each year, it is always one of the top defensive teams in the league. Each year, it is a team with intimidation in the paint, defenders on the perimeter, and superstars who play both ends of the court that win championships.

People suggest that the Detroit Pistons winning an NBA Championship in 2004 was an exception to the rule. I would argue that it was the truest testament to it.

Whether we're talking of Bill Russell's Celtics, Magic's Lakers, Jordan's Bulls, Shaq and Kobe's Showtime, Duncan's Spurs, Hakeem's Rockets The Pistons of the badboy era, or more recently of the Boston Celtics, the primary rule still exists.

Offense can take you only so far. Eventually, shots stop falling, the paint closes off, the help comes more quickly, and the transition defense improves. If you can't stop the other team, you're going to lose.

So why have we seen teams like the Suns glorified for showing the league a perfect formula for building a perennial loser? Is there any logic in naming executives and coaches such as Bryan Colangelo and Mike D'Antoni brilliant?

Do we live in an age where players like Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki win MVP trophies and earn places in NBA history, while players like Shaquille O'Neal and Tim Duncan are ignored because we live in a league so obsessed with using quantity  to assess quality?

Why does ten assists per contest mean anything because the player's team is able to win sixty games? Does it warrant back-to-back MVP trophies when the player being glorified is one of the biggest reasons for his team's lack of success in the postseason?

I assure you, this is not simply a rant without purpose, but more so an attempt to set things straight in a league gone so very wrong. 

Sadly. it is us as fans who are ultimately fooled into believing that every team plays to win championships.

In any given season, there are about three to four teams that ever have a chance at winning a championship. The rest of the teams are either lottery-bound, or simply trying to mint some money and cover their expenses.

When a General Manager comes in and states that they're going to bring with them an exciting fast paced brand of basketball, they should be bought out of their contract before they even start.

Guys like LeBron James and Mike D'Antoni may sell out arenas, but give me Tim Duncan and Greg Popovich any day of the week.

The biggest misconception the casual observer makes is that the team with the most talent, the most wins in the regular season, or the best player is going to win in any given series.

This just isn't true. In 2007, the Cavaliers had the most talented player in the series and managed to lose badly to the Spurs. Last season, Kobe Bryant was the best player on the court against the Celtics, and yet he went home empty handed.

The Spurs and Celtics hung their hats on defense and were rewarded with rings.

So How Do you Actually build a Championship Team? If it's a science, I'm sure this won't be too hard to figure out.

These are my Official 10 Steps to building a Championship team

1. Defence and the No Bullshit Approach

Above everything else, the cardinal rule of playoff basketball is that it comes down to execution in the half-court setting. If you're giving up penetration, having disorganized help sequences, or are unable to protect the paint, not even Michael Jordan can save you.

By relying on defense, you build a team which is more consistent on a night-to-night basis. It is rare that such a team should ever beat themselves. If they lose, it's because they're completely out-matched talent-wise. In the post game, you hear the same comments. "They just beat us".

It's a no-bullshit approach which defines these teams. Whereas teams which focus primarily on their offense will say "our shots just didn't fall tonight".

There is a difference in how you win, and in how you lose. Sometimes, while it may sound odd to say the least, a loss can be far more impressive than a win.

2. Post Presence

You will never find an NBA Championship team which did not have a presence in the paint. May it be Rodman, Rasheed Wallace,  Shaq, Olajuwon or Duncan. It's no surprise that a player like Allen Iverson is third in all-time scoring average, and yet his only trip to the Finals was with Dikembe Mutombo on his team.

This trait holds true for every Championship team in NBA history. The Bulls showed that you don't need offense from your big men as much as you need lane intimidation, rebounding and post defense.

3. The right kind of leader
If your leader doesn't value defense, consider your championship hopes a pipe dream. There is no instance where players like McGrady or Steve Nash have led a team to an NBA Championship. Raja Bell and Shane Battier can't really change that.

If we're to believe that a great team governs or polices itself, then we also have to accept that the majority of this enforcement is being done by your leader, or your captain.

If defense and toughness are contagious, so is the opposite. You'll notice a tendency of teams led by jump shooters to form an identity as a perimeter oriented team.

Conversely, teams led by defensive hard-nosed players tend to take on that identity, as players look to their leaders for a standard of quality. If your leader is your hardest worker and your toughest individual, you're in good shape.

Also, this leader doesn't have to be your best player, or even a player. It helps, but leadership sometimes comes from veterans, or from the coaching staff. In either case, this individual dictates the standards for the rest of the team.

4. Your Clutch Performer
Let's face it. Very rarely are championships won without ever facing close games and tight situations. In these situations, it's important that you have a player in whom you can trust to get you a basket.

It doesn't always have to result in them scoring per se, but by putting the ball in this players hands, you ultimately have to know that you will get something positive out of it.

This role has been played by Jordan, Wade, Billups, Bryant, Duncan, Ginobili, Pierce and many others. This individual serves a role as his team's security blanket. There is no feeling like being hopeful despite being down eight points with two minutes to go.

That's what true superstars can do, and through this confidence they breath into their team mates comes a swagger, or a healthy cockiness.

Jermaine O'Neal put it best. "There's no feeling like walking out on the court every night and thinking there's a good chance you're going to win", That starts right at the top dog, and extends down to the last guy on the roster.

Confidence is the most underrated factor in basketball, and clutch performers allow their teams to stay hopeful until the buzzer sounds.  

5.Depth

If you lack  depth in this league, you leave your Championship dreams to chance. Having a team which falls apart after its top seven players could lead to disastrous situations involving injuries and foul trouble.

Also, practice is completely underrated in the NBA. It certainly helps bring the best out of players if you can create some healthy in-house competition.

Depth also gives you a breather in close games on the second night of a back to back, or the fourth game in five nights.

6.Versatility

I think for defensive, and depth purposes, players who can play multiple positions are invaluable. Pure Point guards are valued, but players like Marko Jaric or Devin Harris who have a lot of size at that spot can be useful for plugging multiple holes in case of injuries, and in terms of defensive coverage.

Anytime there's a switch and you get a shooting guard on a guy like Brevin Knight, you're in trouble. This isn't a knock on pure point guards of slight build and short stature, but more so a suggestion that the back-up point guard being a bit of a tweener isn't the worst thing in the world.

7. Athleticism

This isn't to say that you need the best athletes in the NBA, but having stiffs really hurts your ability to match up against other teams. Building a Champion in the way the Spurs, Bulls or Lakers did involves thinking ahead to potential holes, and plugging them.

In the playoffs, lacking a true big man who can stop other big men is going to hurt you at some point. Having a set of wing players who don't play defense very well will hurt you as well.

Does this mean that Peja Stojakovic and Jason Kapono should be out of the league? Certainly not. It means that to keep their positive offensive attributes as a potential weapon, you need to balance their act with a defense backup, who can be relied on to play extended minutes in the event that said player is being exposed.

8. A Good Coach

There is really one guy in the last twenty years who's been a championship coach without being one of the five top coaches in the league, and that's Doc Rivers last season.

Other than that, the Jackson-Brown-Riley-Popovich domination over the last two decades should show that great coaching is invaluable.

There are many teams which would have actually won a championship had they simply had a different coach at the helm, and it could be argued that perhaps even the Bulls may not have been 6-time NBA Champions without Jackson.

A good coach is a very general term, and perhaps it requires a little breaking down. It falls down to off-court, and on-court team management.

The off-court is very important. There isn't a guy in this league that doesn't think he should be starting. That may include Jerry Stackhouse, and it may include Jerome James.

It certainly isn't easy managing these massive egos, communicating and interacting with each of them and ensuring each one's demands and needs are at least heard.

On the court, it comes down to evaluation. The coach has to evaluate the other team, evaluate his own team, evaluate the match ups, and evaluate each situation. To have a guy like Popovich, who can pull of mid-game adjustments which save his team from losing is invaluable.

The guys like Don Nelson, Mike D'Antoni, and Sam Mitchell get the hardware and praise, but it's the Stan Van Gundy's, the Lawrence Frank's and the Rick Carlisle's that fly under the radar. Having a top five coach helps your odds greatly.

The Celtics prove to be an exception to this rule, but after considering that they were pushed to seven games in each of their first two rounds, one might say this only proves the point.

There was no way a team that snuck into the playoffs like the Hawks did should have pushed Boston that far. I actually respect Rivers for the job he did managing that team, but I certainly don't think he's a top 10 coach in this league, much less a top 5 one.

9. Perimeter Defence

You probably notice that there is a ton of talent across NBA rosters on the wing position. To be quite frank, having one of the top five wing players certainly helps your odds, but it certainly isn't a need. Having defensive stoppers to match up with them is far more crucial.

It's this fact which has me puzzled as to why Trevor Ariza has been moved around so often.

Sometimes there's a notion that poor perimeter defense can be compensated for by great interior defense. This is simply a myth. There's no substitute for perimeter defense. Having defenders who can't keep their men in front of them means opposing players are constantly in the paint.

If you're putting that pressure on a big, you risk the opposing bigs having a big night, or your own big getting into foul trouble early. For a team like San Antonio for instance, this would be a little tough considering their best player is the same guy they rely on for help.

Interior defense is an insurance policy. It isn't a free pass. Team philosophy also helps in this regard. For instance, the Pistons had a brilliant defensive system created by Rick Carlisle and Kevin O'Neill which involved perimeter defenders and big men working together on penetrations to trap baseline.

It was a system of basically guiding opposing players into the paint in a situation where they would have to shoot over Ben Wallace. This is far different than lazy defenders simply getting blown by twenty feet away and bigs having to chose to either help or stay home on their own man in case of a drop off.

If interior Defense is understood as an insurance policy, your big man's 6 fouls might be best equated to your insurance rates.

10. Guard Penetration

It is absolutely invaluable to have players who can get into the lane and draw extra help. Provided that they're players who understand basketball fundamentals, this causes ticky-tack fouls on the opposition and a ton of open looks for other players.

There's an old philosophy in basketball which suggests that in a close game, the team that gets into the penalty first gives itself the better odds. There really isn't a better way to draw fouls than to penetrate.

Your Championship Roster

Based on my projections, I will now attempt to spread 1000 points across 13 players, in terms of where I feel the money/skill is best used.

PG-77 (Prime)
SG-89 (Youth)
SF-84 (Prime)
PF-79 (Veteran)
C-96 (Prime)

6-SF/SG-81(Prime)
7-PF/C- 78 (Youth)
8-PG/SG-75 (Prime/Youth)
9-C-73 (Veteran)
10-SF-69 (Youth)
11-67 (Veteran)
12-67 (Prospect)

13-65 (Prospect)

Prospect=Rookie/Project
Prime=26-32
Veteran=32+
Youth=22-26

Now for fun, lets fill the slots with some names?

PG-Rafer Alston
SG-Brandon Roy
SF-Gerald Wallace
PF-Antonio McDyess
C- Tim Duncan

6-Stephen Jackson
7-David Lee
8-Jerrett Jack
9-Etan Thomas
10-Rodney Carney
11-Malik Allen
12-Roko Ukic

13-DeAndre Jordan

Please feel free to leave your opinions, and as well your realistic championship team.