Hardwood Paroxysm on "The OKC Model"

[LooseCannon]

One of my favorite basketball blogs, Hardwood Paroxysm, has a post up telling people not to overrate the OKC model for rebuilding.

While lauding Sam Presti for acquiring cap space and draft picks, that's not the only ingredient for the Thunder's success.  The team tanked, not by giving young players minutes, but by hiring an incompetent head coach in PJ Carlesimo. And the team got lucky in the lottery moving up from #5 to #2 via ping balls to get Kevin Durant.  Not mentioned is that to get to that fifth-worst team, they had to blow the #10 pick in 2006 on Mouhamed Sene, ahead of Rajon Rondo, Ronnie Brewer, and Kyle Lowry, and the #12 pick in 2004 on Robert Swift, ahead of Al Jefferson, Josh Smith, and Kevin Martin (before Sam Presti's watch).

The article notes that tanking was partly a result of shedding popular players such as Rashard Lewis and Ray Allen to make it easier to relocate the team to Oklahoma City.  That is an aspect of the OKC model of rebuilding that no franchise should try to replicate.

Does Oklahoma City end up as good if they draft well and have good coaching pre-Durant?  It's always been my contention that it is hard to get down into a good position to get top three pick unless you are poorly managed and coached for several years, suffer a catastrophic injury to your best player, or get extremely lucky in the lottery.  Really tanking involves playing talent that is not just young but also bad, young talent that has no real future in the NBA.  I suggest OKC went the route of being poorly run before they got better.

[Who]

OKC only really started to rebuild after they got the rights to Kevin Durant. Not before.

Makes it a lot easier to rebuild when you already have a top prospect of that caliber on board.

[mcshane41]

It's a stars league, you get some your a genius. Anything else is ineptitude. Rebuilding is really all the same, it comes down to patience and luck.

Celtics - piled assets but only drafted okay, pulled the trigger when it all mattered to land the right pieces. lucky and smart

Celtics - tanked, fettered away assets for non-stars (we drafted Joe Johnson & Chauncy Bilups? Wait, what happened to the late 90's early 2000's?). inept,

Detroit - impatiently killed their chances to either sign a big name or field a crappy team capable of acquiring good draft slots. No that is inept.

Thunder - Lucky in draft but smart in FA.

Cleveland & Orlando - lucky in draft, foolish in FA/trades. Failed to surround their stars with one legit all-star. Paid/paying the price now.

Next C's rebuild? I am hoping we can somehow do it on the fly if Rondo & Green (who else will we get with that cap space, bc it won't be DH!) can mesh and foster a cozy looking landing spot for a star... So long as Danny maintains his cap flexibility.. That's the ticket, if it don't work we deal the guys we have and go tanking...

[LooseCannon]

The Thunder had to screw up a few drafts to be in a position to draft Durant.  The Celtics got lucky that Paul Pierce missed almost half a season.  They were 20-27 with him and 4-31 without.

The Sacramento Kings have the fifth-worst record.  They have done so by deciding that acquiring players such as Jimmer Fredette, JJ Hickson, Chuck Hayes, and John Salmons is a good idea.  It's kind of hard to intentionally screw up worse than that.  Tanking ain't easy.