Philadelphia and Houston fell into that category of a team that is a really good team but that they have no elite talent in any one guy. There's about 6 teams in the league like that that I wanted to avoid taking. I admit they are better than teams like Cleveland and New jersey but in essence you are looking for the best talent you can find in two players.
Exactly. You're not getting a complete team of solid supporting players, you're building that. Why not start out with elite talent?
That said, Kyle Lowry is pretty clearly the best player on a 14-11 team in a tough Western Conference. He's not on the elite level of the top tier players in the league, but with the way he's been playing so far, and his age, and everything else, he's a pretty awesome building block.