Overspending
Chicago Bulls, New Jersey Nets, New York Knicks, Miami Heat - these teams are all capable of signing two or more maximum contract players and provide the big market the superstars are craving for. But what happens if LeBron James and Dwyane Wade chose to stay in their home teams just like Paul Pierce, Dirk Nowitzki and Joe Johnson has done? The key here is not to overspend to pay maximum contracts to second-tier superstars should the top crop of players resign to their respective teams. Giving max contracts to these players reek desperation for teams who will most likely make the playoffs but will regret signing these guys and making them untradeable assets such as Rudy Gay of the Memphis Grizzlies.
Rebuilding through the Draft and Trade Acquisitions
Whatever happened to drafting a potential superstar? Oklahoma City Thunder's GM Sam Presti has done a heck of a job in this NBA 2010 offseason. By moving up in the draft, they hope to finally get a true center who can complement the young core of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Jeff Green through Cole Aldrich. Also, along with the movements and salary cap space, they acquired three-point shooters of whom they are lacking in the past season through Morris Peterson and Daequan Cook instead of involving themselves with the drama this free agency offseason has offered the world.
The New Jersey Nets is a team with great young core players at hand. With Brook Lopez and Derrick Favors, they have a bright future with them although I still have doubts that Devin Harris, an all-star potential, injury-riddled point guard, is still in their line of thoughts when it comes to core players. With the failure to land the top pick in the draft lottery and acquiring John Wall, they have a nice consolation promising power forward in Derrick Favors. Hopefully through a couple of years, they can get someone who will be willing to step up as the leader of the team like the prospective number 1 pick of next year's draft Harrison Barnes who coincidentally is a small forward as well just like LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony. Should they fail to acquire LeBron James, they should hire New Orleans Hornets' GM Jeff Bower as their new general manager primarily of his great drafting skills which produced talents such as Marcus Thornton and Darren Collison who is performing like Chris Paul in Paul's injury-ridden season. Of course, Sam Presti is a given to recruit but he won't be leaving anytime soon.
The Chicago Bulls have also shown great flashes of drafting good young players to fit it in their system thanks to GM John Paxson. Players like Ben Gordon, Luol Deng, Tyrus Thomas, Taj Gibson, Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose were drafted by the Bulls which shows that they have real talent in drafting. The only problem with the Bulls is their way of managing their young players and their contracts once their rookie contracts begin to expire. Also, the cheap shot at hiring a rookie coach Vinny del Negro to coach a potential superstar Derrick Rose is a big no-no for them. But now, thanks in partial to the LeBron James-hype, they've acquired a great coach in Tom Thibodeau. Why credit LeBron James? Because Thibodeau's agency, Creative Artists Agency, apparently is connected to LeBron's agent, Leon Rose. Which is also the reason why the Nets acquired Avery Johnson.
Superstar Pressure
Suppose the top crop of players land in let's say Bulls or Nets, what will young talents like Brook Lopez, Derrick Favors, Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose become of? Will they successfully develop into complementary players? Will they succumb to the pressure of having to produce? Or will they ever reach their maximum potential?
An ideal example of this situation is Rajon Rondo. Rondo has been playing superb as of late and is currently the driving force that the Boston Celtics Big Three of Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett heavily rely upon. He took charge of handling the team of "aging" superstars. However, in his case, the Big Three were united in Celtics past their prime. This is not the case for the Bulls or the Nets because they'll be receiving talents within their prime and their young core of players are still raw especially the Nets.
Well, that was the worst case scenario - pressure to play up to the level of the superstars and then fall off from there. On the other hand, wouldn't it be nice to gamble on a potential superstar's development while he is still young allowing him to be the leader of the team just like Kevin Durant?
Having superstars acquired from free agency is a gift from the basketball gods. However, on the brighter side, failing to land one may also be a blessing in disguise for these teams especially to their young core of players. Who knows, when their free agency time arrives and the market is wide open, it'll be hard for them to leave because the team has shown great trust in them leading their respective teams just like LeBron James and Dwyane Wade who's actually inclined to staying in their home teams.
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