technomaster wrote:Built the right way? Puh-lease.

So building the right way is:
1) tanking for a season
2) hoping the lottery ball comes your way
3) hope the top draft pick is a franchise talent
4) take a few feelers on international players and hope they pan out
5) trade for role players
6) hope your team is healthy at the right time

The right way only works if you get the right impact player in the draft - and that's the foundation. Maybe it's worked out for the Thunder. Without the fundamental piece of Durant, the other pieces wouldn't have made sense.

Quite a number of teams are still in search of the right franchise pick. After so many years, Jordan's Bobcat/Hornets still haven't even managed a #2. And they've tried really hard to lose. A lot.

And look at Toronto - a cautionary tale. They got Bosh and a few years later won the lottery - they 1) tanked. 2) they got lucky. 3) but Bosh left (for less money) and Bargnani didn't pan out as a superstar talent. And hey, they signed euro talent in Calderon & Kleiza.

The other way to win titles is to get a key building block, then trade for complementary pieces. The Lakers have been masters at this historically. Miami did this acquiring Shaq to complement Wade. And of course, don't forget that the Celtics traded for complementary pieces for Pierce too.

+1 A very nice, fair and balanced post. <-this is not sarcasm.

Historically, there are all sorts of right ways to get to chipland. Likes or dislikes are Coke and Pepsi. Try to keep the formulas in the chem lab. They rarely work anywhere else. Even spreadsheets get effed up. Anyone truly expects them to work in the sports entertainment business? Can't card count draft picks. Greg Oden says hello.

The real question you need to ask yourself, is do you really like blue and orange?