Column: The Impact of NBA Teams on Markets

By Tristin Lieberman
HottyToddy Intern

Time froze when Anthony Davis requested a trade out of New Orleans. Reports came out that he was trying to force a move to the city of Los Angeles. As shocked and appalled as many NOLA fans were, was this something so surprising?

NBA logo courtesy of NBA.com

Big market teams have had a competitive advantage since the beginning of the NBA. Most of the big moves around the NBA feature the biggest, most glamorous cities in the United States. Who would want to play in Minnesota when you could get a max in New York City?

This advantage for big market teams has always been around, but it became glaringly obvious in this past offseason. With Kawhi Leonard and Paul George teaming up in Los Angeles, Jimmy Butler heading to Miami, and Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant going to the Big Apple, the big markets were being rewarded.

This isn’t a new phenomenon. Lebron, Wade, and Bosh formed a big three in Miami. Shaq, Kareem, and Wilt all forced a move to the Lakers. No one is forcing a move to the Minnesota Timberwolves or the Charlotte Hornets.

More recently, this battle has become more and more one-sided. Stars are choosing where they want to play each and every season, whether under contract or not. It’s the player era. Superstars have more power than the GMs making the trades. Lebron might as well have been the one making the trades in his first year in LA.

What can small market teams do to fix this problem? One possible solution, though it isn’t easy and requires some luck, is to draft a player with superstar potential. No one was requesting a trade to the Milwaukee Bucks before they drafted future Hall of Famer Giannis. The formula is simple but almost impossible to pull off. A team would need to draft a superstar, who is good enough on his own to win games and playoff series. This creates a winning culture, and some stars who care about winning more than money or fame will see this destination as a path to a ring.

You might think that a potential way to compete in a small market is to go to the Moneyball style. Constructing a team that complements their strengths and hides their weaknesses with a roster of slightly above average players might work in other sports, but not in the NBA. Almost every single team that has won a ring has done so with a future Hall of Famer, sometimes more than one. Looking at every roster that has won a ring since the 1980s, only the early 2000s “Bad Boy Pistons” don’t have a stand-out superstar.

Technically it is possible for a small market team to land the generational talent of the draft and make no mistakes building around him. The sad truth is that this is next to impossible and these teams will always be at a disadvantage, no matter how you look at it.