It takes money to win in the NBA.
It’s not an accident that every team that went deep into the playoffs was paying the luxury tax last season. Put in a salary cap and a luxury tax and whatever you want, so long as there is a soft cap there is no true parity because some markets make more and can spend more.
(I don’t think the NBA wants NFL-style parity anyway, it doesn’t work in basketball where one player like a Kobe or LeBron can control a game in a way no football player can. But that’s a discussion for another day.)
Spending to win becomes a challenge for small and middle-market teams -- you can only fill the building and make the most money if you’re winning, but you can only win if you have the money to spend.
Sacramento has been caught in that cycle but seems to be breaking out of it. Co-owner Joe Maloof was on with KHTK in Sacramento and talked about the cycle.
“It almost gets to a point where you have to hit a homerun. It’s very difficult to compete when you’re not filling up that arena. That’s the problem. You have to be able to get the fans in and it’s a catch 22. We made the decision to build through the draft and that’s what we’ve done. We’re gonna try and take a page out of Oklahoma City’s book. They’ve done a fantastic job in their drafts and I think Geoff (Petrie) has done a wonderful job with the players he’s brought in. If you go up and down our roster and look at other team’s rosters you’re gonna see why we’re all so excited. It’s hard to find a big man I’d rather have than DeMarcus Cousins. Maybe (Pau) Gasol for a while, but outside of that I think Cousins is going to be the best center in the league some day.”
The Kings, with Tyreke Evans and Cousins do have a nice young core building. But now comes the part where they have to get the city to buy into it.
“We’ve gotta concentrate on getting fans back into Arco. That’s our number one goal and our number one objective. We’ve gotta get people back in there to watch these games. I think they got a little disenchanted with the team we’ve had. We haven’t had a good team, we’ve had a very bad team the last three years. As most people know these things go in cycles. You’re gonna have some good years and some not so good years. That’s why I feel very good that we’re on our way back this year. With the talent we have we can really make some noise in the West.”
Maloof added that yes, they have been approached a lot in the last decade about moving the team. But right now they are working hard to make it all work in Sacramento, a city that threw itself full force behind the Kings teams of a decade ago.
