By Randy Hill
FOXSportsArizona.com
The task of building a contemporary NBA powerhouse can be abetted by several tried-and-true construction theories.
One method is to completely wipe out your roster, immediately hire three gifted free agents who didn't really plan to work together and then hope to have enough discretionary loot remaining to buy a couple of guys who can get them the ball. Or you can trade Vlade "The Haler" Divac for the rights to young Kobe Bryant, find a general manager willing to take salary off your cap, sign Shaquille O'Neal, win three rings, wave bye-bye to Shaq and wait for another GM to give you Pau Gasol.
Another foolproof powerhouse-building tactic is to allow a former franchise great to help rebuild your team in his new role of general manager ... for another team. The Boston Celtics should always love you, Kevin McHale.
I also happen to believe a year or two of great won-loss pain often is necessary in order to score a high draft pick that lands a great player who can become the leader of a future top-tier team.
But, depending on roster leftovers, this rise to powerhouse probably won't happen for a while with a team dominated by NBA kids. That theory inspired this particular look at why getting twitchy over collections of young talent around the league can be a short-term disappointment.
To better understand this particular why, let's take our cue from a commercial unleashed upon the viewing public by a popular snack food. Monitored by a snack psychologist, of sorts, a young wheel of cheddar isn't judged as snack worthy until evolving from bad-cheese-joke delivery to announcing plans for his 401K.
The difference was ... drum roll ... maturity.
Please note that teams don't have to be totally old school for a legitimate run at the championship. In fact, successful franchises recognize the difference between ripe and rotting. Maturity can find its way into a player or group of players in varying amounts of time. The big key under this banner of maturity is experience.
Before taking a look at the experience levels of current contenders, let's take a 20-year run back through history. My arbitrary length in this rewind was inspired by the chronology of uniform shorts being transformed from disturbingly snug to ridiculously voluminous.
Anyway, our review of the past 20 NBA champions tells us that every champagne-spraying team had a core of veteran players. Sure, there were a few young guns in the rotation here and there, but been-there-done-that was an important theme.
For specifics, we have six titles won by the Chicago Bulls franchise, which featured relatively old head Michael Jordan, young in-his-prime vet Scottie Pippen and several other co-stars with plenty of mileage.
The Lakers have five rings in the past 20 years. O'Neal was battle-tested by the time Phil Jackson arrived to deliver the first three in as many years, and Bryant was beyond the puppy stage. Kobe's last two titles were escorted into existence through the help of veterans Derek Fisher, Lamar Odom and Gasol.
The Houston Rockets' back-to-back championships -- during the Jordan baseball experiment -- occurred on the backs of experienced superstars named Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler. The San Antonio Spurs have four of the past 20 crowns, thanks to deft mingling of hired senior guns and rising superstars. OK, David Robinson was a twilight superstar for the first San Antonio championship, working alongside newcomer Tim Duncan ... who only seemed like an older guy.
Miami's only championship (before our expected blitz of six in a row) was delivered by youngster Dwyane Wade, who was assisted by O'Neal and a veteran roll call. The Detroit Pistons? Tayshaun Prince and a bunch of guys with pretty low numbers on their Social Security cards. The last Celtics banner was hoisted thanks to Rajon Rondo's ability to spoon feed three superstars about to see their primes in the rearview mirror.
So, who's next? Well, we'll see if Miami can be the first to really buy a championship with three young (seemingly mature) superstars surrounded by quite a few teammates who probably started plucking gray hairs a few years ago.
The Lakers do have two rookies but are thinking about sending them out for a little D-League seasoning. The San Antonio Spurs? Please. The Celtics aren't getting any worse ... but they're not exactly getting younger. The Chicago Bulls look pretty promising and have two young stars (Derrick Rose and Joaquim Noah), but a rotation that includes Carlos Boozer and Luol Deng can't be lobbed into the youth-movement pile.
OK, what about those young stockpiles?
Well, I'm a fan of what's going on in Oklahoma City, although the maturity clause seems to be in play when the defensive efficiency plummets a few months after they stamped themselves as a contender in the making by shaking up the Lakers. But rather than scrape together enough cap room to buy an established vet, I think the Thunder should keep the young core together long enough to mature like our wheel of cheddar.
The L.A. Clippers have Blake Griffin, Eric Gordon and couple of solid rooks not named Griffin. They also are losing at a rate that should guarantee a shot at another high pick. Based on franchise management, karma prevents me from wondering what might happen here.
The Washington Wizards are leaning on a lot of young guys with talent, but unless someone convinces Andray Blatche to play defense once in a while, and JaVale McGee is shown a post move, it will be little more than a tease.
The Memphis Grizzlies are believed to be a young-and-talented crew on the rise, but the elevation might be a lot higher had they drafted Stephen Curry, Brandon Jennings or Tyreke Evans instead of Hasheem Thabeet.
At least they were sharp enough to demand that the Lakers throw in the other Gasol.
