Barnstorming: Tracking organizational chaos

Just three weeks in to the NBA season, we are at that point where the haves begin to separate themselves from the have-nots. And this season, perhaps more than ever before, it feels that organizational chaos is the demarcation line between the two tribes.

While the Golden State Warriors are riding continuity and comradery to one of the greatest starts in NBA history, cracks are beginning to show in the Philadelphia 76ers’ Process (or at least in their execution). The Detroit Pistons have shaken off the ghost of Josh Smith and the burden of an ill-designed roster. Now a swell of internal development and shared vision has carried them much farther and much faster than anyone expected. Meanwhile, the destructive shadow of Kobe Bryant continues to loom over Los Angeles and D’Angelo Russell, the second pick in last year’s draft, has had trouble getting off the bench in fourth quarters. The reasons for his benching have not been expressed clearly enough to be used as a teachable moment.The Spurs have stayed Spurs-ing, running out to perhaps the second-most impressive start in the league. And the Sacramento Kings are doing their thing — DeMarcus Cousins cursed out George Karl, who was then told he couldn’t suspend Boogie for the angry words. General manager Vlade Divac capped it off by asking the players if they thought Karl should stay as coach.

These chaotic dichotomies are everywhere (I didn’t even mention the Houston Rockets beginning to tune out Kevin McHale or the Knicks mastering their demons and playing honest to goodness respectable basketball). Teams don’t just lose games because their coaches and players don’t get along, or because the product on the floor doesn’t jive with the mission and vision statements pouring out of the front office. But chaos is a petri dish for losing to leap onto and replicate all over. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Suffice it to say, the Kings are losing because Cousins and Karl are butting heads and there is a whole lot more butt-heading because they keep losing. It’s an Ouroboros of destruction.

There are a great many ways to win games in the NBA and collecting talent is usually first on the agenda. When that talent fits together in complementary ways it’s even better. Put that complementary talent into well-designed offensive and defensive systems and watch it sing. Those elements of success are obvious enough that even the most inexperienced of general managers (be they armchair or professional) can set up a general plan for accomplishing them. But they can be either buttressed or undone by all the softer structures that go around them. Acquiring an athletic wing who can hold his own defensively and knock down a corner three-pointer is an obvious step forward. Clearly communicating said role to that wing in a way that makes him feel valued and engenders buy-in is at least as important but a less noticeable success.

One of the growing complaints about the 76ers is that, in their undeniably shrewd management of assests, they may have forgotten the value of treating those assets as human beings. It’s not a zero-sum game, an either/or situation, but the 76ers may be building towards a youthful, talented, reasonably priced roster of players who don’t really want to be there. George Karl may be a better coach than Mike Malone, but the chaos it took to get him into the Kings’ locker room may have entirely undone his credibility before he even arrived. On paper, the Lakers have the pieces for their next iteration of success but their inability to generate a cohesive plan for present and future may erode that foundation.

The Spurs, as always, are the counter-example, the solid fortress at the other end of the spectrum. In terms of shared values, long-term vision, communal loyalty, they are everything teams like the Lakers and Kings are not. It may seem like the Spurs are coasting on the machine they’ve built, that the heavy lifting has already been done and that the system now functions mostly independently, fueled by Tim Duncan’s humility and Gregg Popovich’s sarcastic brilliance. I have never been inside the Spurs’ locker room but I guarantee that is a vast miscalculation. Communication, respect, loyalty, patience, and forgiveness are hard work, especially to the degree that San Antonio practices them, as core values. Creating a basketball organization where everyone is allowed, assisted and given full-throated encouragement in doing their best work (mistakes and all) is just as important to San Antonio’s success as ball movement. And they work at this building a village stuff just as hard as they do at defensive schemes and offensive execution.

Shedding organizational chaos is not as simple as dropping bad apples or adopting a slogan. It’s complicated work, at least as intricate as defending a pick-and-roll or running well-spaced fast break. It takes repeated practice and tolerance towards the inevitable mistakes that are made along the way. And it is work that must be shared. Responsibility for chaos doesn’t rest with Vivek Ranadive or DeMarcus Cousins anymore than it did with the Maloof’s buffoonery (hence the chaotic continuity). Just firing Byron Scott is not salve enough for heal Russell’s developmental wounds. Sometimes a fresh start is called for but that in and of itself isn’t nearly enough. Institutional values are the product of an entire organization, top to bottom, front to back, from the person who sells season ticket packages to the trainer who tapes ankles, to the guy taking the last shot, to the guy at the end of the bench waving a towel. It takes a community to make a community.