"In a sport in which only five players take the floor for each team at a time, a concentration of stars has been a clear way to build a championship-level team. But even when a team doesn't have a trio of ready-made stars, looking at the top three players on each roster is a good way to measure both the short- and long-term health of an organization and where a franchise is headed over the next few months and next few years. With that rubric in mind, we not only have laid out the cores of all 30 NBA teams, but also ranked them in comparison to one another. And we've done so by taking into account both the group's present and future value -- along with the likelihood that these players will be with their respective teams for the medium to long term."
"Not only did the Thunder win 68 games and their first championship last season, but they also did so with one of the youngest title-winning rosters in NBA history. Then, to cap things off, general manager Sam Presti went out this summer and proceeded to lock all three of his young cornerstones into long-term contract extensions -- officially cementing the Thunder as the perennial favorites to lift the Larry O'Brien Trophy for the foreseeable future."
Star power remains decisive despite increasing roster depth. Concentrating top talent on the five-player court is a proven path to championship-caliber teams. Evaluating the top three players on each roster provides a measure of both short- and long-term organizational health and franchise trajectory. Rankings of all 30 team cores weigh present and future value as well as the likelihood those players remain with their teams. The Oklahoma City Thunder exemplify the model with a young, title-winning core secured by long-term extensions, positioning them as perennial favorites. Denver has been narrowly short of that level after critical Game 7 losses.
Read at ESPN.com
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