Here is a list of media markets by size (*playoff team)

1 New York*
2 Los Angeles**
3 Chicago*
4 Philadelphia*
5 Dallas-Ft. Worth*
6 San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose
7 Boston*
8 Atlanta*
9 Washington, DC
10 Houston
11 Detroit
12 Phoenix
15 Minneapolis-St. Paul
16 Miami-Ft.Lauderdale*
17 Cleveland-Akron
18 Denver*
19 Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne*
20 Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto
22 Portland, OR
24 Charlotte, NC
25 Indianapolis*
33 Salt Lake City*
35 Milwaukee
37 San Antonio*
45 Oklahoma City*
48 Memphis*
53 New Orleans

I think the so-called small markets can compete.

This is becoming a masturbatory exercise, but NBA teams by Gross Metro Product of their metro region.

1 New York Metropolitan Area*
2 Los Angeles Metropolitan Area**
3 Chicago Metropolitan Area*
4 Washington Metropolitan Area
5 Greater Houston
6 Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington*
7 Delaware Valley (Philadelphia)*
8 San Francisco Bay Area
9 Greater Boston*
10 Atlanta Metropolitan Area*
11 South Florida Metropolitan Area (Miami)*
13 Minneapolis – Saint Paul
14 Metro Detroit
15 Phoenix Metropolitan Area
18 Denver Metropolitan Area*
21 Portland metropolitan area
24 Charlotte metropolitan area
27 Greater Cleveland
28 Indianapolis metropolitan area*
29 Greater Orlando*
32 Greater Sacramento
37 Milwaukee metropolitan area*
38 Greater San Antonio*
41 New Orleans metropolitan area
42 Salt Lake City metropolitan area*
44 Memphis metropolitan area*
48 Oklahoma City Metro*

granted this may have to do with the number of teams in the playoffs every year, but there i think are only 3 teams who haven't made the playoffs in the last 5 years (Minny, Washington, Sacro from my count, although i didn't look that up to confirm).

after a decade of overspending in NY with nothing to show for it (until the last 2 years) and decades of horrible play from the Clips (until luck handed them a number 1 pick), i think its clear that ownership/GM have the biggest hand in how competitive a team is. granted, those big market teams always grab the headline star. but that has always been the case. back to Wilt, Kareem, Shaq, etc. there is nothing different about LeBron or Howard going to "destination" cities. the only reason why Jordan, Bird and Magic didn't do it was because they were already there. and really, this extends far beyond sports. hell, i personally headed straight for a huge market after school (chicago). its just what people do. the big cities are attractive for tons of reasons. but these guys like LeBron, Shaq, Wilt, Kareem: they are once in a generation players anyway.

people will point to '10 and say "what about Amare? Bosh? etc". the reason that happened in '10 was because the teams with the most capspace were the teams trying to pry away LeBron and Wade. so when they didn't get them, they went after Amare, Boozer, etc.

i think what people forget about Pau and D-Will is that these guys didn't force their way to big markets. they wanted out of bad situations and the teams that went after them hardest were big market teams. NJ made the best offer for D-Will, end of story. the Pau trade was obviously fishy, but that had little to do with market-size and much more to do with GM friendliness/loyalty. same with KG. and they had to fucking pry KG away with a crowbar to get him to leave for Boston.


the interesting thing about that list is Cleveland being side-by-side with Miami. but when we have this argument, everyone just says "yeah, well Miami has the night life and the weather and the state tax benefit and etc etc". and my only answer is "well yeah. that's the point, isn't it?"

Any team with the south beach weather and no state tax environment.

What you're ignoring is the margin for error being a big market gives you and the ability to load up additional players for a stretch run. San Antonio and OKC are two examples of sterling management that built consistent winners. Even OKC though hasn't had a long string of true title contenders (of course they will because of how lucky they got with Durant and Westbrook). San Antonio is the only small market team (and they're still in the 7th largest city in the United States) that has managed to have sustained status as a contender.

Miami is also substantially wealthier than Cleveland (although with a less engaged sports base). The thing people are missing though that's of crucial importance is how big it is to have one to two stars in basketball and how few of those exist. And because of the max salary system it makes it very easy for players to cluster in these teams. For example lets say the Nets had approached Lebron but instead of offering him his max salary (of which he took I think a 2 to 3 million haircut off what he could make) they offered him 30 million dollars per year. Now Lebron would be worth spending roughly that amount of your cap and there is no way in hell he takes a around 10 million dollar paycut (or so) to go to Miami.

I'll admit those are special factors. But I think that just lends credibility that it's not about market size. There are three or four premier locations in the NBA (New York, LA, Miami, ?). After that, it's not really about the market size, but about the franchise. People want to play in Chicago because it's where Michael Jordan played. I don't see anyone fighting to play in Philadelphia, despite being one of the largest cities in the country. And even then, ownership trumps all of that. Miami was not a big NBA destination until Wade and LeBron played together in the Olympics and decided to team up one day. Dwight Howard's been desperate to get out of Orlando, but because the ownership sucked, not because Orlando is the sticks (most of his desired teams were big markets, but again, I don't believe Philadelphia was on the list).

OK, I'm not going to beat the point, because I think we're probably approaching agreement. I think there are reasons why Miami and other cities started pooling talent (and you named many of them).

Jodie Meeks and Earl Clark coming to the Lakers too apparently, pretty sweet. Insane starting 5, and a bench that is much better than last year's, cot damn.

I like Meeks. He's not a great player, but I think he's good off the bench. He'll hit the occasional three, run the floor and isn't a bad defender. He was our best defender against Dwyane Wade. Unfortunately, he's terribly inconsistent.

it's August so, uh...what does everyone think of this list?

Best NBA Uniforms

Personally I think Chicago's jerseys are the best in the NBA. I also think the Rockets have the most boring unis in pro sports.

Even though I'm a Bulls fan I think their unis are just average. I absolutely love the Lakers uniforms (all of them) and think they are the 4th best in sports (though I think I'm in the minority).

everyone already knowz this

http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2012/09/0 ... d=nba.2013

so who else is pumped for the 'ZERS this year?!?!

i'm pumped for the timberwolves: love, pekovic, rubio, kirilenko, shved, roy
(+barea, derrick williams, mozgov)

amazingly, they've managed to become whiter than utah jazz.