Heartland Hoops: Kansas City Revival | MyLeague Relocation Story

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Part 1

June 28, 2015

Kansas City billionaire Harvey Hemsworth was what you’d call “new money.” He had been the VP of a mid-market Kansas City based oil company for 20 years. Five years ago he took over as president after the longtime president, his uncle, retired. Harvey and his board of advisers made a series of very fortunate overseas investments that rapidly increased in value amid the oil crisis. Now he was worth 4.25 billion dollars, something he never could’ve dreamed of just five years ago. Harvey was a family man at heart. He was 51 years old and had been married to his lovey wife Lilly for 28 years. They had three kids. Hunter was the oldest at 23 years old. He just recently graduated with a B.S.B in Business Administration from Kansas University and worked for Harvey. Leah, the second oldest, was 20 years old and was currently a secondary education major at the University Missouri - Kansas City; she had forever wanted to be a junior high English teacher. The youngest, Hannah, was 17 would be starting her senior year of high school in the fall. Harvey grew up a fan of all things sports in Kansas City. There were the mainstays in the Chiefs and Royals, of course, but Harvey's first love was basketball, specifically the NBA.

Harvey remembered going to Kings games with his dad and uncle when he was a kid. The franchise had moved from Cincinnati in 1972 when Harvey was seven. He was too young to really remember their first few seasons, but he did remember his dad and uncle taking him to an occasional Kings game where Harvey instantly fell in love with the game. He was enamored with how big the players were and how gracefully they moved and the fast-pace at which the games were played.

The Kings had some decent teams that made the playoffs a few times when Harvey was a little older and could remember them better. In 1979, when Harvey was 14, the Kings made the playoffs and again in 1980. 1981 was a magical season and by that time Harvey and his dad and uncle were going to 15-20 games a year, and when they couldn't make a game Harvey listened on the radio. The 1980-1981 season saw the Kings finished below .500 with a 40-42 record, but they put together a nice playoff run. They defeated the Blazers in the first round, which was a minor upset. In the Western Conference Semi-Finals, though, they shocked everyone when they defeated the Phoenix Suns who had finished the season 57-25 which was the best record in the West. It was an exciting 7-game series that made Harvey fall deeper in love with the NBA.

Harvey could remember those Otis Birdsong-Phil-Ford-Scott Wedman led teams. His favorite player was Phil Ford. He was the PG and a natural floor general, something Harvey fancied himself playing the backyard or at the park with his friends. So when the opportunity arose after last season for him to purchase a team, he was quick to say yes. Orlando Magic owner Richard DeVos, a connection he had through business partners and someone he had struck up a friendship with about 10 years ago, contacted him about the possibility of buying the team. He was having financial and health issues and was looking to sell the Magic and retire.

At first Harvey hadn’t even considered attempting to move the floundering franchise to Kansas City. How could he do that to another city? He saw the aftermath and the backlash of the Seattle franchise moving to Oklahoma City, and he didn’t know if he could handle that scrutiny. Going back to the 2012-2013 season, the Magic ranked 15th, 23rd, and 23rd in attendance, and this year, midway through the 2015-2016 season, they ranked 16th. Not awful by any means, but combine that with their 88-201 record in that stretch, and seemingly having no direction, he felt like maybe a change of scenery and a change in day-to-day operations. So when it was announced last month that the vote had passed and the Orlando Magic would move to Kansas City at the conclusion of the 2015-2016 season, Harvey prepared himself for major backlash, which came, and accepted the fact that he would, for at least the foreseeable future, but public enemy number one in the eyes of Orlando residents. But deep down he was still like a kid on Christmas morning. He had brought an NBA team back home to Kansas City after a 21-year absence.

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Part 2

July 7, 2015

Troy Weaver had the distinction of being a hot name every off-season in NBA front-office circles when a general manager position opened up, however he had yet to land a GM job. After being primarily responsible for landing Carmelo Anthony at Syracuse back in 2002, which led to a national championship in 2003, Weaver took over as the head scout of the Utah Jazz in 2004 and remained in that position until 2007 before being promoted to Director of Player Personnel. Weaver joined the Oklahoma City Thunder front office in 2008 before being promoted to Assistant General Manager in 2010. While it’s mostly just hearsay, it is widely believed in NBA circles that Weaver is primarily responsible for OKC drafting Russell Westbrook in 2008 when they were strongly considering Brook Lopez and D.J. Augustin. His reputation, an excellent one, certainly preceded him.

Harvey was well-aware of Troy Weaver. Since buying the Magic eight months ago, he had been heavily researching and scouring NBA front-office personnel for potential GM hires. He wanted to hire an up-and-comer, someone with a lot of potential and itching to get their first shot at being a GM. Weaver had a very good reputation and, as he did more research and made more phone calls, Harvey was shocked he wasn’t already a GM. It took some doing, because Harvey seemed pretty entrenched in his job as OKC’s Assistant GM, but after a series of phone calls and long, expensive dinners, Harvey had his GM.

Troy had been hesitant to accept the offer at first. He and his family were well-entrenched in Oklahoma City and he wasn’t too keen on picking up and moving them to another city. Fortunately Kansas City wasn’t too far away and he was intrigued by running a new team looking for a fresh start and, to some extent, looking to build from the ground up. After taking the job he immediately knew he wanted to establish two cornerstone pieces among the hoard of young promising players already on Orlando’s roster. It didn’t take much for him to decide on Nikola Vucevic and Tobias Harris. He felt they had the most upside on the team. Vucevic was a walking double-double who averaged 19 PPG and 11 RPG a year ago. He was just 25 years old and turning into a 22 and 12 player wasn’t out of the question. After that it got tricky. Weaver liked different things about Tobias Harris, Victor Oladipo, Elfrid Payton, and Aaron Gordon. But he also knew he didn’t want to keep all of them. Within the next few years the team would run the risk of either having to overpay all of them when their rookie contracts expired, killing their cap flexibility in return, or watch them walk in FA for nothing in return. As always, he made a list and quick rundown of each player he was considering to make an “untouchable” along with Nikola.

- Victor Oladipo: Good two-way combo-guard. A bit undersized to play SG but doesn’t seem to have natural playmaking abilities. Can shoot the three/stretch the floor, but he’s still a wildly inconsistent 3P shooter. Very athletic but his mid-range/in-between game still needs a lot of work.

- Tobias Harris: Versatile, athletic combo-forward. Improving accuracy on his 3P shot, could be utilized as a killer smallball PF. Consistency is an issue and his defense against traditional PFs can be exposed.

- Elfrid Payton: Big, statsheet-stuffing PG. Has underratedly good court vision and has the potential to be one of the best PG defenders in the NBA. Can’t shoot. At all. Kills floor spacing and he’s also a huge liability at the FT line. Not something you want in your starting PG.

- Aaron Gordon: uber-athletic combo-forward with a constantly improving/expanding game. Shows flashes of being a good 3P and mid-range shooter, but still has a ways to go. Needs to add weight/strength to effectively defend traditional bigs, but has the athleticism to be a versatile defender at the 4-spot.

Troy figured he could be in a worse position. I mean he did have four very young, promising players to choose from as a cornerstone of the franchise, but he also knew if he did decide on one, and traded away the others, he’d quickly be run out of town if he made the wrong decision. He had to carefully weigh his options because whatever he decided to do could ultimately end his career as a GM as quickly as it started.

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Part 3

November 26, 2015

Tobias...no, Victor...but man, I really like Elfrid’s versatility...but Gordon could be a Serge Ibaka type….

For the last few weeks, as the NBA season had gotten underway, Troy had ran those and other, similar, thoughts through his head what felt like millions of times. He was getting to see these guys up close and personal on a nightly basis. Every night he’d see things he loved about each player and things that threw up a red flag. I guess he didn’t have to decide on just one and get rid of the rest. I mean he had front row seats for the James Harden saga and saw how much backlash there was for that, and now look at what James is doing on his own in Houston. Of course Troy understood that if Oklahoma City had been able to re-sign all four of Durant, Westbrook, Harden, and Ibaka, they’d have virtually zero cap flexibility. James didn’t exactly set the world on fire and look like a future superstar and MVP candidate, even up until the point OKC traded him, but there were signs of it being a possibility. Had Troy seen similar signs in Victor? Did Gordon show the same rim-protecting, floor-stretching potential as Serge Ibaka?

The latter he wasn't too confident about. We were in 17 games into the season and Gordon had upped his 3PA/game to 1.5 per game but was shooting an anemic 25.3%. His percentage on mid-range jumpers was in the low-30s and, despite having his minutes upped from 17 last season to 27 this season, he was only averaging 0.6 blocks per game. The more he saw, the more Weaver was sure Aaron Gordon wasn’t going to be his second “untouchable.”

That left Victor Oladipo and Tobias Harris. Troy was well-aware of and had a hand in the revelation of OKC’s deadly smallball lineups with Durant at PF; lineups so lethal that they were always among the top two or three 5-man lineups in the NBA in point-differential per-100 possessions. Troy would never be quick to claim Tobias, or anyone for that matter, could be the next Kevin Durant. Kevin was a once-in-a-lifetime talent and Tobias didn’t have his long-range shooting ability. But Tobias was an excellent rebounding forward and had decent touch from deep. He was a big, strong athletic kid who could be a nightmare off the bounce, too. One of the biggest things Troy learned during his time with the Thunder is that with the right personnel, smallball could prove to be impossibly fatal to other teams. The Warriors had already utilized it to a championship and it was the new wave in the league. Troy long envisioned a team that primarily ran smallball lineups instead of traditional three wings-two bigs lineups. He wasn’t going to necessarily trade away Victor, but for now Troy was set on Tobias as his second “untouchable.”

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Part 4

December 15, 2015

Harvey had repeatedly assured Troy he was fine with the decision and wanted him to make the move. Aaron Gordon had gotten off to a very disappointing start, and Harvey wanted to sell while his value was still relatively high. However, that didn’t keep Harvey from feeling upset about trading Aaron. We were barely 20 games into the season, so trading Aaron now felt more like a panic move than a sound, rational decision. But it was done, and there was no turning back. The move created cap flexibility for Kansas City and netted them a draft pick. The Los Angeles Clippers were in desperate need of frontcourt depth and Josh Smith was already wearing out his welcome. Of course K.C. also had to part ways with another young player Troy liked in Evan Fournier, but they got back Smith’s expiring contract, Jamal Crawford’s expiring contract, and the Clippers 2018 1st round draft pick. It was done. The Knights were off to an 8-16 start and all signs were pointing towards another season of no playoffs. Weaver was a firm believer in it's better to sell and, for a lack of a better word, “tank” than get stuck with a pick in the bottom half of the lottery. He felt this upcoming draft had some very intriguing prospects. Ben Simmons was a given, and a generational type prospect; but you also had others like Brandon Ingram, Jaylen Brown, Skal Labissiere, Dragan Bender, Kris Dunn, and Jamal Murray, all of whom were intriguing prospects in their own right.


Trade Details:

Knights Get: Jamal Crawford, Josh Smith, LAC ‘18 1st Rd Pick
Clippers Get: Aaron Gordon, Evan Fournier, KCK ‘17 2nd Rd Pick

It was done. Now it was time to sit back and wait to see what his gut and head could agree on by the trade deadline.

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Part 5

February 8, 2016

Things hadn’t gotten much better. The Knights were now 15-37, going just 7-21 since their disappointing 8-16 start. Troy knew Harvey wanted him to make at least one more trade before the deadline to create some more cap flexibility and possibly get back a draft pick, too. So why did he still feel so bad? He had called Victor into his office earlier that afternoon to break the news. It wasn’t easy. He was in just his third season and had been decent this year averaging 13.2 PPG, 4.2 RPG, and 3.8 APG. But his efficiency was bad...real bad. Oladipo was shooting just 41.6% from the floor and his true shooting percentage was an abysmal 49.6%. Troy still had confidence that maybe one day Oladipo would turn into a good very good player, but when he got a call from Jeff Bower, the Pistons general manager, things changed. He was interested in moving Brandon Jennings who had an expiring contract and was very disgruntled with his role backing up Reggie Jackson.

Troy said no initially, but as the day progressed he thought more about the offer. Jennings was a much maligned PG. Fairly, he had garnered the reputation as a shoot first and shoot second PG, but Troy thought last year Jennings had started to turn the corner before suffering a torn ACL. Unfortunately for Jennings, Detroit acquired Reggie Jackson, another young, promising point guard, from OKC in a deadline deal and now minutes were hard to come by. Weaver thought, Why not give Brandon a half-season audition in the starting role? If he proved himself, he and the rest of the Kansas City front-office might seriously consider offering him a lucrative contract extension.” Weaver liked Jennings a little more than Elfrid Payton because he could spread the floor with his shooting, was lightning quick, and had shown the ability to be a consistent floor general last season in Detroit before getting injured.

So, the following morning, Troy called back Jeff Bower and accepted the deal. Kansas City got Brandon Jennings and a young shooting guard with solid two-way potential in Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and the Pistons got Oladipo and C.J. Watson and his expiring contract to back-up Reggie Jackson for the remainder of the season. Sending Oladipo to Detroit did make Troy feel a little bit better. The Pistons were currently 22-14 and were in fourth place in the East. He was at least trading Victor to a playoff team with a bright future.

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Part 6

February 18, 2016

Troy and Harvey agreed to make one more deal at the deadline. To most it seemed silly to trade away a promising second year point guard, but to both Troy and Harvey, it was still about finding the pieces that fit together best. Elfrid Payton had shown quite a bit of promise, but his 7 PPG, 4 APG, and 3 RPG left a lot of questions about his long term potential. In return, the Knights cleared more cap space by adding Shane Larkin, Donald Sloan, and a 2018 first round draft pick from the Brooklyn Nets. It was a cap-clearing move, really. Troy wanted to embrace the “Space and Pace” era and fill the team with shooters. He liked teams like Golden State, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio who, at any given time, could put 3-4 players on the court that could consistently knockdown three pointers.

Of course by trading away three promising, young players, Weaver knew he had probably alienated a good portion of the fanbase. If Orlando fans didn’t already hate him for taking away their team, they probably did now by trading away Oladipo, Gordon, and Payton. But what’s done is done, and there was no sense in dwelling on it anymore. The team would be in Kansas City in a few months and Troy would have much more important things to focus on.


The trade deadline had come and gone. There had been a lot of roster turnover and now it was time to see what the team could put together the second half of the season. The Brandon Jennings experiment was off to a decent start. It was only four games old, but he had scored 20+ points on good efficiency in two games and had an 8 assist and 9 assist game. The roster was an eclectic group of maligned veterans with expiring contracts and young players with good potential. No game changers, really, but some potential ones in Vucevic and Harris. Although Vucevic was having a down season relative to last season where he averaged 19 PPG and 11 RPG. So far this season he was averaging 15.2 PPG and 10.7 RPG; but things were looking up in February where he was averaging 16.7 PPG and 13.6 RPG. Tobias was averaging 14.1 PPG and 7.2 RPG for the season, so Troy still had hope that his decision to build around those two was the right one.

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2015-2016: 25-27 | 5th in Southeast | 14th in East

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