It’s too obvious to say that building a team is more difficult than it looks. But it should also be obvious that building a team is less difficult than a few owners/GMs/coaches/a certain GM-Coach whose name rhymes with ‘Fun-schmeevy’ have made it look. There are certain guiding principles, bits of prevailing logic perhaps, that have guided lesser franchises through harder times by way of savvy management. Things as basic as avoiding draft land mines (or at least avoiding stepping in the same ones repeatedly), refusing to buckle in trade negotiations when in possession of real value, and knowing when to buy and when to sell. These general concepts (among many, many others) are the foundation of reasonable team management, but here’s the bizarre thing: even when armed with a detailed understanding of the league, an appreciation of the general tenets of successfully running a team, and a comprehensive history of the NBA crammed into your skull, there are no guarantees of success. Proper management will get you so far, but the harsh reality is that proper team-building takes so much more.

The Portland Trailblazers are an interesting case study on multiple levels, but particularly because their fortunes have been all over the place. Brandon Roy is clearly the star of the show, and rightfully so. He’s an incredibly talented offensive player who can produce without stymieing the greater team-wide vision. In fact, with a player of Roy’s particular talents and tendencies, you could go as far as to say that he excels within a team framework. There are certain NBA players who were born to win one-on-one tournaments. And for what it’s worth, Roy probably wouldn’t do too badly. That said, the true beauty of his game comes in how he controls the flow of the offense and manages space. He works the pick-and-roll beautifully, he draws extra defenders and finds the open man, and above all, Roy isn’t just capable of making the pass, but completely willing to. He’s humble. He’s a consummate professional. He’s hungry. And despite everything that has gone right for the Blazers in amassing their stable of young talent, it’s possible that they still haven’t figured out what kind of players are best-suited to flank Roy (and LaMarcus Aldridge, and whoever else is deemed part of the core).

It’s not as simple as taking a franchise model and plugging in Roy. His style is very much his own, and despite the temptation to assume that he would work the same in any number of systems with a precedent of talented shooting guards, that’s not the way it works. Just because the Bulls of the 90s, the Lakers of the early 2000s, and the current incarnation all run some version of the triangle offense, the personnel put their mark on the system. In those cases, you can hold the coach and the system constant, but that doesn’t make Luc Longley and Shaquille O’Neal one in the same. Players will always shape a system to make it unique, and great players typically have a more profound influence than is easily recognizable. As much as Roy is to be part of McMillan’s system, the system and the rotation must adjust to the specificities of Roy’s game. Hence, we now have quite the ongoing quandary in regard to Steve Blake, Andre Miller, and Jerryd Bayless’ spots in the rotation. If you rank the players in terms of their sheer basketball value, you may end up with a different result than if you ranked them according to their value to this team. It’s a hell of a situation to be in for a team that supposedly had it made, and it’s only the most obvious of the Blazers’ troubles this season.

You can write your rules, follow the guidelines, and flesh out the system and the game plan all you’d like, but things in the NBA don’t go according to plan. Long-term success hinges on a coach and a front office’s ability to learn and adjust, and though the Blazers are far from any kind of critical point, their current troubles have only furthered their position as a team of interest. NBA rotations don’t just fall into place, regardless of the talent on the roster, and though some acquisitions may seem random in nature, those that work out seamlessly are often those that are carefully weighed in the context of not only the system, but the specific roles and capabilities of the players within that system. It’s all a very delicate balancing act. After all, if Steve Blake doesn’t take a step back this season? Or if the Blazers inked Paul Millsap or Hedo Turkoglu rather than Andre Miller in the off-season, would we even be discussing which type of player operates best alongside Roy? The situation is always fluid and always unique. Although it’s nice to rise each morning and go to sleep each night with a mission statement and a roster full of talent under your pillow, finding success as a team is rarely about such glittering generalities. The Blazers may be better off than the league’s have-nots, but Kevin Pritchard, Nate McMillan, and the Blazer brain trust still have plenty to figure out.