How to LOSE your job in the NBA...

#nba

Why do NBA coaches play a mediocre player while a better one sits on the bench? Usually it comes down to money. When upper management trades for a guy or hands him a max contract, benching him makes the front office look bad, so the coach keeps starting him. In this video I break down how pay determines playing time, with the clearest examples from the last decade.

We start with what’s happening in San Antonio right now. The Spurs gave up three first round picks for De’Aaron Fox in 2025 and extended him through 2030, and it was a good move at the time. He was an all star, one of the fastest players alive, a former steals leader, and the point guard Wembanyama wanted. But then both Fox and Wemby had their seasons cut short, the Spurs landed in the lottery, and they drafted Dylan Harper, who plays the same position. Harper outperformed Fox through the playoffs, went for 24 points, 11 rebounds, and 7 steals in a 47 minute overtime win in the conference finals, and proved in the Finals he was the second best player on the team. Now San Antonio has a 14 million dollar point guard who’s better than their 57 million dollar point guard, and Fox will probably still start, because a max contract player coming off the bench is culturally unacceptable in the NBA.

This isn’t even the first time this happened to Fox. Sacramento gave him a rookie max extension in 2020 one month after drafting Tyrese Haliburton at 12. Two downhill guards who both wanted the ball, neither a great defender, and Haliburton was too good to be a backup. So the Kings traded the cheaper and better player for Domantas Sabonis. The pattern is teams slightly overpay a guy until he’s untradeable, then move the cheap guy when the roster gets redundant.

Then there’s Russell Westbrook in Los Angeles, with Austin Reaves as his backup on a two way deal making less than 3 percent of Russ’s supermax. Reaves was ascending and willing to do whatever the team needed. Russ was descending, coming off a triple double season in Washington and suddenly asked to be a spot up shooter next to LeBron and Anthony Davis. Eventually the Lakers let Darvin Ham do the unthinkable and send a max contract player to the bench, then traded him, and Reaves started every playoff game on a run to the conference finals.

We also get into Ivica Zubac, who was buried in Los Angeles behind Timofey Mozgov, possibly the most overpaid center ever thanks to the 2016 cap spike. The Lakers couldn’t start a 19 year old second round pick over a guy making 64 million, and even after Mozgov was shipped out with D’Angelo Russell, Zubac still sat behind two players who made more than him. He only got the starting job he’d earned after being given away to the Clippers.

Linsanity is the ultimate version of this. February 2012, the Knicks were 8 and 15 with no healthy point guards and Mike D’Antoni coaching for his job. Jeremy Lin came off the bench against the Nets for 24 points, 7 assists, and 5 rebounds, then dropped 28 the next game after Carmelo strained his groin. Seven straight wins with Lin averaging 24 and 9. Then Melo came back, the offense went back to isolation, and the real casualty was D’Antoni, who resigned a month later. Lin at least cashed in with a 25 million dollar deal in Houston.

We also look at the plan teams actually run on purpose, which is drafting a cheap replacement and asking the superstar to train him. Sometimes it works, like Kevin Garnett and Karl Anthony Towns, Chris Paul and Shai, David Robinson and Tim Duncan. Usually it doesn’t. Tony Parker had never come off the bench in 15 seasons when Pop gave the starting job to Dejounte Murray, and rather than mentor him and retire a Spur, Parker signed with Charlotte to be a starter and never started a game there.

Finally the best example of all, Jokic and Nurkic. Denver drafted Nurkic 16th in 2014 as their center of the future and grabbed Jokic as the chubby, unathletic backup plan. Both were good, Malone tried playing them together, it didn’t work, and on December 15th 2016 he benched Nurk and started Jokic, a day Nuggets fans now call Jokmas. Nurkic didn’t just lose the starting job, he fell out of the rotation entirely and got traded to Portland. He would have had a great career in Denver if the Nuggets hadn’t accidentally drafted a top 10 player of all time in the second round during a Taco Bell commercial.