Inertia is the NBA's silent killer. Whenever a winning team tries to run it back for another season with the same core, they pay the price: first in escalating deals for the same talent, then in the opportunity cost of all the moves not made. Continuity—for all its benefits—can be logistically inhibiting. Those franchises operating near or over the salary cap are highly incentivized to re-sign their own players, as it would be far more difficult to replace them. What a team can offer too often becomes what a team must offer. In just a few seasons, that intriguing young team that crashed the playoffs can stall out completely from financial gridlock.
The Wizards’ Strange Offseason Was Years in the Making
