I’m terrified of change. People say goodbyes are hard, beginnings are hard, and life is hard, but really, it’s change that turns the difficulty level of our lives up to 11. Sometimes change comes uninvited, other times we bring it into our lives deliberately, but regardless, the comfort of the known being removed is rarely something we enjoy.
This concept, the fear of change, is buried so deep in our wiring that Thomas Jefferson cites it in the Declaration of Independence. You can trust me on that; I used to be a history teacher.
That feels like a lifetime ago. I switched careers a few years ago to focus full-time on the sports world, specifically the Lakers and the NBA. One of the scariest but also best decisions I’ve ever made in a life that’s featured more than a few bad ones.
That decision led to the growth of the Lakers Nation Podcast and YouTube channel and put me in a position to do countless things that I never would have experienced had I stuck things out with my tried-and-true, safe job in the classroom.
Change isn’t all bad, even I understand that. Within reason.
Sometimes, fighting that primal desire for security and venturing into the discomfort of the new can be what’s needed in order to truly find success. It just has to be done intelligently and with respect for the possible outcomes. Fear is a powerful thing, and it’s there for a reason. Oftentimes, it’s what keeps us safe, it’s that gut feeling telling us that the path home through the dark and treacherous woods probably isn’t the best idea.
It’s so important for our own self-preservation that Daredevil’s lack of fear is a damn superpower, allowing him to do things that others would nope right out of. Fortunately, he has a few other gifts on his side as well, otherwise, his story would be a short one.
With the new NBA season upon us, I can’t help but think about the idea of change-induced fear and how it plays a role in the sport. How some teams have quieted that fear with carefully-calculated risks while others are diving face-first into the waters of change without knowing how deep they are.
Take, for example, my Lakers as the latest cautionary tale. Last summer, they blew up a championship-caliber team and went all-in to be in business with Russell Westbrook. While many were critical of the move, few predicted that it would be a Titanic-level disaster.
The Lakers, however, should have seen it coming, or at least anticipated the effects of failure. Given Westbrook’s age and contract, if things didn’t go well, there would be little opportunity to adjust their course. That’s exactly what happened, and after spending the summer unsuccessfully trying to trade him, Westbrook once again stood beside Anthony Davis and LeBron James on Media Day with the awkwardness of that one friend who can’t take a hint.
The Lakers had the guts to swing big and ignore the fear of change but didn’t respect it enough to give themselves a way out if things got bad. Some teams are following LA’s path across that rickety bridge, and the floor is lava.
The Wolves are such a team. Minnesota wasn’t content with simply making the playoffs, and they executed one of the biggest moves of the summer when they traded four first-round picks plus Walker Kessler (the 22nd pick in this year’s draft), Patrick Beverley (aka Westbrook’s new best friend in LA), Malik Beasley, Leandro Bolmaro, and Jarred Vanderbilt to the Utah Jazz in exchange for Rudy Gobert.
Was it an overpay? Big time.
The trade drew ridicule from pundits around the league while executives grumbled about the effect the move would have on the trade market (what’s the going rate for a 1A star if Gobert is now worth ALL THE PICKS?!). And yet, the Wolves didn’t care. They got the guy that they think will take them to the next tier and make them a force in the West, and in some ways you have to admire that. There’s something freeing about throwing caution to the wind, about betting all your chips on one hand and praying that it goes your way.
Stupid, but freeing.
If things don’t work, if Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns don’t revive the twin towers strategy, the Wolves will be in a similar position as the Lakers: with an aging star (Gobert just turned 30) who has $123 million and 4 years left on his contract that will be incredibly difficult to move, particularly since they, again, gave up ALL THE PICKS in order to get him, and with them goes flexibility.
And look, it may well work out. The patriots of the American Revolution were working without a safety net and that turned out ok, after all. But if it hadn’t, all those men who signed the Declaration, stating that change is a serious thing, would have been charged with treason and lost their lives.
It’s a romantic notion to go for it, to risk it all, right up until the point where it isn’t. Then it’s a nightmare. Conquering the fear of the unknown can be alluring, but venturing forth without a contingency plan is altogether insane. When I left teaching to take the plunge into sports media, I felt confident that, should I fall on my face, I would be able to find a teaching position again.
See, the flip side to respecting change is that too much respect leads to paralysis. Michael Scott said that Wayne Gretzky said that you miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take, and there’s some truth to his sage advice.
The trick is to have an escape plan, always. A contingency to avoid Lakers-ing a pivotal decision. Great leaps, after all, can drastically improve our world.
In 2004, when word got out that the Phoenix Suns were shifting Amare Stoudemire to center and Shawn Marion to power forward so they could play fast and shoot lots of threes, people laughed. The Suns won by 30 on opening night and rattled off four straight wins with an average margin of victory of 23 points to start the season, blitzing the league with what became known as the Seven Seconds Or Less strategy.
The laughing stopped. As it turned out, the Suns, by taking the leap that others didn’t dare and opening themselves up to scrutiny, changed the game forever and created a new era of basketball. They took a risk, albeit a calculated one (the math said their style would work), and it paid off.
Had it not, had coach Mike D’Antoni’s vision fallen flat, they had a relatively young roster, which would provide the flexibility they needed. Stoudemire was 22, Marion 26. Quentin Richardson and Joe Johnson were 24 and 23, respectively. Of their core, only Steve Nash was 30, and his game wasn’t reliant upon athleticism. The risk of failure was a season lost, but the Suns could always flip one of their wings for another big and go back to a more traditional style of play if needed.
They set sail but never lost sight of the shore.
This summer, the Cleveland Cavaliers made that kind of calculated gamble. They gave up 3 unprotected picks, 2 pick swaps, Collin Sexton, Ochai Agbaji, and Lauri Markannen in order to land Donovan Mitchell. This isn’t a risk-averse club, as they raised eyebrows last season by starting Markannen at small forward, but it largely worked despite defying convention.
What differentiates the Cavs’ bold changes from the Wolves or Lakers is that their team is young, as is the player they traded for. In theory, Mitchell could walk away in free agency in 2025, but by then Cleveland will have a feel for where things are headed and a 28-year-old Mitchell should still be immensely valuable, even if things aren’t working out for The Land.
The Cavs have built flexibility into their massive change, while the Wolves could find themselves as Ross Geller, needing to pivot but with no room to do so.
Sometimes, when things change, when we bite the bullet and try something, we fail. We fall. And in the sports world, the pain of failure means public outrage, declining revenue, and lost jobs. That’s the part that keeps teams from going all-in, from throwing caution to the wind and making that high-risk, high-reward transaction, as it should.
Maybe it all works out for the Wolves and they become a powerhouse, maybe even the Lakers escape the perilous situation they have put themselves in.
My advice? Be the Cavs. Take a chance, go for it, but do so while managing risk. Don’t let the fear of change paralyze you but don’t disrespect it either. Failure is a part of life, and as such, has to be planned for.
As I say that, welcome to my substack. My role at Lakers Nation is not changing, nor is the NBA Front Office Show. This is just a little corner I’m carving out for myself to just be me. A change, a scary one at that, but not done without consideration for what failure would mean.
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See ya, and stay safe!