re: Small market teams can compete

We need to contend and the only teams on your list that fits the description is OKC and Indiana.

OKC lucked into 4 top 50 players in the draft and 3 of them are arguably top 10 players. It's probably never going to ever happen again.

Indiana is probably the best example here. They drafted smart and developed their players very well ala George, Hibbert, and Stevenson. Then they went out and got a couple of good underappreciated players like West and Hill to round out their starting line up. They continued the trend of bringing in underappreciated talents like Mahinmi, Scola, Turner, and Watson to their bench. They have been very consistent with their approach and have hit on almost every single transaction they've made.

Us on the other hand, have been very inconsistent and the direction of the team is relatively fluid due to the unorthodox roster. There seems to be a lot of mixing and matching in terms of talent with the visions changing or evolving as we go along. Demps and company are learning as they go and it can be dangerous if they can't fix their mistakes before Davis starts to become disgruntled like some of the young stars that are losing patience right before our very eyes.