Building the NBA Champ Denver Nuggets

It took 10 years of strategic Team Building to bring the first NBA championship to the Denver Nuggets (breaking a 47 year drought).

From the organization level, through the players themselves it's been clear over this season that the past decade of effort in Denver has led to something special.

From drafting their two "home-grown" stars, creating a cultural ethos that values the team and it's large goals above individual achievements, and now winning a championship - there are lots of lessons to be learned from this team building story.

Here are a few things about their story that have stuck out to me from a team building lens:

1. They hired for culture - namely grit and humility

You don't end up with a team that all seems to showcase similar values by accident, these things need to be intentionally compiled. See the 2007-2010 Cleveland Cavaliers for a masterclass in how to not build a team strategically with culture and player match in mind.

Humility:

The only thing that the Finals MVP (Jokic) had to say was:

"We are not winning for ourselves. We are winning for the guy next to us. I was winning for Jamal, I was winning for... Great group of people, great group of teammates." When asked what he's proud of this year he continued "We believe in each other... The relationship that we have is going to be long, longer, even after we finish careers."

You see these sentiments of humility across the team, they are quick to turn every answer about their game into a comment pointing out a teammate's strengths and giving all of the glory to the team itself.

“To do it with these group of guys. There’s nothing like it. This organization believed in me. Five long years." - Michale Porter Jr.

This is not the only way to play basketball or build a team. But it's how the Nuggets decided to build theirs.

Grit:

In the wake of the Game 2's loss, Coach Michael Malone reflected on his frustration that his team lacked effort, in the NBA FINALS!!!

"There is nothing like a loved one's disappointment to make you look within yourself, and Malone's call-out worked because he had already empowered his team to do just that. "I asked them, 'You guys tell me why they lost,' and they knew the answer," he said. "Miami came in here and outworked us, and we were by far our least disciplined game of these 17 playoff games." You can tell a coach's message is resonating when his lieutenants in the locker room — the veteran voices — are echoing his sentiments through the media." (Y!Sports)

The Nuggets build a team from top to bottom that would embody these cultural staples of grit and humility - so that when it came down to it they'd know what a high bar looked like - and how to dig into those a bit more when they slipped.

Translating this to hiring:

Identifying and defining what the underlying values and ethos of a team is sets the foundation for alignment on the important things - especially when things go poorly or get hard. There are so many different qualities that could lead to success in different organizations - but we must know what these few core qualities are on our respective teams in order to vet for them and hire with them in mind!

2. They knew their goals, and their roles

Winning was their overarching goal, and the X's and O's of this can be succinctly summarized in controlable things as per Malone's mantra to "get the best shot. and play great defense."

Each teammate was brought on for a specific intention, and was given confidence to do that role. For example - after struggling with his shooting percentage in the early games of the playoffs, Malone notably reminded him that the he didn't see the Nuggets winning the finals without Michael Porter Jr. And the team was consistent in reminding him of their belief in him and how together they'd each do their parts and get to their overarching goal. Igniting teammates with the weight of the responsibility they carry, and how it's critical to the group's success can go a variety of ways. In this situation, because of the longterm empowerment and strong support system they had in place - it obviously worked.

Translating this to hiring:

Impact is critical to building our teams, but so often left undefined. One of the best ways to build buy-in with candidates in hiring processes is to clearly define the opportunities for impact that have been carved out for them, as well as where they'll have green space to blaze their own impact trails. Being able to clearly define this specific role and impact within the broader team goal gives us the best chance to bring on the right folks who are aligned with our needs, both short and long term.

3. They kept the long game in mind with respect to personell

Especially notably - the team stuck with an injured (ie- disabled) teammate and invested in his rehab as they knew he'd be a key part of their longterm success.

“(Murray’s) first thought was, ‘Man are you guys going to trade me? I’m damaged goods,’” [Coach] Malone told reporters. “I said, ‘Hell no. You’re ours. We love you, we’re going to help you get back and you’re going to be a better player for it.’” (CNN)

Additionally, The Athletic astutely summarized:

"Malone has had the security to develop younger players and give them enough freedom to fail, and to come up with a defense that minimized the weaknesses of his best player, and even to push out a prized draft pick who wasn’t working out.

Malone himself has noted this on multiple occasions — that the Nuggets could have whacked him at several points, particularly after that season-ending loss in Minnesota in 2018. It would have been, if not defensible, at least seen as par for the course in this business. Malone himself knows this all too well, given his early-season knee-jerk dismissal in Sacramento in 2014.

But the Nuggets never overreacted to disappointment, and now they’re reaping the benefits. The Nuggets may or may not be the most talented team in this postseason … but you could forcefully argue they’re the most connected and most assured of what they are, flying around on a string on defense while Nikola Jokić carves up opponents at the other end."

Translating this to hiring:

When we view our colleagues as core (and even necessary) teammates towards achieving our big group goals, we measure their impact by more than daily accomplishments. It brings a new perspective to leave, sabbaticals, and other periods of rest/recovery/family leave for our teams. As well as gives space to fail, to test, envision, iterate and build big things beyond a 6-12 month performance review cycle.

In the words of Jen Henderson, CEO + Co-Founder of Leave Management Solution TiLT, "4 months goes by much faster than you'd think."

My personal takeaway here has been to ask myself a few corresponding questions about my own team building journey with Hustle Hunters:

1. If I could only choose 2 core traits to describe my team with, what would they be? Are these the 2 we want to have at our core?
2. Does each person on our team know our longterm vision and goals enough to have authority and autonomy to build their own role as a piece of the puzzle that will get us there?
3. What are some long term context and anchoring principles that I need to remember now as part of this next short term sprint?

What about you?!