Jun 21, 2011; Minneapolis, MN, USA: Minnesota Timberwolves president David Kahn answers a question during a press conference at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

Win at all costs. Only the strong survive. The good keep getting better.  Work smarter not harder. These are commonly used mottos by many sports franchises; it spans the entire scope of all sports around the globe. But, it’s not just sports, its businesses also.

Businesses large or small, it doesn’t matter. Every company wants to be successful, they want to be the best. The ability of a company to be successful falls on the CEO. This is why you hear about CEO’s moving from company to company, just like a free agent in sports. Just like free agents in sports, these moves cost businesses/cooperation’s millions and millions of dollars for that one individual.

When a CEO changes companies, or a new CEO is hired, it can have a huge impact on a business before the CEO ever works a day. Stocks go up, or down depending on these hires.

The parallels between successful Fortune 500 companies and that of successful sports franchises are strikingly similar.  Conversely, the comparisons of poorly run companies and bad sports teams are also very similar.

Ask any successful CEO what they attribute their success to and you will likely hear the same answer. That answer is, their team or staff under them. Ask the managers of those teams what make them successful, and you’ll likely again hear the same thing, their staff under them. It often sounds like the modest/cliché answer to give, but, in reality it is the honest truth.

A CEO may have their finger prints all over a company, but they can’t personally train all of the employees in the company, or oversee every individual that works for the company. The CEO relies upon great personnel under them and guides the operation with information provided to them by those individuals and their departments. But, at the core is a great supporting cast, and every great CEO has an innate ability to get the right people under them to make those departments successful.

A sports franchise is no different. It will sound cliché, but in the NBA, the San Antonio Spurs are the epitome of the successful business model. R.C. Buford could arguably be the greatest GM of all time in the NBA. How so? Well if copying is the ultimate flattery, then the Spurs get flattered year after year, and for every good reason. Their approach to winning in the NBA is that of the ultimate business model.

They do it with a solid organization and infrastructure. It’s not just players, or coach, it goes much deeper. It is the entire structure of the organization, finance department, scouting, player, video, entertainment, sales, marketing, and finally, the coaching and players.

There are more current personnel in the NBA that have come from the Spurs organization, or a branch of the R.C. Buford tree, than any other team or GM in the NBA.

So many NBA teams seem to be more about free agency, and show no concern of building through the draft. In a league that is getting closer and closer to a hard cap, similar to the NFL, teams will have to start adapting a different philosophy if they are to stay competitive in the NBA year after year.

If the NFL has taught us anything, it is how to win in a salary cap league. It’s building through the draft. In order to be good in the draft, a team has to have a great scouting department. So even if a team drafts good, they have to cultivate their talent, which requires a top notch player development department. Once the young talent develops, the team will need to manage the money it takes to keep talent in the organization, and that is where a financial guru comes in.

Examples of basketball teams with a solid infrastructure. The Oklahoma City Thunder, Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets and the Denver Nuggets all seem to have solid business models in place.

You might ask about the NBA heavy hitters; New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, Boston Celtics or even the high spending New Jersey Nets. Simple, look at the financial flexibility any of them have, or “home grown” players on the roster. Furthermore, look at the draft situation each of these teams hold for the upcoming years.

Conversely, there are some bad teams in the NBA that would prove they are void of any sort of business model. The Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns are two prime examples of no organizational direction for the company moving towards.

Other than the Spurs, The Oklahoma City Thunder are another prime example of a team that has great infrastructure. Sam Presti, a R.C. Buford disciple, has assembled a powerhouse of an orginization in the NBA. With Jeremy Lamb, Perry Jones III, Daniel Orton, Reggie Jackson and DeAndre Liggins all having 1 year of experience or less, they have plenty of young talent. Plus they have multiple 1^st round picks in this season’s draft. With Presti’s past success in the draft, Oklahoma will be in the same situation for years to come.

The Thunder could be the New England Patriots of the NBA. They continue to pile up talent and when it gets to be either a little old or a little expensive, they ship it out for picks and continue the cycle.

As a Timberwolves fan, 0ne can only look at successful teams and their great business models achieve success year after year and just imagine what could have been. If this team had a solid business model in place and a great infrastructure going into the 2009 draft. It has been well documented how bad the Wolves (David Kahn) blew the 2009 draft. Not only 2009, but, who can tell me what happened to the 3 picks in the 2010 draft. A total of 9 1^st round picks in 3 consecutive drafts, and there are only 2 players left on the roster. That’s a 22% success rate. I don’t know about you, but that would get me fired from my job if I produced a 22% success rate.

There is really no way to judge the player development aspect of the Wolves. So there is the financial department of the Wolves. They currently have $59 million on the books for next season and that’s without Chase Budinger and Nikola Pecovic on the roster. Knowing that Pek will be in the $12 million dollar range, and Chase will need in the $2-$3 million range for a total of $15 million. That puts the Wolves in the $74 million range, which would be the 9^th highest payroll in the NBA for the 2012-2013 season.

With all the talk of bringing back Kahn or finally going in a different direction. One thing is for sure, regardless of the injuries this past season, it is clear Kahn hasn’t set the team up to succeed for years to come. And with what could have been, Kahn can only be considered a failure for what he’s achieved considering what he had at his disposal to start. Considering that he went into the 2009 draft with no head coach, it also seems like Kahn went into the draft with no plan, and it doesn’t seem like there has been a plan ever since.

Dec 12, 2012; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves power forward Kevin Love (42) asks for a foul call against the Denver Nuggets during the fourth quarter at Target Center. Timberwolves won 108-105. Mandatory Credit: Greg Smith-USA TODAY Sports

  How much worse has Kevin Love been this season? There’s been a lot of talk lately about Kevin Love and his Super Star status for the Timberwolves, good or bad. I’ve heard quite a few ‘talking heads’ say “he will be fine, he’s just getting healthy.” While that could very well be true, the problem is that if you’re a “Super Star” you don’t get to use that as an excuse.

   Kobe Bryant had a fractured finger, bad knee, bad wrist, etc… last season and he missed little to no games while playing at a high (very high) level. Dwayne Wade missed games last season, quite a few actually and he finished 3^rd in the ‘Simple Rating’ formula, (The main components of the ‘Simple Ratings’ are a production measure (a variant of the PER rating) for a player’s own stats versus his opponent while he is on the court, as well as the court/off court plus minus).

   Thoughts on the ‘Simple Rating’ better indicator of a player’s production than the more popular PER (Player Efficiency Rating), and it combines +/-. By including +/- numbers, you can get a better indicator of the players’ impact to his team. To give you an indication as to where Love is, in terms of the NBA, here are the top 8 players in the NBA in ‘Simple Rating’. Also included, are the current 13 active Timberwolves.

   While this article isn’t intended to be on the Timberwolves as a whole, this article is to focus on where the Wolves star ranks in the NBA so far this season. Currently at this point of the season, Kevin Love has a ‘Simple Rating’ of 3.7. In contrast to last season, Love had a ‘Simple Rating’ of 9.8 and was 12^th in the NBA. Through Love’s NBA career, Wolves fans have seen Love grow by leaps and bounds over his 1^st 4 years. Now in his 5^th year, after signing his ‘BIG’ contract, his numbers are not anywhere near his contract would indicate he should be.

   His WS (win shares) are downright pitiful so far this season. Both his TS(True Shooting) and eFG (effective Field goal) percentages are the lowest in his NBA career.  I know this season is young, and there is time, but so far, none of these numbers are encouraging. There are a lot of factors that can possibly go into the decline of these numbers: all of the injuries to both Love and the team, new personnel, lack of practice time due to injuries, the whole team has yet to play together due to injuries. All of those reasons could be used as valid explanations to his ugly shooting, BUT, when you want to be the number 1, ’The Go to Guy’, there should be no excuses, ‘Go to Guys’ just go out and perform.

  The ‘Simple Rating’ that was highlighted above, uses the PER as part of its overall calculation. Here is a look at straight PER and were Kevin Love ranks in the NBA.

   He ranks 59! 59^th in the NBA in PER. We talked about him being injured, so was Nene and he is 7^th. Can the 18.3 PER ranking change? Sure it can, there is no doubt about that. Kevin will need to get his shot to start falling if he wants to get this 59^th rank PER back to where it was last season. Last season, Kevin Love ranked 6^th in PER at 25.4 in the NBA.

  There was talk about Kevin Love being ‘The Best Power Forward’ in the NBA coming into this season. The production of PF’s (power forward) in the league would go to show Kevin Love is not even close to being in the running for ‘Best Power Forward’ in the NBA at this point of the season.

   Taking every PF that averages over 29 MPG (Minutes per Game), Love is near the bottom in almost every shooting category. More telling he has the lowest TS% (True Shooting) among all of the PF. Love is #1 in TRB% (True Rebounding), but because he doesn’t block shots or have any steals, he would really seem to be a 1 trick pony when you look at the numbers. In the NBA, only 3 players with at least 25 games played have a higher TRB%.

   Is there time for Kevin Love to improve his shot? Yes, there is no doubt about that, and that would seem to be the only thing missing from his game right now. Due to his injury and the way it happened and the comments made to Yahoo, it’s becoming more difficult to be patient with Love because of those factors and his who contract debacle still trickling over from last season. In the past, he has complained he doesn’t have the supporting cast. This season that is no longer a valid excuse. With 31% of the season gone (26 games), there is time (56 games). In a tough Western Conference the sooner Kevin Love can get his shot going, the better off this team will be for a team that had high hopes entering the year.