Why the Lakers Should Have Performed a SWOT Analysis

My Basketball World

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love basketball.  I made my first basket at the age of ten playing at the South End Boys & Girls Club in Tacoma, Washington, and played up to high school ball in Kent.  During my senior year, my team went to the WIAA state tournament and placed 7^th (out of 16 teams, I will add; not just 8).

I’ve since avidly followed the National Basketball Association (NBA) and most established college programs and, if I weren’t trying to build the pre-eminent strategy consultancy in the world, my other dream job would be to be the general manager (GM) of a NBA franchise.  I know how to spot basketball talent and put together the key pieces to form a winning team.  So with this said, I was perplexed when the Los Angeles Lakers hired Mike D’Antoni early this season to replace the deposed Mike Brown.

As of this writing, the Lakers have a record of 12-14.  They are third in the Pacific Division and 12^th in the Western Conference playoff race.  Mike D’Antoni has been 7-9 since he took over head coaching duties.  With the quality of talent the Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak was able to acquire in the offseason to add to an existing core of players from a previous championship team, one would think that the Lakers would be crushing their opponents every game and dominating the league.  Unfortunately for Lakers fans, the team hasn’t lived up to expectations.

The uninitiated might think that if you just put together as much talent as possible on the same team, you’ll end up with a winner.  But, in practice, it usually doesn’t work out that way.  The key is to compile and configure the right talent to be led by a coach who can inspire the group of talented individuals to form a team that can play together cohesively and focus their energies toward the achievement of a common goal.  With that said, Kupchak & Co. should’ve performed a SWOT Analysis prior to their coaching change, which would’ve helped them make a better decision on a very important business matter.

SWOT Analysis Explained

A SWOT Analysis is a structured planning method commonly used in business planning.  SWOT is an acronym that stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.  Strengths and Weaknesses are internal characteristics of the resource being evaluated while Opportunities and Threats are characteristics of the environment, external to the resource.  You can perform a SWOT Analysis on any resource within your organization – the organization itself, a brand, a product or service, personnel, etc.  In this case, I’m performing a SWOT Analysis of the Lakers team, including key players and head coaching prospects.

SWOT Analysis of Key Lakers

A SWOT Analysis of key Lakers team personnel might look something like the following:

For illustrative purposes, I performed this SWOT Analysis for just the three superstar players – Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, and Steve Nash – and the two key candidates for head coach – Mike D’Antoni and Phil Jackson.  In a real world situation, I would’ve performed a full SWOT Analysis for all key players – all projected starters and key reserves – and all head coaching candidates on the Lakers short list.

I developed this SWOT Analysis on my own based on my industry knowledge of professional basketball.  However, to get the best results, a SWOT session should be administered to a group of stakeholders, led by an impartial person trained in facilitation.

Collective Consciousness

The group process taps into the Collective Consciousness – a dimension of synergistic creativity that no single person can produce on his or her own – and mitigates the chance of personal biases influencing the process.  Stakeholders can include members of the executive team, the board, key staff members, key personnel from external partner organizations, and even customers.

To lead a SWOT session, you can bring in an external consultant who’s experienced with SWOT Analyses or have it led by an internal staff member who’s trained in group facilitation.  In either case, however, it’s important that the leader be someone who’s impartial to the outcome of the process and has no direct ties to the individuals involved in the SWOT session.  For example, the CEO of the organization wouldn’t be the best person to lead a SWOT session because, by virtue of the position or the CEO’s force of personality, he or she has a vested interest in the outcome of the process and individuals who work for the chief executive may not express themselves openly and honestly, undermining the objective of the exercise.

The Better Choice

Based on the SWOT Analysis above, I would argue that Phil Jackson would’ve been a much better choice as head coach of the Lakers.  Jackson’s strengths and opportunities are better aligned with Bryant’s and Jackson’s holistic mindset and world experience would’ve been the better influence for a very talented but still maturing Howard.  It’s been reported that Lakers’ owner Jerry Buss made the decision to hire D’Antoni over Jackson because he held some resentment against Jackson after their acrimonious split, didn’t want to give in to the demands of his former star coach, as well as preferring a more open style of play for the team.

Including Tuesday night’s come-back victory over the Charlotte Bobcats, the Lakers have now won three in a row.  They also expect to get Nash back into the starting rotation soon after being sidelined for nearly two months for a broken fibula.  Although on paper it doesn’t look like he’s the best person for the job, let’s see if Mike D’Antoni can overcome his challenges and inspire a group of talented individuals to form a team that can play together cohesively and focus their energies toward the achievement of a common goal – another NBA championship for the storied franchise!

To Get Started

For a SWOT Analysis of your organization’s key resources or a strategic assessment of your business, contact me to get started.