The players always help, but it wasn’t just the draft. It was also the management team. The Lakers had Jerry West, Dr. Jerry Buss, Gary Vitti, and Pat Riley throughout their championship runs in the 1980’s. When the championship runs of the 2000’s came, West was gone, but replaced but his long-time successor in Mitch Kupchak. This time, it was with Phil Jackson at the helm.
The Spurs had Gregg Popovich for all fifteen seasons. He has led a string of assistant coaches to take on other head coaching jobs. Others from the Spurs organization have taken over as general managers.