The calls began immediately after Travis Stockbridge got off the 5 a.m. flight.
The general manager of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the Houston Rockets‘ G League affiliate, was on a solo scouting trip to the West Coast that coincided with his first trade deadline in the position. When hired in 2019, Stockbridge was the youngest general manager in G League history at just 25 years old.
He took the early flight to make sure he was settled in well ahead of the mid-day deadline. The calls continued as he got to the Enterprise rental lot and as he drove out of the airport and to a coffee shop where he hoped to lock in. It was closed.
Thankfully, Stockbridge’s second choice was open. He plopped down and was soon immersed in mass chaos. A couple of unexpected deals came in late and he found himself amid a flurry of calls – parsing through trade frameworks with counterparts from other teams and soliciting opinions from teammates back in Houston. The Vipers ended up making one or two trades in what Stockbridge described as a “whirlwind.”
“It always moves faster when you’re in that chair than when you’re in the next chair over,” he said.
Stockbridge, still with the Vipers and Rockets, went on to win the G League championship in 2022 and was named the league’s executive of the year. Like many in NBA front offices, he has aspirations to one day lead one.
Being a G League general manager – while not a position with total autonomy – offers that. The role challenges you to make, explain and own your decisions and lead an organization on a daily basis. It has been a rung along the career ladder for multiple top basketball executives: Sean Marks, Mike Gansey and Trajan Langdon run the Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers and Detroit Pistons, respectively. All previously ran G League teams.
“There’s not many positions within an organization that you’re actually going to make a decision that you see play out immediately,” said Gabriel Harris, the general manager for the University of Memphis men’s basketball team and the former general manager for the Stockton Kings, Sacramento’s G League affiliate.
Becoming Stockton’s final decision-maker required Harris to overhaul his approach, especially his relationship with risk.
“It’s much easier to recommend and move on and really be just graded off your perspective,” he said. “As a decision-maker, you’re really graded off the consequences.”
Early in his tenure, Harris chose to trade a talented player whom he felt had priorities that didn’t match the team’s. He brought back an older veteran who didn’t have the same individual upside but better complemented Stockton’s young talent and supported its culture.
The decision wasn’t popular and for the first time in Harris’ tenure, he felt the other side of fandom.
“I quickly understood why NBA GMs aren’t always as visible as they are,” he said. The fan displeasure didn’t last too long as the Kings went on to win the G League championship.
Harris did make sure he was visible to the team after the decision. He addressed them but tried not to over-explain the move – a mistake he felt he made earlier after moving on from a staff member who Harris deemed wasn’t matching the team’s culture.
“I had the idea I was going to justify why I did what I did with everyone,” he said. ” … You really can’t do that. It’s not on them to make you feel better for the decision you made.”
The choices we often grade NBA front offices by, trades and free-agent signings, aren’t one-to-one comparisons in the G League. The NBA’s salary structure and trade rules are way more complex than the G League’s, where all standard contracts are just one-year deals.
But there is overlap in the day-to-day management. Both roles demand leadership skills to chart and pilot a course for an organization. Stockbridge pointed to the random Thursday in December where he’ll have to work with coaches, staff and medical personnel to problem-solve, getting all parties aligned on their goals and how to achieve them.
A similarly crucial part of both roles: Navigating relationships with players and agents. That’s especially true in the G League because of the short-term contracts and other options available.
“You’re recruiting all year,” said Jonathan Wall, the general manager of the Capital City Go-Go, the Washington Wizards’ affiliate. “Because everybody in the G League is there because they want to be there. They could all pretty much be making a lot more money elsewhere, overseas.”
Even those making that choice in the G League often define success as departure – as Harris put it, a sign that you did what you’re supposed to do.
And if that doesn’t seem complex enough, think about the incentive structures for G League teams, which aren’t as simple as saying they want to win the championship. You can argue that such a goal might be best accomplished in the G League by finding the best veterans who fall just short of NBA rosters.
But doing that could hamper development.
Wall offered the Wizards’ second-round rookie center, Felix Okpara – who will spend at least part of his season with the Go-Go – as an example.
“I’m not going to go sign some center that I’m going to have to lie to about how much he’s going to play, who’s going to be frustrated and is not going to pour into Felix when he’s with us because we’re just trying to build a roster to win a championship,” Wall said.
Wall instead said he’d target a veteran that doesn’t see Okpara as competition and instead takes pride in helping the rookie develop.
At the same time, Wall, Harris and Stockbridge said they didn’t see winning and development as conflicting goals. Winning aids development and development should spur winning.
“One good way to impact winning at the NBA level is to impact winning at other levels, right?” Stockbridge said.
But the leash is a bit longer. Stockbridge said he’s been around G League coaches who would allow players to play through mistakes that they would get yanked for in the NBA, whether a missed shot or a mental lapse on defense.
“It’s not because, ‘Oh, they have to play all these minutes to get better,” he said. “It’s because this is the place to make mistakes and learn and improve.”
The G League serves that purpose, for those on and off the court.
Subscribe
There’s more to Houston with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25¢.
This article originally published at The NBA G League develops more than just players. It’s a learning ground for GMs.