Former Golden State Warriors All-Star small forward Chris Mullin identified free agency and the free-flowing movement of NBA players as a contemporary persistent issue in failing to development chemistry among teammates.

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Per Alex Didion in NBC Sports Bay Area:

“The biggest factor … is free agency,” the former Warriors player and general manager said on NBC Sports’ “Lunch Talk Live.” “There wasn’t as much movement with the star players. You’d build your teams around those guys, you would run in veterans to try and help them get over the top, the core stays the same, which helped chemistry, helped with teamwork.”

Mullin, 56, was once one of the most well-known college basketball players at St. John's, where he later re-joined as head coach in 2015-19. Mullin was the seventh overall selection in the 1985 NBA Draft by the Warriors, spending 12 seasons in the Bay Area as a five-time All-Star and member of the “Run-TMC” era Golden State squad alongside point guard Tim Hardaway and shooting guard Mitch Richmond.

Mullin spent three seasons with the Indiana Pacers in 1997-2000, traded to the Hoosier state by his longtime Warriors in the summer of 1997, before returning for a single season with Golden State in 2000-01 and retiring.

Free agency over the past 20 years has developed as a mainstay for stars and high-profile role players to decide covertly whether to team up or not on a single franchise, something less-heralded during Mullin's era. Today's generation of stars picking where they want to play upon reaching unrestricted free agency is a long shot from the pre–”reserve clause” days with which professionals in all major North American sports had to grapple.