Should Super-Teams Be Allowed in the NBA? Hoopers Journal Author: Peter Pellegrino Date of Publication: 3.30.21
After the recent uproar of the NBA’s most talented players joining forces, the question needs to be asked: Should Super-Teams Be Allowed in the NBA?
News:
For those who have not yet heard the news, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Brooklyn Nets have both bought out and traded for multiple all star talents. The defending champion Lakers, who previously had Lebron James and Anthony Davis as the prime talent on their roster, bought out the two-time all star Andre Drummond. Drummond led the league in rebounds in the 2016, 2018-2020 seasons and was the number one player on the Detroit Pistons for the majority of his career. The recent player addition changes the potential Laker starting lineup to Dennis Schroeder, Contavious Caldwell-Pope, Lebron James, Anthony Davis, and Andre Drummond. Many fans view this lineup as an overwhelming challenge to almost any team that faces them. “It’s all about competition.. I love competition.. There’s this culture where everyone wants to join one another, and it goes against everything that I’m about,” shouts analyst Stephen A. Smith. The true level of competition in the NBA has undoubtedly lessened over the years, and it’s evidence correlation with the burst of super-teams has been clear ever since the 2017 Golden State Warriors.
The superstar talent on the Brooklyn Nets has also been tremendous even before recent alterations were made. Early in the 2020-21 season, nine time all-star, three time scoring leader, three time feld goal leader, and previous league MVP joined former champions Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. In recent days the Nets organization has acquired Blake Grifn, Deandre Jordan, and Lamarcus Aldridge (each all-stars at diferent points in their careers). What Makes A ‘Super-Team’ a Super-Team?
Opinions on what classifes a “super-team” difer around diferent fan bases. To me, a super team is when there are three or more players on the same team that each would be able to be the best player on and lead a team with no other all-stars. Based on this defnition, teams like these are nothing new. The 1986 Boston Celtics with Larry Bird, Robert Parish, and Kevin McHale; the 1987 Los Angeles Lakers with Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and James Worthy; or perhaps the 1996 Chicago Bulls with Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Dennis Rodman. The list goes on. What separates today’s super-teams from those of the past is the increase of them per year. The modern teams start with the 2008 Celtics: Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett. The infamous 2013 Miami Heat, consisting of Ray Allen, Lebron James, and Dwayne Wade also come to mind. But by far the most efective was the 2017 Golden State Warriors: Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and Klay Thompson. However, almost never before have we seen two teams with such power competing in the same season. I truly believe that with the addition of these two teams, the competitiveness in the NBA will drop even more. If the Nets and Lakers have no competition on their road to the Finals, the other teams will have no will-power to play at their highest level if they know they have no chance against either team. In addition, the “load-management” games that have come into place have not helped the league at all. Especially when teams are stacked to their limit, players do not feel the need to even step on the court, as their teammates can win without them.
Is This Really A Super-Team?
While famous names like these are compelling factors in the case of constituting them a super team, arguments have been made opposing those views. Blake Grifn responded to comments about the new lineup, saying, “It’s kind of funny to me, because for the last couple years, all I’ve heard is how bad I am.” Because Grifn, Aldridge, and Jordan are no longer the all stars they once were, it becomes more difcult to separate them from the average players in today’s league. Although the players are not what they were at the climax of their careers, the experience that league veterans bring to the table is irreplaceable. ESPN analyst Jordan Shultz responded via Instagram to the Nets lineup saying, “Way more talented than the defending champs [Lakers].” The fact that these players are still athletic and efcient shows that they were able to be the leader and star on their own team. As a result it is fair to classify these teams as super-teams.
Past Prevention:
In the past, the NBA has blocked the combination of stars on the same team. In 2011, the then NBA commissioner David Stern blocked a trade of all-star Chris Paul to the Lakers. The Lakers were the defending champions with Kobe Bryant in his prime years. Stern responded saying, “There was a trade that [New Orleans general manager] Dell Demps wanted us to approve, and I said heck no,” Stern said. So why has the NBA not interfered with building overly powerful rosters in years? I would argue that there is no stoppage of super-teams because they are becoming less efcient. Russel Westbrook, Carmelo Anthony, and Paul George played for the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2018-2019 and never came close to a championship. In 2019, the Golden State Warriors lost in the fnals to the Toronto Raptors in a major upset. If the super-teams do not win, you would expect the competitiveness to rise, right? Wrong. The games have slowed in pace and top teams are close to incapable of being defeated. The 2020 Los Angeles Lakers did not have any real competition that they struggled with leading to the fnals.
How To Fix This:
I would argue that the only way to raise competitiveness in the NBA is to separate star talent amongst the other teams in the league. The Cleveland Cavaliers lost LeBron James to L.A. after the 2018 season and have not even come close to making the playofs since. The only way to efectively diversify talent is to implement a new mandate. Lowering salary caps will not work because players make money of of endorsement deals. They just want to play on a team that will win it all. A new mandate could limit dominant players playing together by ruling that a player who has been an all-star for the previous two years cannot play for a team that has two other all stars. There are a variety of mandates that could be put in place to fx this problem. The key point however is that fans love competitiveness. Of course we would all love the teams that we root for to win a championship, but the overall welfare of the league would greatly beneft from preventing super-teams from forming.