Boston was the first with Garnett and Allen joining Pierce. Lebron, and Bosh joining Wade was the sequel.
My point wasn’t so much about LeBron as the fact that it is all possible because there are only five players on the floor.
Not that I want to see 7-v-7 or anything silly like that. It is what it is. You simply cannot create an instant football or baseball powerhouse the way you can with basketball.
You guys are both off a bit. The first try was Malone and Payton joining Kobe and Shaq in 2003. Probably would have been successful without Bryant’s sexual assault charges.
You’re right, and both teams have that in these Finals. I think the Cavs’ supporting cast, while more experienced, is also just not showing up so far.
It’s crazy though that the Warriors have three guys who averaged over 20 points per game for a season. Two of them over 25! That’s really hard for any team to overcome.
Eh… sort of… Malone and Payton were really on the back end of their careers by then. They were more in the David West mold. Kobe was also really young. Certainly they were trying the same thing, though, so you’re right that it was the first shot at it. The Celtics were where it was proven to work.
It’s possible because the CBA limits max contracts to 25-35% of the cap, depending on experience, and it’s a soft cap so you can re-sign players to go over it. If the individual salary was unlimited and the cap was harder, then it would be too hard for MVPs and perennial All-Stars to team up. They make a ton of money so I could see some of them taking a discount, but once you have a ring, why not go to Brooklyn for $60M per year?
And yet despite that, the Warriors could only do the Big 4 because of the cap jump.
I’m just excited to watch the Sixers build it from the ground up. I’ve been all in with the Hinkie plan from the start. I was tired of being mired in mediocrity. Other than questions with Embiid, who may end up being a true glass cannon, I think they’re well on their way to being the team to beat once Lebron starts to fade. Fingers crossed for Josh Jackson at pick 3! :)
I’m glad you brought up Philly because now the question is how do you stop the Warriors? With the soft cap in this CBA, they can pay their four top 10 players until the end of time and fill in the rest with vets chasing rings for the minimum. The only limit is their owners’ willingness to pay the luxury tax.
It’s also now impossible for other contenders to add major pieces for free. The cap spike quirk is over and gone. ESPN was trying to hype up Chris Paul to the Spurs, but they’ll have to gut the team to make room for him. The Cavs are stuck in limbo overpaying luxury role players like Tristan Thompson. Their only option is a trade.
You could be like Boston with an army of draft picks, but that’s no sure thing. Philly would need Embiid, Simmons, and their pick this year to turn into top 10 players. What are the odds? Better than everyone else in the league I suppose. And it will still take years.
I know GMs have complained about the cap spike quirk. What is the point trying to compete for a championship in this environment? Should everyone just tank?
If owners are still making money, they might not even address it in the next CBA. I think it will depend on whether the fans want to watch a superteam sweep their way to five straight Finals.
Malone was in his 19th (and final) season, that’s nothing like what’s going on now with LeBron, Durant, etc superteams. That’s just an old vet filling out a team in hopes of competing for a championship, which you see all the time.
I am not sure if you’re being sarcastic here. But the Players were making 57% of league revenue in 2005 and now they make ~50% of it. Primarily because their union representation were idiots. Regardless, the Owner’s cap smoothing plan didn’t give the Players any benefits so there was no reason for them to accept it. The Owners clearly could have offered an actual incentive but did not think it was worth it. In addition they signed all these max level players to basically yearly opt-outs based around the idea that the cap was going up a ton so they reinforced the Players wanting the cap to expand.
Beyond that, Owners have embraced a system where the elite players are always going to get to chose where they want to play because the Max is a number that every franchise can afford to pay and so a super star is going to get offers from basically every franchise and get to pick between them. The Owners are fine with this because the super stars pick the large markets for endorsement money and so the league gets super stars in the places where their corporate partners want them. The various Bird Rights clauses don’t really matter since teams are more than happy to offer 1 year opt outs to super stars.
If I could make the same exact salary from 20 different companies doing my job. I would also use city desirability, how much I liked my coworkers, chance for winning an NBA Championship, and the impact on my endorsement deals as a criteria. Would you look at the 20 companies and pick the one that could most use your help?
I’m confused. Are you mistaking me for an average fan who thinks the players make too much money and ought to be loyal?
I agree with everything you’ve written. The point is all that has been true recently, then we have the additional unique situation last summer with the cap spike that allowed an MVP to join a championship favorite.
It’s all perfectly logical to all parties involved. That’s why it’s boring!
Sorry, I misread your italics part as implying some criticism of the player’s decision, aka that they should have accepted cap smoothing for the good of the game or whatever. My apologies there. Agree to agree.
The super team is an arms race. And the Warriors are just the latest, but they didn’t start it.
If you’re LeBron and Cleveland and get boat raced out of the Finals, what do you do? They have no choice but to escalate.
But then, if your any other team outside of Golden State and Cleveland, you are completely screwed for the foreseeable future. Both teams annihilated their way in the playoffs, and it wasn’t even close.
How do they do that in the confines of the CBA?
My argument is the Warriors won the super team arms race during the single window in the summer of 2016 when we had the cap spike, and now the race is over because the cap spike isn’t coming back until they negotiate a new monster TV deal 8 years from now (if they ever do one again like the last one, since ESPN is bleeding money).
The speculation is that Indiana trades Paul George to Cleveland for Kevin Love. It would be a 1-year rental, but it would allow Cleveland to get rid of Love and his contract, get a 2nd-Team All NBA player in George, and essentially go all-in next year. Because there are rumblings that LeBron could leave Cleveland after next year, anyway.
I think the only option is to do what Hinkie did. You have to tank and hope to god you get the next Lebron or someone close via the draft. Then you have to do it again… because one Lebron isn’t enough. The key is to keep finding ways to draft well again as the Sixers did with these first round picks they stockpiled. Next year they get their own and the Lakers. The year after they get their own and Sacramento. It’s an abundance of draft riches. I just don’t want Colangelo to blow it by bringing in a veteran. It’s not time for that yet!
Okafor can be dealt now for picks or just keep him and bring him off the bench. I think Dario Saric is for real and will be an impact player alongside Simmons and Embiid. He might be their Sixth Man or he might be the starting four. Either way, they won that trade, too. You’re going to get Josh Jackson or someone damn close to him in this draft. Next year you might get a top five from a bad Lakers team… it’s all about the options!
Look at the Cavs and the Warriors. Their success is mostly a product of the draft save the recent arms race decider in Durant. The big scorers either got there by being drafted by that team or via draft consideration in Love’s case. You can argue over James, but he was originally a Cavalier and never would’ve left if they had gone all in to surround him with players to win.
You have to have a little draft luck to get close to the top of the League, then you fill in with the vets that want rings or want to play in a bigger market next to your all-star talent. Embiid will eventually draw players to Philly if (and that’s always a big if for now…) he stays healthy and Simmons might have that sort of pull after 2017-2018 too. I don’t think you can win in the NBA without that initial megastar being drafted.
If Indiana is willing to do it without demanding a lot of assets then that sounds great, but you’re still stuck with a slightly better Big 3. If they get swept then it’s probably irrelevant. The next two games might decide a lot on paper.
Yeah, but barring catastrophic injuries on the Warriors next year, what are you going to do if you’re Cleveland? You need to do something.
You’re right, and hey, I thought they were completely stuck, so I guess it’s better to have an option!
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