View Full Version : NBA: What caused the start of the SuperTeam Era?
Over the past three years, we have seen a building trend of teams gravitating toward the "SuperTeam" model: three or more All-Star caliber players, surrounded by cheap veterans and role-players. Most people point to the Miami Heat as the catalyst for this. When Lebron decided to take his talents to South Beach to join Wade and recruited Chris Bosh to come with him, this seemed to set off a chain reaction for other teams and superstars. I can't remember a time in recent history where the three most coveted free agents on the market all decided to land in one destination and try to team up against the rest of the league, so it's easy to lay the blame for the SuperTeams on the SuperFriends.
Since that time, we have seen Melo demand trades to team up with Amare and (at the time) Billups in New York, Chris Paul whine his way out of New Orleans to join Blake Griffin on the Clippers, and the latest in this series, Howard blow up a franchise in Orlando so that he could wind up in Los Angeles with Bryant, Gasol, and Nash (but not before Deron Williams and the Nets tried to form a SuperTeam of their own with Dwight).
Are the Heat really to blame for this new trend, though?
Few people seem to note that well before the Heatles, Boston put together its own SuperTeam with Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen joining Paul Pierce which, with the development of Rondo, promptly earned them a title and another Finals bid two years later.
The Lakers tried it themselves with Payton and Malone joining Shaq and Kobe in 2004, which earned them their own trip to the Finals before losing to a more-balanced, defensive Detroit Pistons squad.
Dallas has been trying to throw together SuperTeams seemingly forever, and ironically thet never reached the Promised Land until they went with a more traditional, defense-oriented team-concept instead of just buying whatever big names they could off of the free-agent market.
Even the Spurs had their greatest success with a semblance of a SuperTeam, albeit one they built through the draft instead of the market. Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili were one of the first "Big 3s" of the new millennium and, coupled with defensive-pest Bruce Bowen, set the tone for what many franchises now seem to think is the model for success (three stars and some defensive help). Spurs fans also weren't complaining when the amnestied Michael Finley came calling, although they quickly started complaining once he became washed up.
Ditto for Oklahoma, who just made it to the Finals with their own drafted trio of Durant, Westbrook, and Harden being backed by Sefolosha, Perkins, and Ibaka.
Going back even further, teams like the Showtime Lakers (Magic/Scott/Abdul-Jabbar) and Bird Celtics (Bird/McHale/Parish/Ainge) certainly weren't hurting for talent when they were dominating the 80s. Like the Spurs and Thunder, though, these teams never seem to come under fire, presumably because they built their teams through more traditional methods instead of a bunch of malcontent stars deciding to rally together for a ring.
Is this really something that is new to the league, or is it something that has been around forever and was simply masked by the star power of Jordan in the 90s? Is it good for the NBA in terms of revenue and relevancy, or bad that these hyper-competitive players would rather take the easy way out instead of carrying their own respective teams to the top? Are the Heat really to blame for this SuperTeam Era, or are they just following an example that was already well established?
TL;DR: Miami: pioneers or copycats?
In the 2000's, the Boston Celtics. imo
Clipper Nation
11-13-2012, 05:29 PM
http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4jk6llZ3y1qc8vtf.jpg
Trainwreck2100
11-13-2012, 05:31 PM
Gasol trade
pass1st
11-13-2012, 05:32 PM
Celtics did it before Heat, Lakers tried it before that. Superteams are starting to be the cookie cutter method of getting chips now, it seems. OKC wanted to maintain their young core to form a superteam, Lakers wanted to get CP3 and Dwight Howard, Nets were trying to get Dwight+Deron+JJ and Mavs wanted the triple D dynasty. Miami just set the trend for something that already existed.
http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4jk6llZ3y1qc8vtf.jpg
Worst SuperTeam ever.
Gasol trade
Gasol trade was in response to the Celtics, tbh.
JoeTait75
11-13-2012, 07:02 PM
SuperTeams aren't a new concept in the NBA. The 1976-77 Sixers team that lost to Portland in the Finals could have been considered a "SuperTeam" w/Dr. J and George McGinnis.
whitemamba
11-13-2012, 07:31 PM
Gasol trade was in response to the Celtics, tbh.
i dont think mitch gives a fuck what the celtics are doing, hes always looking for a way to improve the team. everything else is irrelevant tbh.
stretch
11-13-2012, 07:38 PM
I think the Lakers getting Malone and Payton is when things started to get out of hand.
stretch
11-13-2012, 07:39 PM
Dallas has been trying to throw together SuperTeams seemingly forever, and ironically thet never reached the Promised Land until they went with a more traditional, defense-oriented team-concept instead of just buying whatever big names they could off of the free-agent market.
Where the hell is this coming from? What big free agent names have they signed in the past 15 years? Who have they been just trying to "buy" off the free-agent market?
Monostradamus
11-13-2012, 07:43 PM
rofl if Devean George and Austin Croshere are your idea of superstars, then yeah Dallas has bought superstar free agents. tbh OJ Mayo is the biggest name free agent Mark Cuban has ever gotten.
Monostradamus
11-13-2012, 07:45 PM
Mavs have traded for guys in the past, but again nobody even remotely considered a superstar or part of a "Big" anything. Stackh:loluse, Jamison, LaFrentz, or Antoine Walker? Really? :lmao
stretch
11-13-2012, 07:45 PM
rofl if Devean George and Austin Croshere are your idea of superstars, then yeah Dallas has bought superstar free agents. tbh OJ Mayo is the biggest name free agent Mark Cuban has ever gotten.
Exactly what I was thinking. Oh wait, don't forget Erick Dampier, Desagana Diop, Eddie Jones and Doug Christie.
SpursRock20
11-13-2012, 08:05 PM
You can say that the Heat did not actually start the trend. But, their 3-star combo joined each other in a different manner than the Celtics. Ray Allen and KG joined Boston at around ~32 years of age (neither player had a "Decision" on ESPN, either). On the other hand, Lebron and Bosh joined the Heat at the age of 25. That's 7 more years of prime basketball. This led to an absolute force to be reckoned with and one that can has a good chance of potentially winning at least 5 championships.
Is it good for the NBA? Profit-wise, yes. The NBA is a superstar-driven league. Casual fans identify with players, not teams. Seeing big names join each other in competition against the rest of the league is polarizing for NBA fans. Fans have a stong opinion on the Heat. They either hate the Heat and want them to fail or are riding the bandwagon all the way to the championship. Either way, people are watching.
However, competitively it is not good for the NBA. The superteam led to the blandness of the Eastern Conference and even a larger dicrepancy between the big markets and small markets of the NBA. You may buy into the media hype that the new-look Nets are something to watch, the Celtics are still a force to be reckoned with, and the Knicks might surprise everybody. This all may be true to varying degrees (except the Nets, they are horrible), but we all know who is representing half the league barring injury. And as a fan, I don't like that. I enjoy not knowing which teams our going to rise out of nowhere. I prefer seeing teams like the '06-07 Warriors, '03-04 Grizzlies, and '08-09 Bulls surprise everybody. Granted, none of these teams won the championship. But they were fun to watch and did not need 3 superstars to do it. It just seems like that this is becoming increasingly likely to do thanks to how the Heat has led to other teams creating their own superteams. One of the main reasons why the NFL is a much more popular sport than the NBA, imo.
Baseline
11-13-2012, 08:17 PM
The person responsible for superteams is David Stern, who could give two craps about any team outside the big markets.
Just look at how the Lakers have been able to continually reload during Bryant's career. Payton, Malone, Pau, Nash, Dwight. It's embarrassing how much Stern mocks "fairness in the marketplace."
Back in 2004 after the Lakers lost to Detroit, Bryant has Shaquille run out of town. Two years later, Bryant cries about not having any help, and threatens to demand a trade. Instead of a trade to Chicago, who had a billion assets, an in-his-prime Pau Gasol is sent to LA, thereby making the Laker instantly relevant, and insuring that Bryant stays in town.
Has any small market team EVER had a trade as lopsided as the Kwame Brown for Pau Gasol deal?
Stern is shameless.
Latarian Milton
11-13-2012, 08:24 PM
lakers also lost marc gasol IIRC which pretty much justifies that deal imho. it escalated the lakers to the champion level at that time but memphis won the long run
SpursRock20
11-13-2012, 08:28 PM
lakers also lost marc gasol IIRC which pretty much justifies that deal imho. it escalated the lakers to the champion level at that time but memphis won the long run
Just what did Memphis win exactly? Lakers won championships as a result of the trade, something I'm not sure the other Gasol would guarantee.
Memphis won nothing, they made an awful trade, and that's that. The fact they got lucky that Marc turned out to be a decent player means nothing. And yeah, i agree with TW-- the current Heat team ( and the rest of the league trying desperately to imitate) is a direct response to the Gasol trade, if that trade doesn't happen, i think its likely that there would be no Lebron, Bosh, Wade trio. Much unlike how Gasol trade happens whether Boston trades in 2008 happen or don't.
lefty
11-13-2012, 09:11 PM
Magic Johnson
" ill skip this year's Draft if the Bulls select me, because I want to play with the Lakers, Kareem and Wilkes so I can win a lot of easy titles "
:cry :cry :cry
pass1st
11-13-2012, 09:18 PM
Magic Johnson
" ill skip this year's Draft if the Bulls select me, because I want to play with the Lakers, Kareem and Wilkes so I can win a lot of easy titles "
:cry :cry :cry
'sup Lefty, jinxing lakeshow today?
DPG21920
11-13-2012, 10:28 PM
Exactly what I was thinking. Oh wait, don't forget Erick Dampier, Desagana Diop, Eddie Jones and Doug Christie.
People might have been confused since guys like Damp were paid like Superstars.
LnGrrrR
11-14-2012, 03:44 AM
The Celtics, because they won a ring the first year they were together. If the Celtics don't ring, no one follows. It's a copycat league.
TDMVPDPOY
11-14-2012, 04:11 AM
knicks after ewing, paying overrated scrubs max money...super scrubs
Capt Bringdown
11-14-2012, 07:43 AM
2007 Finals
Chinook
11-14-2012, 10:14 AM
I don't think the Lakers had anything to do with the formation of the Heat superteam. It was the 2010 playoffs. When James lost to Boston's Big Four, he knew he couldn't beat them by himself. It took the Cavs so long to bring in another superstar that he had already made other plans by then. The Heat had the resources to pay for three almost-max players, so he went there.
If James were truly worried about the Lakers' twin towers, he would have tried to get on a team with more than legitimate one big man. You don't plan to defeat the Lakers with scrubs like the Heat had behind and next to Bosh.
TheRealCB
11-14-2012, 10:18 AM
Cavs trade JJ Hicks:loln for Amar'e fucking Stoudemire and the Heat big three never happens tbh..
ambchang
11-14-2012, 10:55 AM
Let's look at how many teams could be considered super teams in the history of the league:
1) Russell Celtics - That was before any formal controls by the league, and Red Auerbach outsmarted all the other GMs. Also because Auerbach was color blind with regards to the athletes, unlike some of the other racist GM/coaches of those days
2) 80's Lakers - Done through a little luck and a lot of good GMing. Kareem whined and got his way, then Magic declared early, then Worthy was #1 through one of the worst trades involving draft picks, but then getting Scott, getting Mychal Thompson, Bob McAdoo, Cooper and AC Green were just good trades/picks
3) 80's Celtics - Built through great drafts (Bird), and trades (DJ, Walton, McHale and Parish)
4) Early 80's 76ers - Short lived due to injuries and aging, but a team of Dr. J (ABA), Malone (trade), Andrew Toney (draft), Cheeks (draft), Bobby Jones (Trade) was just great GMing.
The league caught on, the disparity between management and scouting across the league diminished, and there are less stupid trades (like Cavs giving away their #1 pick, or Joe Barely Cares for McHale and Parish) as the years go by. Then comes the age of free agency and very questionable trades that only involves a select group of teams despite widely known better trade propositions.
5) 00 Lakers - Shaq whined, Kobe traded for Divacs (good management). Then there was the ringless Malone and Payton getting desperate (Malone also was rumoured to be attracted by LA's little Mexican girl population over Utah's)
6) 08 Lakers - highly suspicious trade with peanuts for a prime Gasol, despite having better trade proposals from Chicago.
7) 08 Celtics - highly suspicious trade involving Garnett, and Yi Ji Lian for Ray Allen. McHale most definitely had a hand in this.
8) 10 Heat - Lebron wussed out, reeks of tampering.
Where the hell is this coming from? What big free agent names have they signed in the past 15 years? Who have they been just trying to "buy" off the free-agent market?
The Mavericks may have never landed the premier free agent on the market, but they've been plenty loaded in terms of talent over the past decade, and Cuban paid to ensure that was the case.
'02-'03 - $11 million for washed-up NVE, $7 million for Raef Lafrentz :lmao
'03-'04 - $25 million combined for Antoine Walker and Antawn Jamison :lmao (Come to think of it, Nash, Nowitzki, Walker, and Jamison may have been the worst SuperTeam ever).
'04-'05 - $14 million combined for Stackhouse and Dampier, $8 million more for Henderson
'05-'06 - $15 million for Keith Van Horn
'06-'07 - $19 million for Stackhouse and Dampier, $7 million for Austin Croshere
'07-'08 - $20 million for Kidd, $17 million for Stackhouse and Dampier
And let's also not forget that they paid Finley what, like $50 million to play for the Spurs for 3 years, just so they could clear room to spend all that other money?
The thing with Dallas wasn't that they got all the free agents...they just spent a ridiculous amount of money on over-hyped players.
TheRealCB
11-14-2012, 02:23 PM
Stackhouse played up to every single penny of those money,the only semi decent contract of this bunch.Plus,Dampier posted 12/12 the season before he got his contract,so at the time it looked like a good deal.Plus his contract brought us big daddy Tyson so it was worth it in the end.
Stackhouse played up to every single penny of those money,the only semi decent contract of this bunch.Plus,Dampier posted 12/12 the season before he got his contract,so at the time it looked like a good deal.Plus his contract brought us big daddy Tyson so it was worth it in the end.
Ah yes, the vaunted DUST Chip.
AaronY
11-14-2012, 02:43 PM
Cuban was trying to get Shaq for a while iirc but that might have been through trade
Not that it matters but Bosh committed to Miami before LeBron.
stretch
11-14-2012, 07:30 PM
The Mavericks may have never landed the premier free agent on the market, but they've been plenty loaded in terms of talent over the past decade, and Cuban paid to ensure that was the case.
'02-'03 - $11 million for washed-up NVE, $7 million for Raef Lafrentz :lmao
'03-'04 - $25 million combined for Antoine Walker and Antawn Jamison :lmao (Come to think of it, Nash, Nowitzki, Walker, and Jamison may have been the worst SuperTeam ever).
'04-'05 - $14 million combined for Stackhouse and Dampier, $8 million more for Henderson
'05-'06 - $15 million for Keith Van Horn
'06-'07 - $19 million for Stackhouse and Dampier, $7 million for Austin Croshere
'07-'08 - $20 million for Kidd, $17 million for Stackhouse and Dampier
And let's also not forget that they paid Finley what, like $50 million to play for the Spurs for 3 years, just so they could clear room to spend all that other money?
The thing with Dallas wasn't that they got all the free agents...they just spent a ridiculous amount of money on over-hyped players.
Oh okay, so basically you just admitted you were full of shit when saying that Dallas constantly tried to buy a team through free agency.
Big difference between making trades (which are supposed to come out financially comparable on both ends), as opposed to trying to go the "Yankees" route as you were trying to suggest.
stretch
11-14-2012, 07:32 PM
People might have been confused since guys like Damp were paid like Superstars.
Yes, because Dallas is apparently the only team that overpays centers. :rolleyes
pass1st
11-14-2012, 07:33 PM
Not that it matters but Bosh committed to Miami before LeBron.
Lebron had to put together the 2 hour special first, tbh
lefty
11-14-2012, 07:40 PM
'sup Lefty, jinxing lakeshow today?
U mad that MAGIC is the one who started the superteam era?
pass1st
11-14-2012, 07:53 PM
U mad that MAGIC is the one who started the superteam era?
Why would I care? :lol
Oh okay, so basically you just admitted you were full of shit when saying that Dallas constantly tried to buy a team through free agency.
Big difference between making trades (which are supposed to come out financially comparable on both ends), as opposed to trying to go the "Yankees" route as you were trying to suggest.
So, you're telling me that Dallas hasn't been well over the cap for the last decade?
Even I don't have to dig up numbers to tell you that's a stretch, stretch.
Clipper Nation
11-15-2012, 01:33 AM
Speaking of superteams, LeClip screamed at one point during the game tonight that Staples was "his goddamn house," clearly foreshadowing the upcoming CP3/LeClip/Blake dynasty :downspin:
stretch
11-15-2012, 01:51 AM
So, you're telling me that Dallas hasn't been well over the cap for the last decade?
As are half the teams in the NBA at any given time :rolleyes
Latarian Milton
11-15-2012, 09:44 AM
henderson was a garbage contract that came as an expense for getting JET imho. stack was a terrible trade either, jamison was pretty overrated n they also got a pick with which they drafted devin harris IIRC. damp never deserved the $ he earned from dallas but he wasn't the first big that got overpaid in NBA history imho, bigs have been generally overpaid n it's still happening as to this day (asik for example)
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