"Money is not a panacea."
This sentence is especially evident in competitive sports, and crazy money to engage in gold dollar sports does not guarantee that it will be exchanged for the championship trophy. This season in the NBA, among the top 4 teams in the salary expenditure rankings, only the Warriors are left. The No. 2 Nets were swept out by the Celtics in the first round, the Clippers in No. 3 were out of the playoffs, and the No. 4 Lakers simply didn't even make a playoff.
In these 3 teams, the Lakers and nets conform to the concept of "super team", they have formed the Big Three, and there are many former All-Stars in other positions, but their crazy money is exchanged for a humiliating ending. For a time, people in the industry have discussed whether the era of forming a super team is over?
Even gold can appear obscure in some light, but that's just an illusion, gold is always gold.
The concept of forming a super team is the same, the failure of the Lakers and the Nets is not the same as the failure of this team building model. The Lakers and Nets will not scare off latecomers and make them lose their desire to form a super team, they will only become a lesson and a lesson in the eyes of latecomers.
Natural disasters cannot be avoided
"There are very few teams that have the ability to build super teams," one senior executive said in an interview with ESPN, "and there will be fewer teams that have the ability to build super teams next, because there are not enough superstars." If you sacrifice the foundation of your team and lose the thickness of your squad because you bring in two or three superstars, it won't do your team any good. ”
If you match this remark to the end of the Lakers and the Nets this season, it seems to make a lot of sense. The Lakers sacrificed a lot of depth in the Westbrook trade, the Nets also sacrificed a number of power factions when they first replaced Harden, and were forced to send Harden away this season, only in exchange for Seth Curry, Drummond and Simmons, who has not played a second this season. The Lakers scrapped their defensive system in operation, and the Nets sacrificed the team culture and depth they built before 2019 in the process of forming the Big Three.
But to say that the failure of the Lakers and the Nets will end the era of superpowers is more or less short-term consequentialism. After all, the Lakers and Nets' failures this season are certainly human disasters (this is said later), but in large part, they are also related to natural disasters that cannot be avoided, and injuries play an important role.
Throughout the season, LeBron James played just 56 games, Anthony Davis played just 40 and Kendrick Nunn didn't play a second. On the Nets side, Durant only played 55 games, Joe Harris only played 14 games to be reimbursed, and Simmons did not play for a second, which is not to mention Irving, who was banned for refusing to vaccinate and finally played only 29 games. Including the Clippers, George only played 31 games, and the second game of the playoff was missed due to the new crown infection. Leonard didn't play for a second, and Norman Powell was absent for a month shortly after joining the club.
The injuries of core players are entirely due to luck, Davis and Durant were hit by fallen players to the knee, Davis landed on the opposite foot and caused ankle sprains, these are inevitable. Originally, the super team was formed to improve the fault tolerance rate of a star's absence, but no super team could afford the loss caused by the inability of two of the core stars to play.
ESPN believes that the formation of a super team requires a superstar that the team has cultivated by itself, such as the original Heat (Wade), cavaliers (James), Celtics (Pierce), which is the most important point, the Lakers and the Nets failed, because they do not have such a player, several superstars are mercenary. This statement seems inexplicable, in the face of natural disasters such as injuries, there is such a superstar cultivated by the team, which cannot change anything. Therefore, the failure of the Lakers and the Nets does not prove the idea that the era of super teams is over.
Don't go against the times and trends
Some things, even if ten thousand details are done well, but as long as the starting point is wrong, it will lose everything. Don't go against the times and trends.
The failure of the Lakers and the Nets is to go against the times and trends. Historically, there have been many super teams that have used the championship trophy to sample the latecomers, but the Lakers and nets do not want to learn. In the face of the tide of the times, the Lakers and the Nets do not want to make waves, the former driving backwards, the latter is unusual.
What is wrong is not the route of forming a super team, but the wrong idea in the process of forming a super team.
Take stock of the teams in history that have built super teams successfully, and they have a lot in common. A good or even top interior player with both offense and defense, the sacrificial spirit of giving up data to change roles for the same goal, excellent team defensive ability, reasonable age structure, excellent compatibility and projection, etc. Take the Lakers and nets in, they obviously have a lot of shortcomings.
Originally, the Lakers were already ahead of the curve in forming a super team, and the combination of James and Davis had a crown in hand. But from the 2020 offseason, the Lakers management began to demonize, especially in last year's offseason, the Lakers ignored compatibility, projection, age structure, sacrificed depth and defense in exchange for Wei Shao. Westbrook's forbearance, adjustments and sacrifices in this tragic season must be recognized, but these are not enough to change the fact that he is incompatible with the whole team. In the end, the Lakers became an offensively outdated and undefended team.
The Nets are too eager to be different, trying to win the championship only by offensive firepower. Durant has never been a defensive gate, Irving can even use a colander to evaluate on the defensive end, Harden can't defend the speed guard is a weakness, the three top attackers together offensive firepower is indeed exuberant, but the lack of an interior core, defensive ability is not enough to hurt the Nets is huge. Coupled with Irving's strange personality, which caused a lot of farce, to put it bluntly, he did not have the sacrificial spirit that a championship team needed.
The Lakers and Nets are doomed to a top-heavy lineup by spending most of their salary space on the Big Three, and the two teams are unable to introduce the popular 3D championship puzzle when using limited resources to attract reinforcements. After a series of signings from the Lakers, the front line has no three points of defense, the Nets have three points of defense, and both teams are plagued by the problem of insufficient wing height and the ability to rub a table of mahjong in the backcourt.
The era of super teams will not end
This season, four teams in the West have won more than 50 games, the Suns (Booker), the Grizzlies (Morant), the Warriors (Trident), and the Lone Rangers (Doncic) all started by drafting, cultivating their own big stars, and then introducing the title puzzle. There are also four teams in the East that have won more than 50 games, including the Heat (Adebayo, Hiro), the Celtics (Double Probing and Smart), the Bucks (Alphabet Brother) and the 76ers (Embiid), whose core is cultivated by their own drafts and then reinforced by trades and free agents.
Judging from this pattern, it seems that the era of super teams is really coming to an end. ESPN said: "The strong teams that have performed well this season are not those that have traded big free agents and traded for stars, but those that rely on internal digging. Like the Sun, Booker and Ayton grew up, and Paul's arrival took them to the skies. After Antetokounmpo and Middleton evolved, Holliday became the Bucks' last piece of the puzzle.
The cultivation model of cultivating the core of the draft first and then upgrading the lineup through reinforcements is respectable, but this model also requires the care of the goddess of luck, and the opportunity is unattainable. For example, the Pelicans, for example, signed Zion Williamson, who is talented for a decade, but who would have thought that Williamson would not play a game this season because of injury. The Pelicans have paired Zion with ingram, McCollum and other powerful factions, but Zion's injury has caused the Pelicans' team to become entangled.
The quick road to forming a super team is despised by many people, but it is undeniable that compared with the formation of a team building model, the formation of a super team is still the fastest and easiest to win the championship trophy. Compared with the formation of the big three and four big four, the team building model of the cultivation department often seems to be insufficiently talented and the upper limit is not high enough. For example, in the current Grizzlies, even if they bring in a big star, then in addition to Morant and this big star, Bane, Dillon Brooks, Jalan Jackson Jr., who has the ability to become the third big? These three are all powerful factions, but they have nothing to do with the giants.
In the summer of 2010, Heat president Pat Riley lobbied James to join the Heat, saying to him: "Historically, the teams that have won multiple championships are basically super teams, they not only work together for a long time, they all have at least three superstars, they are all great players, and the worst is two superstars plus an ordinary star. ”
Riley's words also unveiled a hidden trap for forming a super team, there are too many teams to form a so-called super team is only half-hanging level, not to mention not up to the standard of 3 super stars, not even 2 super stars plus 1 ordinary star standard.
In the final analysis, the success of super teams does have a lot in common, but the core of them is the grade level of the three superstars. If at least two of the three are high enough, as long as the core players are lucky enough to avoid injuries, then the problem of the age structure and depth of the lineup can be solved by the super trio.
If there is an opportunity, there will still be teams to form super teams. For example, the 76ers, the current 76ers already own Embiid and Harden, and if the 76ers can handle The Tobias Harris' contract in the offseason, they have the hope of bringing in the third big. Including the Lakers, who are about to deal with Westbrook's contract, the Heat who may send Hiro, and the Clippers, who will welcome back George and Leonard next season, they have not given up the idea of bringing in big names to form a super team.
In the future, in 2025, the alliance is expected to sign a new sky-high TV broadcast contract, and the salary cap is expected to skyrocket again. In the next 3 years, some teams may make long-term plans to make room for salaries for 2025. At that time, Tatum, Mitchell, Ingram, Davis, Simmons, Jamal Murray and other stars are potential big fish in the free agency market. The next super team could appear in any city.
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