Nuggets heat fierce battle Finals return basketball to pure But the road to huddle shortcuts is really blocked?
When the Heat and Nuggets met in the Finals, Kevin Garnett, a celebrity and celebrity in The Athletic, defined the series as "returning basketball to purity" and "the league's most wanted showdown."
There were no star huddles, no shortcuts were taken in the team building process, and both teams came to the position of competing for the supreme throne by relying on steadfastness and patience. In Blood Fan, this kind of plot is the most moving.
But does this mean that the era of superpowers and the era of star huddles is over? Has the success of the Nuggets and Heat blocked those shortcuts? The answer is probably no.
At this moment, Kyrie Irving contacted LeBron James privately to ask if he would like to join the Mavericks, and rumors about him and Luka Doncic were still on social media hot searches. Even if the new version of the collective bargaining agreement is released, the phenomenon of star huddling may not disappear.
Team building mode for the Heat and Nuggets
Relying on the NCAA's huge talent pool and scouting nets in every corner of the world, the NBA has a strong hematopoietic function, and since the early days of the NBA, the draft has been the main way to build a team.
In the Nuggets and Heat's team building process, the draft is an important part.
The Heat acquired Adebayo, Taylor Hiro and Jovic through the draft, two of whom were major rotations.
The Nuggets have more players through the draft, namely Jokic, Jamal Murray, Porter Jr., Braun, Chanchar, Najib, four of whom are the main rotations.
While making deep use of the draft to build the team, the Heat and Nuggets also took full advantage of trade and free agent signing rules.
The Heat got Butler, Lowry, Oladipo through trades, Duncan Robinson, Gabe Vincent, Caleb Martin, Strus and other key puzzle pieces by digging up the draft failure, and also picked up leaks in the buyout market to get Kevin Love.
The Nuggets got Gordon, Pope, etc. through trades, and also signed Bruce Brown and Jeff Green through free agents, and Reggie Jackson in the buyout market.
The Nuggets and Heat's team-building models are actually very different, the Heat got Butler by signing first and then trading, and finally has a team-building core, and their ability to dig and cultivate the draft is unparalleled in the league. The Nuggets first use the draft to lay a good foundation, and then improve their strength through trades and recruits.
Each model is worth referring to other teams, like the Thunder, Pacers, etc., they can follow the Nuggets' path, and they have already laid the foundation through the draft. Like the Raptors, they can emulate the Heat and upgrade their chips to a real team-building core, and the Raptors' ability to dig out of the draft may be second only to the Heat in the league.
How hard is it to replicate the Nuggets and Heat?
The success of the Nuggets and Heat is respectable, and the winners will be imitated by future generations, but the success of the Nuggets and Heat is super difficult to replicate, and it is not something that can be done with patience.
The difficulty of the Heat's replication is that there are very few chances to sign Butler, the probability of digging multiple undrafted drafts is too low, and it is impossible to find a high-quality puzzle piece like Love in the mid-term.
Butler was seen as a cancer at other teams, and the Heat were having a headache because of Riley's several junk contracts. Unexpectedly, Riley got Butler by signing and was limited by a hard salary cap throughout the season, but he still survived. What if there is not enough salary space? The Heat dug up a bunch of low-priced draft runs.
The Nuggets' success was even more difficult to replicate, with the No. 41 pick Jokic sending Nurkic away to make room for Jokic, who became a two-time MVP, and no one could have predicted these results. The probability of the 41st signing a superstar who can compete for the first person in the league can be imagined.
Look at the Grizzlies to know that originally, the Grizzlies already had the potential to become the "new version of the Nuggets", although they did not use the low pick to dig the cornerstone of the team, but after all, they completed the original accumulation through the draft, which is the same as the Nuggets. The Grizzlies then strengthened their roster through trades, signings, and became a Western Conference powerhouse. But what the Grizzlies look like this year, everyone has seen, Morant is facing a long-term ban because of two gun incidents. What is the character of the core players of a team, this is difficult to control beforehand.
Huddles under the rules will not disappear
In recent years, the Nets, Lakers, and Suns have all failed to rush to the championship, but will the era of superpowers and huddles really end here? I'm afraid not. Under current rules, as long as there are no major changes to the new collective bargaining agreement, the huddle will not disappear.
In fact, judging from the previous remarks of the league chairman Xiao Hua, the league not only wants to help small market teams retain their stars, but also encourages the flow of stars. As long as the trading market and the free market are there, star flow is inevitable, and the use of salary space to sign stars and trade stud stars are inevitable.
The failure of the first few superpowers will not deter those who are interested in forming a superpower, the Lakers are still planning to introduce big names to join forces with James, and the Pelicans, Grizzlies, Rockets, and Nets are ready to stud at any time. Including the Heat, you think they don't want to bring in big names? The Heat chased Kevin Durant and Donovan Mitchell last year, but the Heat's trade chips failed to impress the Nets and Jazz.
The Heat and Nuggets' team-building model deserves respect, but their team-building model isn't the only one that works. The rules are reasonable, and although the new collective agreement tries to crack down on those teams that form superpowers, as long as the collective agreement gives space to superpowers, there will inevitably be teams trying.
From this point of view, huddles will not disappear, shortcuts will always exist. As for whether it works or not, it depends to a large extent on luck. The Nets, Lakers, Suns, all lost to injuries.