Patatoa
The 2023 NBA trade deadline is passed, and the last NBA "Super Team" of this era, that has any shot at post-season relevance, was blown up. The Brooklyn Nets jettisoned Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks closely followed by Kevin Durant pouting his way to the Phoenix Suns. Aside from the Lebron James/Anthony Davis Lakers (11th in the West? Yikes,) the Nets were the only other super team attempt. All they got out of it was a couple of second-round exits and the remains of Ben Simmons. As we survey the wreckage, I think we can agree that this super team era was not worth the risk.
Let’s define a super team as when two or more All-Star players navigate themselves to a new team in the course of a season, most often in the off-season. This "Super Team era" started with those Boston Celtics when Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen joined Paul Pierce. This core caught the league sleeping that first year, scoring a chip. Their time was up as quick as it started though as they couldn’t repeat (Spurs fan: no shame in there) and were supplanted by the super team. The Lebron/Wade/Bosh Heat went to the finals 4 straight years, winning the middle two (how odd.) These 4 trips segued into 4 more for Lebron, accompanied by Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love and their Cavs super team (including one title.) With the exception on the 2009 Orlando Magic, all Eastern Conference champions from 2008 - 2018 were super teams. With four championships combined for those three teams.
These were the winning attempts. Think of the failures! The Brooklyn Nets tried to import the Boston Celtics’ super team, pairing KG and Pierce with Joe Johnson and surrendering all draft picks until the Nets were ready to try the super team thing again. The New York Knicks weren’t going to miss an opportunity to fall on their face either by uniting Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony. Let’s not forget the super team attempt that consigned Kobe’s last years to the cellar: the Steve Nash, Dwight Howard, "this is going to be fun" team. Moving into more modern times, the Kawhi/Paul George Clippers have accomplished exactly nothing, aside from being unafraid to be unlikeable. And back full circle to the KD/Irving/James Harden Brooklyn Nets that played two weeks of stellar ball.
The most successful of these All Star abominations took advantage of an abysmal Eastern Conference, and 60% of the time, still lost. So what was happening out West? They matched up with the arisen-Kobe Lakers. While Pau Gasol joined via trade, he alone does not fulfill our super team definition. Then, the Dirk and the guns-for-hire Mavericks. A core that lasted just that one season comprised of players in their years of waning relevancy. After that, teams renowned for cultivating their super teams the old fashioned way (drafting and tanking,) the Durant-Westbrook-Harden-and-sometimes-Ibaka Thunder, the spiritually pure San Antonio Spurs, and the next undeniable dynasty, the Curry-Thompson-Green Warriors. These teams quashed the bought and paid for super teams more often than not.
The Snake in the machine
One name that keeps popping up is Kevin Durant. Now I’ve mentioned the magic word, "Warriors". It’s time to address the team that may have been nagging at you while reading this article, the 2017-2019 Golden State Warriors. An already champion core, adding MVP Kevin Durant. Isn’t this a super team? Yes, I suppose; even if it doesn’t meet our admittedly cherry-picked definition. This is slightly different. This is a player throwing his hands up and joining an already built team. And he’s done it again this season ditching the Nets that he built to join the Phoenix Suns (another team of cream puffs, although capable of being Conference Champs.) Conspiring with your All star friends to team up is one thing. Joining an already contending team as an MVP candidate yourself? That’s a whole ‘nother game of wackness.
Was it Worth it?
For the teams that at least won a ring, its hard to argue it wasn’t. Look at those 08 Celtics. When they knew their run was up, they suckered the Nets and used their picks to build their next contending squad. On the flip side, as the Nets fell apart with no picks or cap space to refuel, they managed to eventually build a fun playoff team. They acquired D’Angelo Russel, who became an All Star, Caris LaVert, Spencer Dinwiddie, Jarett Allen who all would gather All Star attention. Imagine they just keep one of those picks that became Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum or Markelle Fultz. Even if not, they could have kept that core together (maybe pull a similar deal for Devon Mitchell and were talking about these Nets instead of those Cavs) instead of throwing out their team that scrapped into the playoffs, for Durant, Irving, and Harden. Whom, also, scrapped into the playoffs. Maybe getting out of the super team business now will pay off like it did for the Celtics.
Even before this trade deadline, the NBA landscape looked inverted. The Nets weren’t dominating like any of the super teams of the decade before. The Lakers were abysmal. Teams with definitive stars, with a complimentary star and role players were the juggernaut teams: the Bucks, the Nuggets, the Pelicans, the Celtics. Savvy moves, smart picks. Teams that traded 7 years worth of draft picks for their All Star core, and G-league depth, treaded water at best (and kicking the tires on John Wall...) (yikes.) The rest of the league caught up and you can’t get away that kind of team anymore.