SOUL wrote:pepe1991 wrote:I actually remember Heat titles better than last 5 titles combined. Is it subjective? Sure. But rooting for or against Lebron is way more engaging for fans than watch OKC vs Pacers. Tv ratings prove my point.
To be fair, LeBron is also GOAT level top 2 player not in his prime anymore. If he was, and he was on a team with an equivalent of Wade/Bosh level side-kicks (which isn't impossible to build nowadays), you'd prob see a similar two chips in four years sort of scenario like the Heat back then, and that was with an entirely different CBA.
It's memorable for a load of different reasons though outside of CBA discussions - mainly because there was never an NBA moment like "taking my talents to South Beach" and the anticipation of LeBron joining the Heat joined by Bosh and forming the equivalent of Hulk Hogan joining the NWO.  

 And that was a short-lived team too, compared to the Warriors dynasty whose main cast stuck around a decade plus. But even their super team version with Durant couldn't last long with old CBA (three years). But you could have Curry/Klay/Green with a rotating cast of characters for a long time.
LeBron's decision was an instant storyline where the entire NBA fanbase as a whole was invested in the success or failure of the Heat. Perfect timing of GOAT level player moving on from Cleveland and joining up with All-Stars.
You're sort of waiting for the bread baking now for some young stars with an equivalent sort of buzz around them, but Wemby doesn't seem like a guy that will attract that sort of attention. Edwards isn't compelling enough yet. Jokic/Doncic/Giannis could cause some chaos. Other young stars aren't really at a top 10 level yet. 
But I do think dynasties are being looked at with a bit of rose-colored glasses. Just lik how people look at the old Spurs who played amazing team-first basketball and revolutionized the game in a lot of ways, but at the time of that, all you heard was "boring" their stars were and how nobody cared about them. Now you have people openly wishing for teams like that again.
 
And that's whole point. League is only as interesting as best player(s) are. With or without  artificial parity. League was most  popular in era when Jordan held rear naked choke on rest of a League and made them miserable losers. Nobody complained how unfair Bulls are. Well, Pippen complained for decades how underpaid he was  
 In span of 1999- 2009 - 11 different teams played in nba finals. 
( just to check: Lakers, Celtics, Magic, Knicks, Nets, Spurs,  Pistons, Heat, 76ers, Pacers, Cavs).
Five different champions were crowned. 
Was that parity? 
But league was abysmal from watchability POV. You could refer to that era as medieval age. Probably worst quality of basketball in nba aside from 1970s and two leagues.
As for Spurs, they are team that zagged in those years, where every team just had their Steve Francis and Marbury - iso -iso-iso- mid range shot, Spurs, influenced by Popovich and international cast shared ball way more and countered them. On offense.
But even Spurs were part of the "problem", because in  SLOOOW pace they were slowest team and turned every game into glorified wrestling match with basketball. Pistons were worst because they were all dirty, but Spurs had goons who did dirty job for big 3 as well. Bruce Bowen and intentional ankle breaking of opposing stars was actual thing.  
 Because skill turned into complete afterthought even drafts sucked because teams were seeking for goons.  Just look at first round picks in 2004 , 2005 and 2006. Whole bunch of jacked up dudes who were probably on gear and s*** load of massive, huge Cs because you needed C to wrestle.
And Stern figured league is turning into s*** and started with all the rule changes:
- defensive 3 sec rule to prevent rim camping
- no more illegal defense
- walking ball from half court changed from 10 to 8 sec
- 
hand checking changes in offseason of 2004 This was massive, it stopped defenders from beating living crap out of offensive player + they could get more FTA = better stats + be more efficient 

Over time nba went further and further to help offense because offense was more enjoyable product than wrestling with ball below hoops. Until it went to a point where it turned into glorified practice few years ago.
This is why i just think that current CBA was nothing but knee jerk reaction to Warriors success in 2022. They saw team that wasn't bothered by luxury tax and repetitive luxury tax and wanted to prevent them from staying on top for + 7 years (2015-2022 ).
So out of thin air they made up second apron with all the penalties. Some of them are flat out irrational.
Second objective reason for aprons are owners. They voted for this because this gives them objective excuse to not pay half of billion dollars bill for basketball team every year. Now, when contender is stuck, it's no longer their fault for not wanting to pay for team, it's boogeyman apron 2 that "forces" poor little billionaire to break down roster and pay required salary minimum for next 2-3-4-5 years to recover from costs.
And last, my last "evidence" of forcing cycling on top as only objective goal,  instead of parity is salary floor.Up until 2023 CBA, there was no serious penalty for not filling salary floor.  It wasn't mandatory, as far as i remember, gap of money was just distributed within a team players.
After 2023 CBA teams now HAVE to fill 90% of cap. Why is that important? Because it prevents second apron teams to make mid season salary relief trades into teams that didn't use all the cap. 
In context of real time events, Suns could, in theory, "return" Beal for i don't know, Kuzma, and save themself lot of money and lift up second apron burden.
But current CBA makes such transactions impossible, because 
all the teams are either over cap or near maximum cap space.So, in order for contender to go under second apron, such team 
has to get rid of one of best players = highly paid oneIn my opinion, all this moves are turning league in McDonalds /fast food -/junk food league.
All this really accomplishes is punishing successful teams and ensuring they are quickly replaced by the next up and coming contender.
“ you had your turn, time to be bad and let another team get the spotlight”. 
It's all about who's next. Nobody cares who's best now. In their mind, i assume ,that's speed up draft process. More people care about draft, that is often irrelevant to future outcomes of nba- than actual nba finals. How to use it -make whole league , rebuilds , raises and falls on x10 speed.
 
            
                                    
                                    Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. -John Lennon