Is this the Death of the Superteam Era

[Dino-Might]

The formation of the Big Three of Lebron, Wade and Bosh marked a new era of superteams in the NBA. Some might argue that even prior to that, the Celtics formed a superteam with Pierce, Garnett and Allen. However, the Heatles were the first time players conspired with each other to team up with their buddies through free agency.

Prior to that, the prototype for a championship team was the two star model of Jordan's Bulls: one transcendent superstar, another all star and a deep bench filled with excellent role players.

However, the Heat won with three superstar players on one team making near max money and filled out the rest of their roster with players on rookie deals and whatever minimum players they could cobble together, winning two championships in the process.

Lebron took that same approach back to the Cavs to form another superteam with Irving and Love.

Meanwhile, Golden State was able to supplement its own homegrown stars with Kevin Durant to form a 4 star (depending on how you categorize Draymond) superteam.

However, after the Raptors won in 2019, overcoming the Warriors superteam and a budding superteam in the Sixers with one "superstar", one all-star and a deep and strong supporting cast of two-way players, the superteam model has never achieved the same success.

The Lakers won the bubble championship in 2020 with two superstars in Lebron and AD, combined with a number of role players. In 2021, Giannis won without another superstar but two other lesser stars and a deep bench.

Durant joined forces with Irving and Harden, but were unable to win last year and are likely to be in the play-in this year after Harden forced his way out.

Meanwhile, Lebron attempted to recreate the superteam model in LA, bringing in Westbrook to join him and AD. They are likely to miss the play-in this year.

Golden State, which looked at the beginning of the year, like they had recaptured the spark of their championship runs, is now trending down in the West.

The recurring theme with each of these teams with a collection of aging stars is injuries. Lebron, AD, Durant, Harden, Curry, Thompson, Draymond have all missed significant time this year.

A team with three superstar players is great, if they all stay healthy. However, the weakness of this model is that if you put all your eggs in these three baskets, when one of them goes down with an injury (or can't play because they believe the earth is flat and other whacky conspiracies), then having only one or two superstars with a paper thin supporting cast held up with spare parts and league minimums will not work.

In contrast, the favorites this year are the Suns, two star players with a strong supporting cast, the Bucks again and deep teams like Miami and Boston.

Have we seen the death of the "Superfriends" Era?

[tsherkin]

The root premise of the post is wrong. Super teams have existed in all eras of the game...

[Myth]

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2181237

[Frosty]

I think the message is, injuries aren’t going to hurt you no matter what your build of a star goes out.

If MJ, Pippen or Rodman/Grant went out the Bulls were thin.

[MartyConlonOnTheRun]

I feel part of it is stars get too impatient while waiting for the team to build. By year 2, they are sick of a thin roster but if they give enough time they can have enough MLE and late round draft picks to go along with the vet mins.

[JShuttlesworth]

There was no "super team era", there was just Lebron and Durant.

[Ursusamericanus]

Was Hakeem, Pippen, and Barkley not a super team? These teams have always been around.

[JoeyLightYears]

Was Hakeem, Pippen, and Barkley not a super team? These teams have always been around.

During the 80s, the Lakers, Celtics, and Sixers all had superteams, sometimes at the same time.

[Hoop Heavy]

Was Hakeem, Pippen, and Barkley not a super team? These teams have always been around.

Weren't two out of three of those guys kind of washed at that point? Big names are great .... but Shaq, MJ and Duncan as a superteam next year .... probably will not make the playoffs.

[iLLmatic860]

I don’t think the world isnt ready to admit that Knicks will form the next super team

[jokeboy86]

People really don't search the forums:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2181237

[Lalouie]

the "superteam era" was a lebron dreamchild.
it was borne from him,
it was named as such because of him
it's a reason why people don't like him
it'll die with him
it is an anomaly

[Wammy Giveaway]

Have we seen the death of the "Superfriends" Era?

That's a tough question to answer. The Big 3 Celtics was conceived by Danny Ainge, and they already had a home grown superstar in Paul Pierce. The Heatles already had home grown superstar Dwyane Wade. Both teams got their superstars by trade, but the key difference in those acquisitions was player intervention: Garnett wanted out of Timberwolves and Allen was a draft day trade; James needed out of Cavaliers to figure out how to win, and who better to show him that than with someone who's already won one in his closest friend Wade.

The 2020 Lakers actually had three superstars in James-Davis-Howard (Howard was 8x All-Star, Davis the same), even though the latter was more of a bench player for that run, and Rondo was a role star due to four All-Star appearances. A true Dynamic Duo is comprised of just two superstars who have multiple All-Star appearances, a league MVP or Finals MVP, and a cast of role players who have no All-Star visits or other awards whatsoever. The only teams that fit this mold right now are Suns (Booker and Paul have three and twelve visits respectively) and Clippers (Leonard is 5x All Star and 2x Finals MVP, George has seven visits). This year's Bucks and 76ers fit more in line with the 2020 Lakers in that they have role stars (one to four All-Star appearances and no MVP award of either regular season or Finals). It's because of this that I think the superteam era is not truly dead yet.

[Joao Saraiva]

Superteams existed before the Heat, and they will always exist. If Doncic or Embiid are not put in a win situation, they might leave and make a super team.

And they're not the only ones. Do you think Jokic won't go anywhere if Denver doesn't go anywhere in the next few years?

It all depends on what you consider a super team to be, but no way that is going to end. We had the Celtics with Bird, McHale, Robert, Walton on the bench... We had the Lakers with KAJ, Magic and James, we had the Celtics big 3, with had Barkley with Hakeem and Drexler, Durant with Westbrook and Harden, Shaq with Kobe, Malone and Payton, etc... it will all happen again.

Having 3 stars is no guarantee to win it all. Obviously if you have 3 stars or 4 stars like GSW, two of the top 5 players, deep roster and great fit then it gets a lot easier. But even they lost due to injuries, but still lost.

[Ursusamericanus]

Was Hakeem, Pippen, and Barkley not a super team? These teams have always been around.

Weren't two out of three of those guys kind of washed at that point? Big names are great .... but Shaq, MJ and Duncan as a superteam next year .... probably will not make the playoffs.

I wouldn't say washed. Hakeem was putting up 19/10 and 3 blocks on good efficiency, Barkley 16/12/5, Pippen 15/7/6. Not their prime numbers but they also had to share the load.

The previous iterations with Hakeem, Clyde, and Barkley were super teams too.

It isn't a new concept at all and I always scratch my head when people blame LeBron for starting it.

[Onus]

Wait what?!!? Has any team ever won with a serious injury to one of their stars? It doesn't matter if you have 3 or 2 stars if one of them gets hurt it lowers your chance. The point of having 3 is that if 1 gets hurt you still have 2 to carry the load? Having 1 superstar just puts all your eggs in that superstar's basket rather than 3 baskets.

Health is almost always a factor in winning a championship which is why it's so hard to win a championship. The best team doesn't always win.

[dhsilv2]

I stopped reading with the idiotic comment that before super teams, the bulls system of 2 stars was the standard. LMFAO!

[IamBBAnalysis]

The formation of the Big Three of Lebron, Wade and Bosh marked a new era of superteams in the NBA. Some might argue that even prior to that, the Celtics formed a superteam with Pierce, Garnett and Allen. However, the Heatles were the first time players conspired with each other to team up with their buddies through free agency.

Prior to that, the prototype for a championship team was the two star model of Jordan's Bulls: one transcendent superstar, another all star and a deep bench filled with excellent role players.

However, the Heat won with three superstar players on one team making near max money and filled out the rest of their roster with players on rookie deals and whatever minimum players they could cobble together, winning two championships in the process.

Lebron took that same approach back to the Cavs to form another superteam with Irving and Love.

Meanwhile, Golden State was able to supplement its own homegrown stars with Kevin Durant to form a 4 star (depending on how you categorize Draymond) superteam.

However, after the Raptors won in 2019, overcoming the Warriors superteam and a budding superteam in the Sixers with one "superstar", one all-star and a deep and strong supporting cast of two-way players, the superteam model has never achieved the same success.

The Lakers won the bubble championship in 2020 with two superstars in Lebron and AD, combined with a number of role players. In 2021, Giannis won without another superstar but two other lesser stars and a deep bench.

Durant joined forces with Irving and Harden, but were unable to win last year and are likely to be in the play-in this year after Harden forced his way out.

Meanwhile, Lebron attempted to recreate the superteam model in LA, bringing in Westbrook to join him and AD. They are likely to miss the play-in this year.

Golden State, which looked at the beginning of the year, like they had recaptured the spark of their championship runs, is now trending down in the West.

The recurring theme with each of these teams with a collection of aging stars is injuries. Lebron, AD, Durant, Harden, Curry, Thompson, Draymond have all missed significant time this year.

A team with three superstar players is great, if they all stay healthy. However, the weakness of this model is that if you put all your eggs in these three baskets, when one of them goes down with an injury (or can't play because they believe the earth is flat and other whacky conspiracies), then having only one or two superstars with a paper thin supporting cast held up with spare parts and league minimums will not work.

In contrast, the favorites this year are the Suns, two star players with a strong supporting cast, the Bucks again and deep teams like Miami and Boston.

Have we seen the death of the "Superfriends" Era?

Good post and question. Typical Realgm with a bunch of "you're wrong" type of posts following yours. Your premise is good and the question intriguing but they are focusing on side tangents and semantics.

Anyway, your main point that the era of 3 superstars is (at least temporarily) over. That really was a thing for around a decade with the Warriors and Heat teams. And how they were formed is an important consideration to the history and future of the NBA...with players leaving to a form a "trio". This was talked about a LOT (on realgm and everywhere), not to mention players thinking this way. With the failed experiment/attempt at the 3 star superteam in Brooklyn that lends credence to your point.

Now we have had 3 years of teams winning with at best two current superstars on their roster. Yes it is true that in the 80's you could say the Lakers and Celtics "kind of" had the 3 superstar team going but not really. Parish was not really a superstar with the Celtics and Kareem or Byron Scott (at that stage of their careers) were not either. They were 2 superstar teams OR more just a collection of a bunch of borderline all-star players with 1-2 superstars mixed in.

Will this continue and will superteams with 3 or more star/superstar players still form? That is the real question here.

[R-DAWG]

The Derrick Rose 2016 New York Knicks will always be the premier #SuperTeam!

[R-DAWG]

I don’t think the world isnt ready to admit that Knicks will form the next super team

If the Knicks form a super team, other teams will form a Super Duper Team