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When LeBron James revealed his cringeworthy “The Decision” in July, 2010 and announced that he would take his NBA talents to Miami to join Heat stars Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, the professional basketball pundits gasped at how putting three superstars on the same team would likely ruin the NBA forever.
Fast-forward to March, 2022, and we find a couple of these so-called “Super Teams” struggling to even make the NBA’s expanded playoffs.
LeBron James remains a constant in this business of putting three top players on the roster in hopes that they can carry the remainder of the team to an NBA championship. His Miami Heat team eventually won two NBA championships (2012 and 2013). James returned to Cleveland in 2014 and orchestrated the formation of a younger “Super” team with former Duke guard Kyrie Irving and forward Kevin Love. The 2016 Cavaliers team won an NBA ring, too.
In his third act of attempting to create yet another so-called “Super Team” around him, LeBron James moved west to join the Los Angeles Lakers beginning in 2017. He was able to convince Lakers’ management to make a trade to obtain New Orleans Pelicans big man Anthony Davis on board for the 2019-2020 season. Along with young forward Kyle Kuzma, the Lakers won the infamous 2020 “NBA Bubble” world championship trophy as the entire playoffs were played at Orlando’s Walt Disney World complex due to concerns about COVID-19.
Though this type of team rebuilding may have worked well for at least one person (LeBron James), the rest of the NBA teams simply haven’t been as successful in trying the same model.
The Oklahoma City Thunder came close to winning the NBA title in 2012 with the combination of young stars Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden. That team would lose to (of course) LeBron James’ Miami Heat trio of stars. The Thunder’s Terrific (but increasingly expensive) Trio evaporated as James Harden was traded to Houston in 2013 and Kevin Durant left for Golden State in 2016.
Speaking of Golden State, the Warriors’ addition of Kevin Durant gave the team three highly paid stars as he joined guards Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. The Warriors won the NBA title in 2017 and 2018 as this trio (along with playmaking big man Draymond Green) dominated the league. Injuries to all three players in the ensuing years kept the Warriors from extending their championship winning streak.
Other NBA teams have also tried a variation of creating these so-called “Super Teams”, too.
After acquiring James Harden from Oklahoma City, the Houston Rockets spent a lot of money on expensive free agents to partner with Harden in an effort to win Houston’s first NBA title since 1995. Center Dwight Howard (2013-2016), point guard Chris Paul (2017-2019), and former OKC teammate Russell Westbrook (2019-2020) were among the expensive acquisitions made by the Houston Rockets in order to assemble a championship roster. Though the Rockets came close on a few occasions, they never made it into the NBA Finals while James Harden was playing ball in H-town.
On the East Coast, the Brooklyn Nets have been trying to create their own so-called “Super Team” beginning in 2019 by acquiring guard Kyrie Irving from the Boston Celtics and signing the injured Kevin Durant away from Golden State. Durant would sit out the entire 2019 season due to injury issues prior to returning to the court in 2020 with the Nets.
Before to the start of the 2020 NBA season, James Harden loudly announced to the Houston Rockets that he wanted to be traded and, preferably, to the Brooklyn Nets. Harden’s last few months in Houston were simply abysmal. He put forth a half-hearted effort on the court and was eventually benched.
In January, 2021, the Rockets granted Harden his wish as he was traded to Brooklyn. At long last, the Nets finally secured their trio of stars to chase the team’s first championship since coming into the NBA. For their part, the Rockets received a series of Brooklyn’s first round draft picks in 2022, 2024, 2026, and 2028.
In their first season together, the Nets lost in the second round of the 2021 NBA playoffs to eventual champion Milwaukee in seven games.
As the 2022 NBA season began last fall, the sports media installed the Brooklyn Nets “Super Team” of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden as the favorite to win the championship this season. The second most popular pick to win this year’s NBA title was the Los Angeles Lakers with an aging LeBron James, an aging Russell Westbrook, and center Anthony Davis expected to make it into the NBA finals again.
Today, both of those teams are mired in ninth place in their respective conferences and on the verge of missing the NBA playoffs altogether.
The Brooklyn Nets (who finally realized that only one basketball was available to be shot by their three stars) recently traded James Harden away last month. In return, the Nets received the pouting petulant mentally fragile Ben Simmons of Philadelphia. Simmons (who hasn’t suited up on the court a single time this season after demanding a trade out of Philly last summer) still hasn’t played in a game since the February trade.
The 6’10” Simmons (who refuses to dedicate himself enough to learn how to accurately shoot a free throw or similar length shot) had became a boat anchor in the NBA playoffs for Philadelphia last year as teams sagged away and dared him to shoot. The strategy worked. After the 76ers were bounced out of the playoffs, Simmons pouted about being booed in Philly (Note to Ben – “Who hasn’t?”) and said that he would never play another game as a member of the team.
It took more than half of the season to find a team willing to make that deal and take the overpaid Simmons off their hands.
The Brooklyn Nets’ Super Team needed a player who was willing to NOT shoot the basketball. Simmons will become the team’s designated passer (and, at $33 million per year, a very expensive passer) once he gets himself mentally ready to play ball again. He has yet to suit-up for the Nets since the trade was consummated February 10, 2022.
Meanwhile in Los Angeles, LeBron James pushed hard to obtain guard Russell Westbrook (and his $44 million contract) from the Washington Wizards last summer. Westbrook joined the Lakers with hopes of winning his first NBA title and to assist his friend LeBron in grabbing his fifth championship ring.
In theory, the Lakers trio of a guard (Westbrook), a forward (James), and center Anthony Davis seems like a formidable group of talented NBA stars.
Unfortunately, Russell Westbrook’s skills have begun to diminish over the past few seasons as the hard-charging guard has struggled to find his footing in Los Angeles. In his first year with the Lakers, Westbrook is averaging a career-low 18 points per game (behind LeBron’s 29 and Anthony Davis’ 23) and is turning the ball over four times per game, too.
With Los Angeles currently sitting in ninth place in the NBA’s Western Conference, Lakers’ legend Magic Johnson recently said that he was tired of hearing all of the team’s excuses and “the Russell Westbrook trade will be the worst in history” if this year’s team fails to make the NBA playoffs.
Ouch!
Magic Johnson makes a very good point, though. The Lakers’ trio of players carries a very hefty price tag. The team payroll is $149 million, but Westbrook’s $44 million, James’ $41 million, and Anthony Davis’ $35 million comprise $120 million (80.5%) of the entire 15-man roster. That’s right. The other twelve members of the Lakers earn an average of “just” $2.41 million each this season.
Over in the Eastern Conference, the Brooklyn Nets are in a similar predicament. Their newest Super Trio of Kevin Durant ($41 million), Kyrie Irving ($35 million) and Ben Simmons ($33 million) is paid $110 million (69%) of the team’s $159 million payroll in 2022. The other dozen Nets players split the remaining $49 million to the tune of $4.45 million apiece.
Basketball is and always will be a team game. If you were a successful college basketball player in your own right and are now playing on an NBA team which pays its top three players the vast majority of the payroll, it takes a true professional to practice and play just as hard for about 10% of what your top three players are earning.
There is no question that LeBron James has personally benefited from this unique experiment of putting three highly-paid stars on the same team. The majority of other NBA teams which may have tried some form of this idea have not fared as well.
This year’s dismal showings by the fading Los Angeles Lakers and sleepwalking Brooklyn Nets may signal the end to this very expensive NBA experiment soon.