NBA Team Building

by nate

In case you’ve been in some communist country that doesn’t allow television or internet for the last 24 hours, you may not know that LeBron James has decided to jump on the South Beach bandwagon and sign with the Miami Heat. I case you were in said country for at least a week, you may also not know that Dwyane Wade re-upped with his NBA alma-mater and convinced Chris Bosh to come aboard. That’s right, Bron, Wade, and Bosh all on one team. Instant championship,right? Maybe not. Let’s see what history tells us.

NBA free agency has been around since the late 80s, which is around the time I really started paying attention to the intricacies of the greatest show on the hardwoods. And in the age of free agency, I can only think of a hand full of times that players attempted to create super-teams. Most didn’t end well.

2003-2004 Dallas Mavericks
The 2002-2003 Dallas Mavericks looked good. Led by Dirk Nowitzki’s stellar shooting and Steve Nash’s playmaking abilities, they ripped through the playoffs, only to fall in 6 games to the San Antonio Spurs. They looked like a team that was poised to be a threat in the West for some time. Don and his son Donnie Nelson decided to take it up a notch and took a gamble by trading excess baggae for Antawn Jamison and Antoine Walker to join the already able core of Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash, and Michael Finley. Mixed with Don Nelson’s signature fast-paced offense, this sounds like an unstoppable force, right? Well the good news is that they were the top offensive team in the league. The bad news, they were the third worst defensively. They won 52 games and went into the playoffs as the 5-seed. They proceeded to lose to the Sacramento Kings in 5 games. Despite Jamison winning his only 6th man award, both Tawn and Toine were traded the following Summer.

1996-1997 Houston Rockets
After going back-to-back, reuniting Hakeem the Dream and Clyde the Glide, and solidifying Olajuwon as the top center in the game, the Rockets decided to step it up by sending Robert Horry, Sam Cassell and a couple of scrubs to AZ for Sir Charles himself. The Drexler, Barkley, Hakeem trio should have been Dream team 2. Chuck averaged 19 and 14 for the Rockets, but the dreaded combination of injuries and old age held him to only 53 games. Clyde only showed for 62 and the Rockets finished 2nd in the West with 57 wins. They made a strong run to the Conference Finals only to fall to the red-hot Utah Jazz.

1998-1999 Houston Rockets
With only a sniff of the glory days remaining and having lost Clyde Drexler to retirement, the Rockets decided to make once last push and traded practically nothing to the Bulls for Scottie Pippen. As a kid, I couldn’t have asked for a better trio. Chuck, Pip, and The Dream were three of my favorites and to see them all on the same team was bliss. Sadly, it came during the infamous lockout year when the NBA was at it’s lowest point since Dr. J made the ABA profitable. The Rockets won 31 of 50 games and lost to the Lakers in the first round. Pippen was sent packing the following Fall.

2003-2004 Los Angeles Lakers
In the free agent extravaganza of the Summer of 2003, mega-free agents Karl Malone and Gary Payton signed with Los Angeles Lakers at the stroke of midnight, joining Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal in an attempt at regaining Laker greatness. The Diesel, Kobe, and The Mailman struggled with injuries for most of the season while The Glove struggled with the triangle offense. They got their act together in time for the playoffs and made a run to the Finals in an attempt to get Payton and Malone their elusive first rings. They came up short by only winning 1 game against the Detroit Pistons. Malone hung em up after the defeat and Payton was shipped to Boston the following Summer.

2007-2008 Boston Celtics
At the 2007 draft, Danny AInge went crazy. Amidst losing Paul Pierce, he somehow negotiated ridiculous deals that left the Boston with Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, all the while keeping Pierce. “The Big Three” as they have since been known, led Boston to 66 wins and an eventual NBA championship that same season. Hey, it actually worked!

So will it work for Miami? Only time will tell. History tells us that it doesn’t typically work. The only difference I see with the new Miami super-squad and the teams of old is that the big three for the Heat are all in their primes, whereas the teams I mentioned were typically past their prime. The 2008 Celtics worked well only because the main stars shared the ball and the role players bought in. LeBron and the gang can only hope the same happens for them.