There's really only two modes an NBA team can be in. Either their goal is to actually compete for a championship, going all-in the process, or it is to get to the point where they can compete later down the line.
Theoretically, at the start of the season every team is in contention. But as the season progresses, you can tell who really has a chance and who doesn't. And even from the onset, when all records are equal, you have a pretty good of idea of who's most likely to fall off along the way.
And the thing is that no superstar vet wants to play on a roster that is clearly not in contention. Back in the days, old vets who had never won a championship, like Mitch Richmond, would sometimes join a contender and ride the bench just to get a ring. Nowadays dudes ain't on it like that, at least not the bigger dawgs.
LBJ already has four rings, and not only does he have to be on a contender but also starting on one. The Trailblazers, as dumb as they may be, they understand that so long as they have Damian Lillard, they also have to field a roster that at least looks like a potential contender. Why? Because you can't have a vet with a reputation like Lillard on your roster and be like 'we're just trying to make the playoffs'.
Back when the Sixers gutted their roster for the Beard, their prospect of winning a championship fell out the window. But still, the world had to believe with those two superstars vets, Philly could win it all.
Also, I would love to see something like Kevin Durant play for the Pistons. These days, superstar vets are so obsessed with instant winning that such possibilities don't really exist. But, talk about must-watch?
And that brings me to the point I wanted to get to in this article. LBJ is perhaps the finest example of an NBA ironman I've ever seen, but he still missed like a third of last season.
If you're an old superstar, you don't want to be on a team dominated with other stars who are like in your same age group. That's one lesson we all learned, the hard way, watching the 2021-22 Lakers. You want to have young stars around you to do the dirty work. The onus can't be on you to defeat an entire team like back in the heydays.
THE EXAMPLE OF KAREEM
It's very hard for older superstars to find themselves in that position during the Lebron era, where they change teams at will. Being old and a leader on a roster that contends is like a blessing, because it's very rare. And based on history, it usually means you have to be willing to commit yourself to an organization for the long haul instead of bouncing at will.
So there's very few players that went out like that anyway, as an old superstar who still played a major role on a contender. The two best examples I can think of are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Tim Duncan. Like who knows exactly when Kareem retired anyway? And that's because it wasn't a situation where when he felt he was too old to play, the Lakers instantly became garbage. They were able to build up a foundation around him and therefore able to transition into the post-Kareem era without skipping a beat.
The same for Tim Duncan. Never in his entire era were the Spurs actually non-contenders, which is kinda amazing when you think about it. A lot of that is attributable to the organization's braintrust, of course. But at the same time, he was willing to serve as a foundation to build on. And like the Spurs would still be contenders til now post-Duncan if Kawhi hadn't bounced. But anyway, both of those dudes were down for with their teams like three times longer than Lebron stayed with any one squad.
CONCLUSION
So now, there's really only two choices for aged superstars. It'd be cool to see KD and Kyrie run it back, if Ben Simmons plays. But if it's going to be them chucking again surrounded by a roster not built to make up for that tendency, then it's like no one wants to watch a repeat of that debacle.
So an aged superstar can only #1 commit to an organization and hope he's good enough to serve as a generational foundation or #2 be willing to play with younger guys, even if doing so doesn't yield an instant championship. And I guess #3 is that it also helps when a superstar knows if he's no longer viable enough to be the foundation of an organization. When the Lakers did it for Kobe, keeping him as their alpha way past his prime, everyone understood that was out of respect. But if you're really trying to build a contender with Damian Lillard, at this point in his career he should maybe like the 3rd option on offense and like 6th on defense.
No comments:
Post a Comment