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"Super Team" Era is nothing new for NBA

Discussion in 'NBA Dish' started by eliefan, Aug 15, 2012.

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  1. eliefan

    eliefan Member

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    Since Lebron hopped to Miami and Howard moving to the Lakers, there have been lots of comments about how the "new" era of super teams is destroying the NBA. If you look back at the history of the four major professional sports leagues in America, the NBA has far fewer champions over the last 30 years than the NFL, MLB, and NHL.

    Looking at the last 30 championships, the NBA has only had 9 different teams win an NBA title.

    76ers, Celtics (3), Lakers (8), Pistons (3), Bulls (6), Rockets (2), Spurs (4), Heat (2), Mavs

    That's it. Only 9 teams over a whole generation of NBA fans.

    Compare that to the following leagues:
    NFL - 15 different teams (Redskins, Raiders, 49ers, Bears, Giants, Cowboys, Packers, Broncos, Rams, Ravens, Patriots, Bucs, Steelers, Colts, Saints)

    MLB - 19 different teams (Dodgers, Cardinals, Orioles, Tigers, Royals, Mets, Twins, A's, Reds, Blue Jays, Braves, Yankees, Marlins, Diamondbacks, Angels, Red Sox, White Sox, Phillies, Giants)

    NHL - 16 different teams (Islanders, Flames, Oilers, Canadians, Rangers, Stars, Avalanche, Devils, Lightning, Hurricanes, Ducks, Red Wings, Penguins, Blackhawks, Bruins, Kings)

    So just in championships, far fewer teams have won one in the NBA than the other sports. Let's look a little wider at the NBA. Of the other 21 teams that have not won a championship, how many had a realistic shot at winning one over let's say at least a 2-3 year span?

    Portland (early 90s) with Drexler and maybe in the early 2000s with Wallace
    Phoenix (late 90s) with Barkley
    Knicks (early to mid-90s) with Ewing
    Kings (late-90s to early 2000s) with Webber
    Utah (90s) with Malone & Stockton
    Orlando (mid-90s with Shaq & Penny) and a few years ago with Howard
    Sonics early 90s with Kemp & Payton
    Bucks (mid-80s with Moncrief)
    OKC today with Durant

    I'm not including (although all of these teams were pretty frisky):
    Pacers (mid-90s with Miller)
    Cleveland (early 90s with Daugherty & Price or late-2000s with Lebron)
    Charlotte Hornets (mid-90s with Mourning and LJ)
    Minnesota (late-90s with Garnet)
    Nets (early 2000s with Kidd)
    Hawks (late 80s early 90s with Wilkins)

    That's only 17 teams over the last 30 years who either won a championship or were really good over a 2-3 year span. So it's not unusual in the NBA for 20 teams to go into a season with zero hope of winning the championship.
     
    #1 eliefan, Aug 15, 2012
  2. Raven

    Raven Member

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    There's a difference between 20 teams having no current hope of winning a championship and 20 teams never having any hope of winning a championship. Superstars will not play our their career in small market non glamorous cities anymore, so why should those fans stick around and buy tickets? Just forget about the NBA until the Finals roll around once a year or maybe catch the occasional game on TNT if it's a marque match up.
     
    #2 Raven, Aug 15, 2012
  3. RocketBlood

    RocketBlood Member

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    It should be 8 different teams, Mavs dont count.
     
    #3 RocketBlood, Aug 15, 2012
  4. Air Langhi

    Air Langhi Contributing Member

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    What about the spurs or the thunder? If teams put good teams together people will have no problem going there or staying there.

    When did stars flock to miami? They went there because they had a chance to win. Why did tmac force a trade to houston because we had yao and a chance to win.
     
    #4 Air Langhi, Aug 15, 2012
  5. ParaSolid

    ParaSolid Member

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    I think it's fairly obvious that the NBA has too many teams. I don't know how the other leagues are able to achieve the level of parity they've had over the years and why the NBA can't seem to do the same. Are the elite players much more important to winning in basketball than in other sports? Or do the other leagues have better mechanisms in place to ensure that the elite players are evenly distributed throughout the league?

    As an aside, I'd actually be interested in seeing how many teams have actually been profitable over the past 30 years. That could shed some light on why the issue on parity has not been actively pursued.
     
    #5 ParaSolid, Aug 15, 2012
  6. eliefan

    eliefan Member

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    Going into this season, I would say at most 10 teams have a shot at winning the title:
    Realistic chance: Spurs, Lakers, OKC, Heat
    Teams that are talented, but need some breaks along the way: Clippers, Memphis, Dallas, Boston, Chicago, Indiana

    Fans of the following teams, while they have no shot at a championship, at least have something interesting to watch:
    Denver (Iggy), Minnesota (How does Rubio bounce back?, AK47), Golden State (Can they stay healthy?), Houston (rookies), New Orleans (rookies), Philly (Bynum), NJ (decent on paper)
     
    #6 eliefan, Aug 15, 2012
  7. MadMax

    MadMax Member

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    I do believe the elite players are much more important to winning in basketball than other sports. I think that's just the nature of the game, particularly in a sport where only 5 guys from a team are on the court at any one time.
     
    #7 MadMax, Aug 15, 2012
  8. Angkor Wat

    Angkor Wat Member

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    Olajuwon-Barkley-Drexler
    Olajuwon-Barkley-Pippen

    Many people forget we had a super team ourselves. We had a super team before it was cool.
     
    #8 Angkor Wat, Aug 15, 2012
    1 person likes this.
  9. Icehouse

    Icehouse Member

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    Nothing has changed. Since I have been watching basketball only around 5 teams each year have a legit shot at winning. Sometimes you get a surprise but it's quite rare. I don't see what the fuss is all about honestly. The methods may be different, as far as players now having a say in the matter, but the end result is still the same. Next year you will only have around 4-5 teams with a shot to win, just like the 80's, and the 90's, et.
     
    #9 Icehouse, Aug 15, 2012
  10. jvu

    jvu Member

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    wrong.
    In the 90s = 2 superstar player teams (ie Duncan/Robinson) Starks and Ewing
    In the 00s = 3 superstars lakers, boston, heat, NYK, etc
    In the 10s = 4 superstars heat and lakers...

    Every team will just be irrelevant. I would not be surprised If teams like the bobcats be moved or
     
    #10 jvu, Aug 15, 2012
  11. Joe Joe

    Joe Joe Go Stros!
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    Basketball is dominated by a few elite players. No way to get parity when a player like Jordan can lead his team to 6 championships. Only thing NBA can do is give teams an equal shot at getting those players in draft and having a chance to keep them.
     
    #11 Joe Joe, Aug 15, 2012
  12. VBG

    VBG Member

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    What about the 80s with

    Sixers, Celtics and Lakers?
     
    #12 VBG, Aug 15, 2012
  13. juicystream

    juicystream Member

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    Remove player maxes, and institute hard cap.

    You'll have more parity.
     
    #13 juicystream, Aug 15, 2012
  14. napalm06

    napalm06 Huge Flopping Fan

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    The biggest thing I take away from this is that people should no longer deride players simply because they haven't won an NBA championship.
     
    #14 napalm06, Aug 15, 2012
  15. felixng2012

    felixng2012 Member

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    Ray Allen is not a superstar at this point.... Bosh is a borderline superstar at best. Pau Gasol is definitely not a superstar.

    80s Celtics, Pistons, and Lakers were as stacked if not more.
    I don't even want to discuss how stacked of a team Russell had.
     
    #15 felixng2012, Aug 16, 2012
  16. amaru

    amaru Member

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    how many times will this be re-posted?
     
    #16 amaru, Aug 16, 2012
  17. Joe Joe

    Joe Joe Go Stros!
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    I agree this with this. I have been advocating for removing max salaries for a while. A hard salary cap would be nice, too. It would improve parity, but don't expect it to greatly increase the number of different championship teams.

    Whatever team Lebron is on will do well.
     
    #17 Joe Joe, Aug 16, 2012
  18. psingh34

    psingh34 Member

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    if by breaks you mean as in kobe breaks his leg, lebron breaks his arm etc than you are right with a few breaks those teams can be in contention..

    in reality though this is a 3 horse race and no one else really has much of a chance

    okc, miami, LA
    just think LA almost took okc in the playoffs (with so many games being close) and now they add nash and howard. Who has okc added perry jones?
     
    #18 psingh34, Aug 16, 2012
  19. LCII

    LCII Member

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    Just another reason n00bs need to realize that tanking or rebuilding is the only way to go for crap teams
     
    #19 LCII, Aug 16, 2012
  20. roxstarz

    roxstarz Member

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    Simple case of not enough talent in the NBA For 30 teams. Also when most of the talent is on one team. (heat, lakers, thunder)
    Only thing to make more parity would be to install a hard cap and take out max contracts.
     
    #20 roxstarz, Aug 16, 2012
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