The NBA playoffs must carry on now without the Brooklyn Nets, the league’s most soulless and faulty all-star conglomerate. Give yourself time to adjust, OK?
Not to disappointment, but enjoyment. Without the Nets, the remainder of the postseason will be so much more fun.
The first round isn’t complete, but all the franchises following the outdated superteam model are on vacation. The Los Angeles Lakers, led by the imprudent trio of LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook, finished 33-49 with an aging roster that included five certain future Hall of Famers. The Los Angeles Clippers, who played the entire season without injured star Kawhi Leonard, lost in the play-in tournament after their other marquee player, Paul George, tested positive for the coronavirus. And then the Nets — the last hope for inorganic teams built on the whims of restless stars — were swept out of the playoffs Monday night.
Fittingly, the Boston Celtics — the team that Irving quit on three years ago before departing for Brooklyn to join forces with Kevin Durant — were the ones holding the broom. Fittingly, the first squad eliminated this postseason was the top-heavy, incomplete one that now stands in opposition of the league’s latest team-building best practices.
Just a year ago, the Nets were the tip of Durant’s size-18 Nikes away from eliminating the Milwaukee Bucks and advancing to the Eastern Conference finals. After the classic seven-game second-round series, the Bucks went on to win the NBA title, with Giannis Antetokounmpo delighting over proving that an organization constructed diligently around one patient superstar can prosper during an era in which the best players have preferred to team up and turn the game into fantasy basketball.
“It’s easy to go somewhere and go win a championship with somebody else,” Antetokounmpo said in celebration last July. “It’s easy. I could go to a superteam and just do my part and win a championship. This is the hard way to do it, and we did it.”
Of course, with better luck, Durant could have been celebrating the third championship of his career, and the whole superteam phenomenon would remain the standard. But small margins can still carry decisive meaning, and all of a sudden, the shift is impossible to ignore.
The top teams this season were all built in a classic fashion, meaning a heavy emphasis on drafting and using all avenues to upgrade instead of stripping the roster to clear salary cap space and pursue multiple all-star free agents.
It usually takes a glamour market to employ the superteam strategy, but right now, there is solid parity of opportunity in the NBA. The eight teams that won at least 50 games during the regular season tell a more diverse story than usual: Phoenix, Miami, Memphis, Boston, Golden State, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Dallas.
There’s a lot of good and very good across the NBA right now. There may not be a great team; the Suns are the closest, but we’ll have to see if they can endure without Devin Booker for a while. There’s definitely no burgeoning dynasty. But contention seems more realistic for a greater number of teams, and while the NBA has never needed that to thrive, this level of parity is a refreshing change.
The appetite to create a possible superteam won’t lessen. It’s important to check the caution label, however. The Lakers, who won the 2020 championship, won’t regret signing James and appeasing him often. But they’re paying a cost they didn’t anticipate now that he’s 37 and unable to cover up the majority of the ill-advised decisions the team makes.
Their problems aren’t as simple as keeping Davis healthy. They’re all-in on a plan that will leave the franchise barren when James is done in L.A., and there’s no graceful way to balance short- and long-term roster maintenance anymore.
In Brooklyn, the Nets are three seasons into the Durant-Irving partnership. They expected a slow start because Durant was recovering from Achilles surgery when they signed him away from Golden State three years ago. But over the past two seasons, Durant has been available for just 90 of a possible 154 regular season games. Irving, who sat out and opted to resist a New York vaccine mandate this season, has played in 83 of 154 games during that span.
Brooklyn has tried multiple times to assemble a Big Three. Instead, the Nets have a Big One and a Half. There’s Durant, who is carrying too much of a load at age 33. And there’s Irving, their flashy part-time star and full-time contrarian.
Maybe the injured Ben Simmons returns next season with a healthy back and a competitive mindset. This much is certain, however: The current situation is considerably worse than three summers ago, when Durant and Irving joined a Brooklyn team that touted a full complement of role players, including Jarrett Allen, Spencer Dinwiddie and Caris LeVert. Those three are gone now, and the two all-stars are both in their 30s and looked helpless against the Celtics’ defense.
Yet Irving continues to talk like he’s running the show. Irving spoke after the sweep about he and Durant “managing this franchise together” with owner Joe Tsai and general manager Sean Marks. It was either hilariously or disturbingly delusional. Irving was too selfish to take the vaccine when his team desperately needed him on the court, but now he wants to be a shot-caller.
Remember when Irving spoke of a similar collaborative coaching effort with Steve Nash? How’s that going? Nash will be lucky to survive and come back for a third season.
Because of talent, you have to give Brooklyn another chance to get right. However, there’s mounting evidence that the Nets are a volatile and insufficient mix. No matter how much Durant and Irving like playing together, they haven’t been good for each other so far.
Now there’s a fresh batch of teams and a new generation of stars who aren’t yet obsessed with combining powers and moonlighting as general managers. Not surprisingly, their teams have balance, depth and multiple ways of winning.
And the 30-somethings are left to drift deeper into their last good years in the sport. They’re stubborn, distrustful and taking on more than their bodies can handle.
Twelve years ago, when James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh came together in Miami, the start of the superteam era seemed like a party. Now, after another disappointing finish in Brooklyn, the Nets look fatigued and a little relieved the drama is over.
The NBA is too star-crazy to proclaim the death of superteams, but the approach is a tired one. The message is clear: Build better. Build more comprehensively. Build like Brooklyn at your own risk.