One of the more engaging championship fights of recent memory was the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors finals. The Celtics were going to face a Warriors team that was different than the one they faced before. Both teams were able to build their roster through shrewd trades.
For the first time since 2007, we had two teams in the NBA Finals that weren't built with superstars. It has taken 14 years to kill the super team. The Boston Celtics formed a modern superteam in 2007, when they acquired Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett, who would go on to play with Paul Pierce. The Los Angeles Lakers traded for Pau Gasol in order to put him with Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom, and Andrew Bynum. Five of the six competitors made at least one Finals appearance.
Many teams prepared for the best free-agent class in the history of the NBA in the summer of 2010. In Miami, the superstars of the game were joined by DWYANE Wade. This was a team that hadn't been seen before. Gasol joined Bryant and Odom as three players with mostly first-round exits to their resume as number one options and the three Heatles were joining forces in the middle of their prime years.
The Lakers used their star power, legendary coach, and three-time championship duo to lure a 35-year-old and 40-year-old to LA. The team collapsed in the finals. Miami almost broke the NBA when it came to breaking the mold.
Everyone tried to get involved. In order to form the next superteam, the Brooklyn Nets tried to put together a group of players. After persuading James to come back to Cleveland to join Irving, the Cavs traded Love for Irving. The best player in the NBA was added to the best team in the NBA. James formed a new team in L.A. When the Lakers won the title in 2020, a super team appeared in every Finals. James was the best player in three of the teams.
This makes this year's Finals sweeter, seeing two homemade rosters fight it out for all the marbles, a year after the Milwaukee Bucks won the title. The decade of superstars took the fun out of predicting who would make the finals.
There are a lot of draft-built teams that are poised to make deep runs. The teams were built without home run swings and rose out of the lottery to build a contender. The Dallas Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, Denver Nuggets, and the Warriors are all in the west. The Celtics ride the backs of their two in-house stars, and they are in the East.
The teams that have made trades and free agency mistakes are cringeworthy. At one point, the Nets had James Harden, Irving, and Durant on the same roster. Three years removed from their championship, the Lakers look broken and old after adding Top 75 players of all time. Adding Harden last season left the 76ers looking further away from a title. The Clippers gutted their roster to make room for Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, but they didn't make the finals.
The future seems to have been conquered by small-market teams who have used the draft to their advantage. The draft will replace free agency as the most important day of the year because of how much fun the finals were. For now.
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