In comics, the Justice League of America is (usually) a collection of the seven best heroes in the DC Universe. The Avengers, on the otherhand, are Marvel's premier super team. They have guys like Thor and Iron Man on the team, obviously, but there are also guys like Ant-Man and Hawkeye, guys that can't exactly stop a train by themselves, but guys who bring something valuable to the team because they aren't just muscle. They transform the Avengers from just being a collection of cool guys, like the JLA, into a dynamic collection of individuals who make themselves better by being together. Now, obviously I mean no disrespect to them but the JLA overpowers everyone they face, the Avengers have to outhink their opponents. Teamwork matters more than individual accomplishments.
Since the Knicks landed Carmelo Anthony, the NBA has gone nuts. Everyone is talking about how the “super teams” are going to ruin the league and the small markets are done. That seems asinine to me. Look, first and foremost, if we learned anything from LeBron James time in Cleveland, it should be that success in the NBA comes from teamwork, not one or two players. When the Denver Nuggets had Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson, who were both top twenty players in the league at that time, they never made it past the first round of the playoffs. A good team consists of players who understand their roles and accept them. The Bad Boy Pistons were the epitome of this because even though Thomas, or Dumars or anybody else on the team wasn’t better than Michael Jordan on an individual level, as a team they were. The Super Team argument doesn’t work because it makes an assumption that I don’t believe is true: teams don’t need a superstar to succeed. Last year, Charlotte made the playoffs, and their best players were Gerald Wallace and Stephen Jackson, who are both very good, but I don’t think anyone considers them to be “star” players. Now, obviously the Bobcats were the 7th seed last year, so let’s take them off the table. A team like Atlanta, whose best players are Joe Johnson, Al Horford and Josh Smith, though, are perennial playoff teams, and while all three of those guys are very, very good, none of the three can fairly be considered a star player. It might be that they don’t get the publicity they deserve, because Johnson, especially, is probably the most undervalued player in the league, and the Hawks need him to succeed, but they also do well because all of their pieces work well together. Portland is another team that fits this category, especially this year with Brandon Roy being injured and slow. LaMarcus Aldridge is a very good player, he’s even an All-Star. But he is NOT a superstar. Now that the team has acquired Gerald Wallace, I’m looking forward to watching them play, but Wallace, despite his immense talents, is not a superstar. The NBA isn’t going to disappear in Portland or in Atlanta because they can’t get Deron Williams, Chris Paul, or Dwight Howard in 2012. The league, despite what a lot of pundits would have you believe, is not entirely dependent on where these guys wind up. Obviously it will affect the game, and change a franchise, but it doesn’t mean that everything else just goes away. There’s a strong possibility that Denver is better without Carmelo than they were with him. A team like Memphis can beat any team on a given night because they can make a combination of good pieces like Gasol, Gay, and Randolph work. Heck, the San Antonio Spurs’ biggest star player is five years past his prime. Teams like Oklahoma City work better than teams like the Pistons not because Kevin Durant is so much better than anyone on the Detroit team (obviously, that helps though) but because the Thunder understood how to give the team pieces that would fit well with Durant, players that understood why they were there and what their role on the team was. In New York, unless Amar’e just decides to back off, that’s not going to happen easily. In acquiring Carmelo, the Knicks gave away players that, on an individual level, were decent to good, but on a team level were invaluable, because they did things that no one else on the team could. Raymond Felton, in D’Antoni’s system, was a great point guard. Galinari flung himself at the basket when he had to. That’s not Carmelo’s game, and Amar’e can’t play that way, either. The Miami Heat struggled to put their team together and make it work, but despite the sheer strength of will from James and Wade to make it work, the team is still fundamentally flawed and will have a difficult time in the second round of the playoffs. I have a hard time believing that, if this is the way we’re headed with professional basketball, teams like Atlanta or Portland are just going to disappear because they can’t get three of the top twenty players in the league like Miami or New York. Obviously those teams got better, and will be difficult to handle in the playoffs, but they still have the same issues that caused them go hunting for star players elsewhere, they still have to figure out how they can afford to keep the stars and have enough to provide a decent bench, and they have to make sure everything can actually fit together well. It’s not as easy as just grabbing a great player, throwing him into a random system, and pairing him with another great player, and to pretend it is takes away from the fun and skill of basketball.
Since the Knicks landed Carmelo Anthony, the NBA has gone nuts. Everyone is talking about how the “super teams” are going to ruin the league and the small markets are done. That seems asinine to me. Look, first and foremost, if we learned anything from LeBron James time in Cleveland, it should be that success in the NBA comes from teamwork, not one or two players. When the Denver Nuggets had Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson, who were both top twenty players in the league at that time, they never made it past the first round of the playoffs. A good team consists of players who understand their roles and accept them. The Bad Boy Pistons were the epitome of this because even though Thomas, or Dumars or anybody else on the team wasn’t better than Michael Jordan on an individual level, as a team they were. The Super Team argument doesn’t work because it makes an assumption that I don’t believe is true: teams don’t need a superstar to succeed. Last year, Charlotte made the playoffs, and their best players were Gerald Wallace and Stephen Jackson, who are both very good, but I don’t think anyone considers them to be “star” players. Now, obviously the Bobcats were the 7th seed last year, so let’s take them off the table. A team like Atlanta, whose best players are Joe Johnson, Al Horford and Josh Smith, though, are perennial playoff teams, and while all three of those guys are very, very good, none of the three can fairly be considered a star player. It might be that they don’t get the publicity they deserve, because Johnson, especially, is probably the most undervalued player in the league, and the Hawks need him to succeed, but they also do well because all of their pieces work well together. Portland is another team that fits this category, especially this year with Brandon Roy being injured and slow. LaMarcus Aldridge is a very good player, he’s even an All-Star. But he is NOT a superstar. Now that the team has acquired Gerald Wallace, I’m looking forward to watching them play, but Wallace, despite his immense talents, is not a superstar. The NBA isn’t going to disappear in Portland or in Atlanta because they can’t get Deron Williams, Chris Paul, or Dwight Howard in 2012. The league, despite what a lot of pundits would have you believe, is not entirely dependent on where these guys wind up. Obviously it will affect the game, and change a franchise, but it doesn’t mean that everything else just goes away. There’s a strong possibility that Denver is better without Carmelo than they were with him. A team like Memphis can beat any team on a given night because they can make a combination of good pieces like Gasol, Gay, and Randolph work. Heck, the San Antonio Spurs’ biggest star player is five years past his prime. Teams like Oklahoma City work better than teams like the Pistons not because Kevin Durant is so much better than anyone on the Detroit team (obviously, that helps though) but because the Thunder understood how to give the team pieces that would fit well with Durant, players that understood why they were there and what their role on the team was. In New York, unless Amar’e just decides to back off, that’s not going to happen easily. In acquiring Carmelo, the Knicks gave away players that, on an individual level, were decent to good, but on a team level were invaluable, because they did things that no one else on the team could. Raymond Felton, in D’Antoni’s system, was a great point guard. Galinari flung himself at the basket when he had to. That’s not Carmelo’s game, and Amar’e can’t play that way, either. The Miami Heat struggled to put their team together and make it work, but despite the sheer strength of will from James and Wade to make it work, the team is still fundamentally flawed and will have a difficult time in the second round of the playoffs. I have a hard time believing that, if this is the way we’re headed with professional basketball, teams like Atlanta or Portland are just going to disappear because they can’t get three of the top twenty players in the league like Miami or New York. Obviously those teams got better, and will be difficult to handle in the playoffs, but they still have the same issues that caused them go hunting for star players elsewhere, they still have to figure out how they can afford to keep the stars and have enough to provide a decent bench, and they have to make sure everything can actually fit together well. It’s not as easy as just grabbing a great player, throwing him into a random system, and pairing him with another great player, and to pretend it is takes away from the fun and skill of basketball.
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