The changing landscape of the NBA

by briztoon on Jul 17, 2010 2:01 AM PDT Comment 9 comments

The Big Three. I do not know if the phrase was coined before Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen joined Paul Pierce in Boston. I do know the term has been used quite a lot this summer since Chris Bosh and LeBron James joined Dwyane Wade in Miami.

Ken Berger talks with Ben Gordon in a recent article, Pistons' Gordon salutes sacrifice made by Heat triumvirate, about the NBA arms race, and that if you do not have three NBA all stars on your team, you will no longer be in the hunt for a championship.

Towards the end of the article, Berger mentions that Chris Paul made a toast at Carmelo Anthony's wedding last weekend about forming "our own Big Three" in New York with Amar'e Stoudemire. I do not know whether the league will look into this as possible tampering or collusion, but I do believe it represents a new era for the NBA. Top tier players will no longer be interested in resigning for the max, if they are not in a situation to compete with the other elite players and teams in the NBA.

Unfortunately there are only so many genuine all star calibre players to go around. In the future, are we going to see only four or five genuine title contenders, then a significant drop off in terms of overall team talent and win/loss records.

If this is the future NBA landscape, how do the Sixers go about positioning themselves to make themselves relevent again? Especially when the definition of relevent in the NBA may be changing. Yes I know it appears this topic has been discussed ad nauseam, but I do not think anyone has factored in this future for the NBA in to the discussion.

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Well written, Briz. I agree with your premise- and it is why I became less of a fan of NBA basketball after the Miami Hate dealings went down. Not a good time toi be an NBA fan, unless you are a front-runner.

You know, like a Cowboys fan :)

by tk76 on Jul 17, 2010 6:59 PM PDT reply actions

Or being a Central District Bulldogs fan…

by tk76 on Jul 17, 2010 7:04 PM PDT up reply actions

i dont think the heat will be that awesome….dont think they can beat the celtics and maybe the bulls let alone the lakers…..i dont think its an acident tht most deepest teams usuualy go farthest in the playoffs (ex. lakers, suns, celtics, cavs)

by Skitzo215 on Jul 17, 2010 10:37 PM PDT reply actions

i hope they leave it alone and dont start trying to make rules up cause it will correct it self as well as bring back the team focus of basketball

by killacaravagio on Jul 19, 2010 5:47 AM PDT reply actions

I’m not ready to crown those 3 kings. I still think that chemistry will prevail.

How do the Sixers compete in this landscape? It starts with the foundation. Make smart draft picks – find your big 3 there. Look at OKC, Houston, San Antonio & Utah. Those franchise do things the right way imo. We could be two years into a foundation build with Holliday and Turner. They both need to pan out big time for near term relevancy.

by andyreidswaistline on Jul 19, 2010 3:37 PM PDT reply actions

There’s enough reasonable skepticism about the MIami experiment to take a wait and see view on their success. They do have 3 top 5 players and that’s a good place to start!

The BIG THREE name came from GM, Ford and Chrysler, the three big American car companies.

For the Sixers the answer is to try to build a team with equal or superior talent. All teams need to do certain things well to be successful in the NBA, like being a good rebounding team, being committed to playing defense, and always being able to get a decent shot no matter what they throw at you.

Miami has two go-to guys who can really score and a fair inside man in Bosch. I think they will play together fine, but the other two who are paired with them have to be good defenders and rebounders, if they’re going to get a title.

If you don’t have anyone to trade all you can do is clear cap space and pick up a good free agent, in the meantime suck bad enough that you get another decent draft pick or two and develop what you have.

by RickoT on Jul 20, 2010 12:40 PM PDT reply actions

“For the Sixers the answer is to try to build a team with equal or superior talent”

It would be quite difficult to build a team consisting of bizarro Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. The Heat happened to get lucky and acquire two top free agents. We don’t even know if that is a championship team, yet. Compare this to all of the other teams that “struck out.”

" but the other two who are paired with them have to be good defenders and rebounders, if they’re going to get a title."

What about bench players? The bench plays a vital role in the playoffs. One should never undervalue the benefits of a solid bench.

"I admire his competitiveness. As much as I admire it, I thought that he was trying too hard."- Eddie Jordan

by jefu on Jul 20, 2010 5:28 PM PDT reply actions

hey, good article. I was just going to type something like this. The nba is becoming the national bandwagging assocation. All the all stars might start to make hubs with a certain few teams. There are over 20 teams in the league, and if a trend starts, it would mean teams like our sixers and many others would lose lots of money. Wonder what david stern would think at that point. I never liked Kobe Bryant personally, but damn, have respect for him. Gone are the days when the best want to beat the best. Here are the days, when you cant beat the best, you join em. Whether the heat is a championship team this coming season or next remains to be seen. Whats also annoying is its like the heat are saying, hey, we already won. Theres a whole season to play, playoffs,etc. The heat will have their hands full. Lakers are still good, thunder, boston.

by mothergoose on Jul 21, 2010 9:47 AM PDT reply actions