The idea is intoxicating, if for no other reason than its improbability.
Put as much top-shelf talent on a team as you can, let it ride, and watch the wins pile up. From NBA Live to pickup games at the Y, the lure of having all the best players on one team is usually reserved for fantasy land.
Well, the Miami Heat changed all that this summer. LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on the same team is a reality, an expertly crafted concoction that has many wondering: A) if this is good for the Heat (almost certainly so); B) if this is good for the NBA (questionable) and C) whether this could start a trend, with other stars such as the Nuggets’ Carmelo Anthony looking to do the same if he leaves via free agency after next season.
The Super Team. Superstars linking up with other superstars in a quest to rule the roost. Win all of the titles. Smash any team that steps in its way.
Nuggets guard Chauncey Billups is genuinely interested in the concept. “I’m looking forward to seeing how that turns out (in Miami),” he said.
Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy already thinks he knows the answer. Van Gundy gushed over how he sees Miami doing in an interview on the Dan LeBatard radio show last week.
“If I look at what the Bulls did winning 72 games and I look at the Heat roster, I am going to tell you that the Heat roster is better than any roster that Michael Jordan played on with the Bulls,” Van Gundy said. “I don’t think that people predicting them breaking the win total and being in the 70s and the whole thing, I don’t think those are expectations that are out of line.”
Yet, skepticism exists.
There is a teamwork and chemistry aspect to NBA basketball that is required of all great teams. Players play their roles, the roles benefit the whole and the team benefits because of it. It’s the reason why five scorers aren’t inserted into a starting lineup. Things have to fit.
“It’s a great thing for Miami. Obviously, they’ll be the odds-on favorite,” Phoenix Suns coach Alvin Gentry said. “But chemistry is a strange thing, OK. Chemistry is a strange thing.”
Nuggets coach George Karl constantly worries about the fit. It was one of the big reasons he never permanently placed J.R. Smith, one of his top scoring weapons, in a starting lineup with two other top scorers, Anthony and Billups. Too many players, not enough basketballs to go around.
Can trend expand?
The NBA is a copycat league, and there’s no doubt Miami’s free-agent splash this summer will weigh heavy on the minds of general managers throughout the league. But replicating it might not be feasible on a yearly basis, said Stu Lash, vice president at Lagardere-Unlimited, an agency that represents Dwight Howard and John Wall, among others.
“If you said, ‘Could there be more than two or three of those super teams?’, probably not, because at what point does the talent level drop off?” Lash said. “Could there be three? Possibly. If you talk to most experts around the league, or people that have a really good handle on the talent level in the NBA, there’s probably eight to 10 guys that are on one level in the NBA, and then there’s a dropoff. So it depends on how many very good players there are.”
And in the case of James, Wade and Bosh, they share the same agent. They each constructed their previous contracts in similar fashion so they would expire at the same time. And they all knew each other well, a fact Lash said shouldn’t be overlooked.
“This is not just three guys that are buddies that have hung out in the nightclub for a couple times or exchanged a couple of text messages,” he said. “Those guys have spent significant time together. All came in the draft the same year. They’ve been linked together for a long time.”
Like many fans, Billups is eager to see this version of the Heat, but he isn’t sure he’ll see anything like it again.
“This is going to be like the lab rat situation. People are going to see what it does, how it kind of pans out first. But there’s really not a lot of Le-Brons or D-Wades. There’s only so many guys that are that caliber of player anyway at this point. So I don’t know if it can happen like that again.”
Players take control
Perhaps the Heat’s lasting legacy may not be in the championships it wins but in the fact players rose to power in order to control the marketplace.
“The one thing that’s cool about it is, really for one of the first times you have players coming together and making those decisions instead of management and owners and coaches,” Billups said. “You have players that can make those kinds of moves. That’s monumental, for real.”
Anthony, who is on target to be a free agent next summer should he not sign the Nuggets’ three-year, $65 million contract offer, finds himself in a similar situation. He and Hornets guard Chris Paul are represented by Creative Artists Agency, as is San Antonio guard Tony Parker. Anthony and either Paul or Parker have been rumored as a potential trio to form a “Super Team” by joining Amar’e Stoudemire with the Knicks.
Anthony’s eyes gleam when he talks about James’ move to Miami. He has been sympathetic to the negative press James received after his announcement and subsequent move.
“In Cleveland I think he felt, and I’m just assuming, that he was getting there year-in and year-out and just wasn’t getting over the hump,” Anthony said. “People want to win. I think that’s the ultimate thing — winning. Miami has a chance of winning multiple championships.”
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
