Why wouldn't we want stars to team up with each other?

[iamgine]

It makes for a very entertaining games and much higher league standard.

Imagine if in the early 90s Drob teamed up with Reggie Miller. Hakeem teamed up with Mark Price. Ewing with Drexler. Maybe Payton, Mourning and Richmond came together. Or Dumars, Mutombo, Mullins.

That is already 5 pretty great partnerships and there were more that could've happened. This is in addition to the Stockton-Malone and Jordan-Pippen. What a legendary decade it would be instead of Hakeem and Drob trying to win it by themselves until they get old. Or Ewing not having a true star partner.

[Johnny32]

indeed. the 90s would have been much more competitive and entertaining in a player movement era.

[bison]

bron stans on major damage control :oldlol:

[8Ball]

It makes for a very entertaining games and much higher league standard.

Imagine if in the early 90s Drob teamed up with Reggie Miller. Hakeem teamed up with Mark Price. Ewing with Drexler. Maybe Payton, Mourning and Richmond came together. Or Dumars, Mutombo, Mullins.

That is already 5 pretty great partnerships and there were more that could've happened. This is in addition to the Stockton-Malone and Jordan-Pippen. What a legendary decade it would be instead of Hakeem and Drob trying to win it by themselves until they get old. Or Ewing not having a true star partner.

Agreed.


Jordan teamming up with a top 5 90s player made the 90s very fun to watch.

[Kblaze8855]

For entertainment purposes yes…but not so much when most other teams don’t have that option. Then it’s just watching beatings.

What you want is contraction so all teams are especially talented. Basically the nba of the early to mid 80s with no Hornets, pelicans, Magic, Heat, Timberwolves, Raptors, or Grizzlies. Much deeper teams.

[FultzNationRISE]

For entertainment purposes yes…but not so much when most other teams don’t have that option. Then it’s just watching beatings.

What you want is contraction so all teams are especially talented. Basically the nba of the early to mid 80s with no Hornets, pelicans, Magic, Heat, Timberwolves, Raptors, or Grizzlies. Much deeper teams.


Pretty much, except with a much, much deeper global talent pool now than ever existed before Lebron.

[PeroAntic]

Because it leads to teaming up of several stars (not just two) and that is just stupid ugly isoball that is ineffective and bad to watch.

[sdot_thadon]

For entertainment purposes yes…but not so much when most other teams don’t have that option. Then it’s just watching beatings.

What you want is contraction so all teams are especially talented. Basically the nba of the early to mid 80s with no Hornets, pelicans, Magic, Heat, Timberwolves, Raptors, or Grizzlies. Much deeper teams.

But, how and who tells a billionaire owner his billion dollar franchise is now a 3 dollar bill lol.

Would be pretty entertaining, but would shrink the league simultaneously. I get what op is saying as far as more teams being in serious contention tho.

[FilmyCogTurner]

It makes for a very entertaining games and much higher league standard.

Imagine if in the early 90s Drob teamed up with Reggie Miller. Hakeem teamed up with Mark Price. Ewing with Drexler. Maybe Payton, Mourning and Richmond came together. Or Dumars, Mutombo, Mullins.

That is already 5 pretty great partnerships and there were more that could've happened. This is in addition to the Stockton-Malone and Jordan-Pippen. What a legendary decade it would be instead of Hakeem and Drob trying to win it by themselves until they get old. Or Ewing not having a true star partner.

I like the talent landscape of the 90's - tt produced a lot parity which meant for good basketball.

Many of those teams you listed had good depth which made up for the lack of second star. Reggie and Hakeem especially, DRob not so much although Elliott was nice and Avery Johnson played his PG role well.

Payton/Kemp was a formidable duo. Deletf, Hawkins, Perk all quality pieces too. Mourning/Hardaway with Thunder Dan all good as well. Mutombo/Smith, not a contender by any means but a solid first round challenge. Same goes for the Hornets with Mourning/LJ.

You had the great contenders and the good but need work challengers, a good mix of talent if you ask me.

[8Ball]

For entertainment purposes yes…but not so much when most other teams don’t have that option. Then it’s just watching beatings.

What you want is contraction so all teams are especially talented. Basically the nba of the early to mid 80s with no Hornets, pelicans, Magic, Heat, Timberwolves, Raptors, or Grizzlies. Much deeper teams.

Name me a decade that had didn't have only 3-4 teams that mattered, and the rest was just beatings.

[SouBeachTalents]

I like the talent landscape of the 90's - tt produced a lot parity which meant for good basketball.

Many of those teams you listed had good depth which made up for the lack of second star. Reggie and Hakeem especially, DRob not so much although Elliott was nice and Avery Johnson played his PG role well.

Payton/Kemp was a formidable duo. Deletf, Hawkins, Perk all quality pieces too. Mourning/Hardaway with Thunder Dan all good as well. Mutombo/Smith, not a contender by any means but a solid first round challenge. Same goes for the Hornets with Mourning/LJ.

You had the great contenders and the good but need work challengers, a good mix of talent if you ask me.
Two teams won over 8 years, and one of the teams 3peated twice while barely facing a Game 7. You consider this a lot of parity :lol

[FilmyCogTurner]

Two teams won over 8 years, and one of the teams 3peated twice while barely facing a Game 7. You consider this a lot of parity :lol

Yes, parity.

Early 90's. Bulls, Blazers, Pistons, Knicks, Suns, Rockets - teams that either reached the finals or were close. Jazz, Cavs, Pacers all within striking distance.

Late 90's. Bulls, Magic, Sonics, Jazz, Knicks, Pacers, Lakers - all title contending teams.

[Kblaze8855]

Name me a decade that had didn't have only 3-4 teams that mattered, and the rest was just beatings.


Im not talking about who wins in the end. I’m talking competitive basketball with a lot of teams full of good talent that is entertaining to watch and can compete. There was always be someone who separates due to injury luck, stupid teams trading draft picks to already good teams, and so on. But no matter who won a league with 6-8 less teams would have overall better squads.

Expansion is what made teams worse not the players getting worse.

[Kblaze8855]

But, how and who tells a billionaire owner his billion dollar franchise is now a 3 dollar bill lol.

Would be pretty entertaining, but would shrink the league simultaneously. I get what op is saying as far as more teams being in serious contention tho.


Oh no contraction won’t happen. They’re already gonna have to add a few teams to prevent 500 million dollar super max contracts soon. If they went back to the 80s player count we would have 200 million dollar 6th men be fairly common.

The league makes too much money to spread it over less players and not have to shell out monster money to nobodies. Like 7 players are due to make more in a season than the entire 2015 salary cap by 2026. And that’s without the massive cap increase coming with the new rights deal. A super max will pay someone like Luka 95 million for a single year before you know it. They can’t go backwards. They’re gonna have to expand to Vegas, Vancouver or Montreal then think about Nashville and going to Europe.

They can’t keep making the cap bigger for the same players. These owners are not gonna wanna pay some injured star 430 million dollars.

[Spurs m8]

What a stupid thread lol

[8Ball]

Im not talking about who wins in the end. I’m talking competitive basketball with a lot of teams full of good talent that is entertaining to watch and can compete. There was always be someone who separates due to injury luck, stupid teams trading draft picks to already good teams, and so on. But no matter who won a league with 6-8 less teams would have overall better squads.

Expansion is what made teams worse not the players getting worse.

Expansion does dilute the pool.


But right now NBA is the most popular globally it's ever been. There are more foreign players now than ever before. We have 2 white players right now that are as talented as Larry Bird was: Luka and Doncic.


Right now it's stacked with talent. Players joining up right now is also very difficult since each player commands $40-50M in salary. You only get at most 2 stars together on a team. It isn't actually that possible to stack 3 players unless teams clear the entire deck of all salary, and no team is doing that right now.

[Kblaze8855]

Expansion does dilute the pool.


But right now NBA is the most popular globally it's ever been. There are more foreign players now than ever before. We have 2 white players right now that are as talented as Larry Bird was: Luka and Doncic.


Right now it's stacked with talent. Players joining up right now is also very difficult since each player commands $40-50M in salary. You only get at most 2 stars together on a team. It isn't actually that possible to stack 3 players unless teams clear the entire deck of all salary, and no team is doing that right now.


At one point in the 80s there were 250 nba players vs the 450 plus gleague two way players there are now. I’m not sure the number of basketball fans in places that produce high level players has doubled.

The places that added the most people don’t contribute to the nba talent really. I’m not seeing many Chinese or Indian people. I’m not sure there are any “Asian” people in the nba. A lot of the “Australians” are the children of American basketball players who settled there playing ball like Kyrie, Simmons, and I think Exum. There were only 4 South Americans on rosters to begin 2021 none of them names worth listing. Europe was basketball crazy 40-50 years ago. I’d imagine Africa is where the biggest difference comes from. Nba did a lot of African reaching out in the 90s I suspect made a difference but I’m not sure Europe is most into basketball than it used to be.

Africa has to be the biggest difference right? Unless we count Canada. Maybe the Raptors and Vancouver helped push basketball up there. I think Canada might have the most internationals in the league. Them or France.

[light]

Every team is trying to put stars together so they can win and that's been the case for 76 years of NBA basketball. So nobody really minds. They just want something to whine about.

[bullettooth]

bron stans on major damage control :oldlol:

This is exactly what the narrative is now about.

[iamgine]

I like the talent landscape of the 90's - tt produced a lot parity which meant for good basketball.

Many of those teams you listed had good depth which made up for the lack of second star. Reggie and Hakeem especially, DRob not so much although Elliott was nice and Avery Johnson played his PG role well.

Payton/Kemp was a formidable duo. Deletf, Hawkins, Perk all quality pieces too. Mourning/Hardaway with Thunder Dan all good as well. Mutombo/Smith, not a contender by any means but a solid first round challenge. Same goes for the Hornets with Mourning/LJ.

You had the great contenders and the good but need work challengers, a good mix of talent if you ask me.

I like all the parity/depth/solid first round challenge/good mix of talent as much as the next guy. I do think it makes for good basketball. But we're not going for 'good' here. Imagine if in 1980s Larry Bird had Mitch Richmond's team talent. Or if you give Magic all the Kenny Smith and the Robert Horries instead of Kareem/Worthy. Stars teaming up makes for great basketball. The more the better.

[John8204]

Yeah I don't get it...NBA is really only worth watching during the playoffs you want 8 series

[Full Court]

Agreed.


Jordan teamming up with a top 5 90s player made the 90s very fun to watch.

Lol. The Bulls trading for just-drafted rookie Pippen, who then sucked for his first two years, equates in this dingus's mind to "Jordan teaming up with a top 5 player." :roll:

8Balless has to be one of the dumbest Bronies on this board.

[1987_Lakers]

I agree that it can be good for the league, but there is a limit with how stacked these super teams should be. KD/Curry Warriors are a good example.

Just look at this league's history, fans loved seeing the Lakers & Celtics square off with their super teams throughout the 80's, you can say it brought back life to the league. Wilt joining West & Baylor I believe was also good, the '69 Finals are one of the most memorable Finals in history. That same Lakers team was also involved in a memorable Finals the very next year.

It would be boring if a bunch of mediocre teams won titles every year, the mid-late 70's saw some very mediocre teams win a title, excluding the '77 Blazers, I don't think it's a coincidence that era is looked at as one of the worst times in the NBA.

[Full Court]

I agree that it can be good for the league, but there is a limit with how stacked these super teams should be. KD/Curry Warriors are a good example.

Just look at this league's history, fans loved seeing the Lakers & Celtics square off with their super teams throughout the 80's, you can say it brought back life to the league. Wilt joining West & Baylor I believe was also good, the '69 Finals are one of the most memorable Finals in history. That same Lakers team was also involved in a memorable Finals the very next year.

It would be boring if a bunch of mediocre teams won titles every year, the mid-late 70's saw some very mediocre teams win a title, excluding the '77 Blazers, I don't think it's a coincidence that era is looked at as one of the worst times in the NBA.

I don't disagree, but I think there's an important distinction to be made. It's the job of team management to stack the deck as much as they can. The more talent they acquire, the better they're doing their job.

Where it rubs fans the wrong way is when players collude and do things like convene "War Rooms" to try to stack the deck in their own favor. It's weak, and its trying to take the easy road. Guys like Kawhi, Lebron, and Durant have gotten a lot of criticism for this kind of thing, and justifiably so in my opinion.

[3ba11]

It makes for a very entertaining games and much higher league standard.

Imagine if in the early 90s Drob teamed up with Reggie Miller. Hakeem teamed up with Mark Price. Ewing with Drexler. Maybe Payton, Mourning and Richmond came together. Or Dumars, Mutombo, Mullins.

That is already 5 pretty great partnerships and there were more that could've happened. This is in addition to the Stockton-Malone and Jordan-Pippen. What a legendary decade it would be instead of Hakeem and Drob trying to win it by themselves until they get old. Or Ewing not having a true star partner.



* Magic/Worthy

* Penny/Shaq

* Alonzo/Tim Hardaway

* Barkley/KJ

* Kemp/Payton/Schrempf

* Stockton/Malone

* Hakeem/Drexler (demolished by 96' Sonics)

* 98' Duncan/Robinson (MJ beat them twice)


This is a dumb thread designed to make it look like the Bulls and Jazz were the only 2-star teams .

In reality, Pippen is the only notable 90's sidekick that wasn't a 1b who could dominate or achieve elite stats - he's the only sidekick that was a system player with low statistical peak (no game-planning required like Shaq said here (https://i.makeagif.com/media/3-27-2022/qrDm8n.gif))..

Pippen is the only sidekick that wasn't a go-to player and was a transition or hustle player (carried statistically in every series) - this forced MJ was to face maximum defensive attention in every series (carried scoring load).. Kenny Smith explains this here (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4UF6Xx3F2Lo&t=01m54s) (notice the silence as Kenny reminds everyone about how it was).

[97 bulls]

It makes for a very entertaining games and much higher league standard.

Imagine if in the early 90s Drob teamed up with Reggie Miller. Hakeem teamed up with Mark Price. Ewing with Drexler. Maybe Payton, Mourning and Richmond came together. Or Dumars, Mutombo, Mullins.

That is already 5 pretty great partnerships and there were more that could've happened. This is in addition to the Stockton-Malone and Jordan-Pippen. What a legendary decade it would be instead of Hakeem and Drob trying to win it by themselves until they get old. Or Ewing not having a true star partner.

Stars teaming up isn't the issue in my opinion. I'm fact, I don't really see what was wrong g with what James did. I think what messed him up, was the fact that Bosh signed with the Heat before James did. And people thus he 'followed' Wade and Bosh.

What Durant did was some hoe SHHHH

[8Ball]

Lol. The Bulls trading for just-drafted rookie Pippen, who then sucked for his first two years, equates in this dingus's mind to "Jordan teaming up with a top 5 player." :roll:

8Balless has to be one of the dumbest Bronies on this board.

Jordan joined a 55 win team in 1995 and Pippen was an all-nba 1st and all defence 1st team player in 1994, 1995, and 1996.


So yes, Jordan did join a stacked team.


Yall Jordan fans don't even remember history of your idol, no wonder I never lose arguments against yall.

[Full Court]

Jordan joined a 55 win team in 1995 and Pippen was an all-nba 1st and all defence 1st team player in 1994, 1995, and 1996.


So yes, Jordan did join a stacked team.


Yall Jordan fans don't even remember history of your idol, no wonder I never lose arguments against yall.

:roll: What a dingus.

Jordan was on the Bulls before Pippen was, moron. He just took a hiatus to try his hand at baseball. But don't let facts stand in the way of your ever-lower IQ takes.

How about show us some more pictures of your tiny rental apartment. :lol

[8Ball]

:roll: What a dingus.

Jordan was on the Bulls before Pippen was, moron. He just took a hiatus to try his hand at baseball. But don't let facts stand in the way of your ever-lower IQ takes.

How about show us some more pictures of your tiny rental apartment. :lol

Hiatus my ass.


He said he retired in 1993. 1994 bulls played without him and won 55 games. Pippen got 1st team all nba and 1st team def in 94 95 96.

1995 he joined a stacked bulls team.



No wonder you lose all the jordon debates, you don't even remember history properly. Lucky u have me to remind u.

[Full Court]

Hiatus my ass.


He said he retired in 1993. 1994 bulls played without him and won 55 games. Pippen got 1st team all nba and 1st team def in 94 95 96.

1995 he joined a stacked bulls team.



No wonder you lose all the jordon debates, you don't even remember history properly. Lucky u have me to remind u.

Yet he's still the overwhelming consensus GOAT. You're the one in denial and damage control. :lol

[2much_knowledge]

I would not want pu$$ies calling other stars in desperation because they cant do it organically by TEAM BUILDING and good drafting. Thank God for Giannis who buried all those betas