What Constitites an NBA Superteam?

At first glance, this may seem like a silly question with an easy answer. I know I certainly have a clear idea of what I think an NBA superteam is… at least I did before this I posted this…

As it turns out, NBA fans are very divided indeed when it comes to the concept of what constitutes an NBA Super team. In some cases, it’s not about two or even three superstars but includes the entire roster and head coaching.

For some, the concept extends beyond two or three high-caliber players getting together into more abstract ideas such as predictions for the season. I will say, I think the idea of basing anything in professional sports on a “universal guarantee” is fundamentally absurd but maybe that’s just me.

How Long Does All-Star Shine Last?

Based on 268 likes and counting, evidently many NBA fans subscribe to the concept of a superteam in my original tweet. There’s not much more to say when you just agree.

But even those likes in agreement opened up other questions. For instance, if the criterium is three all-stars, do they have to have been all-stars that year? Initially, I would have said yes, but the thread that ensued from my comment suggests that not everyone agrees.

Technically, Giannis and Middleton are All-Stars and Jrue Holiday was an All-Star but that was a hot minute ago during the 2012–13 season when he still played for the 76ers. Guys, that was 10 years ago. 10. Years.

10 years ago, Psy and Macklemore had two of the biggest songs of the summer, Henry Cavil was the Man of Steel, Brat Pitt was unraveling a worldwide zombie pandemic and the following NBA players were also All-Stars:

• LaMarcus Aldridge
• Tim Duncan
• David Lee
• Tony Parker
• Chris Bosh
• Tyson Chandler
• Carmelo Anthony
• Luol Deng
• Kevin Garnett
• Joakim Noah
• Dwyane Wade

My point here? It’s not to throw any shade at Jrue Holiday. I have nothing but respect for his game and for him as a human being. I also think you’d be hard-pressed to find a player more deserving of the phrase “All-Star caliber player”. But real talk? 2013 was a looong time ago. I can’t in good conscience say that Jrue Holiday is an All-Star. For my personal definition, a player would have had to be an All-Star during the previous three seasons.

Built vs Grown

We know the current NBA Champion Warriors are all about homegrown talent. According to some NBA fans, the idea of a superteam has nothing to do with the makeup of a roster and everything to do with how the roster came together. This framework would mean only the 2016–17 and 2017–18 Warriors teams would qualify as superteams.

This definition would also mean LeBron James is, for all intents and purposes, the inventor of the modern NBA superteam. I dunno about you but I’m not about to give James those props. He gets more than enough credit already, thank you very much.

In all seriousness though, I can’t on board with this definition. It’s like saying that Big Mom’s family in One Piece aren’t a superteam because they’re literally a family but any other pirate group is because they were assembled. (If you know you know.)

There are NBA fans on the exact opposite side of this conversation as well. Those who argue that a superteam is about the concentration of a certain caliber of players on one team regardless of how they came to be there. That would bring the count of rings won with a superteam from 2–2 to 4–0.

A couple of tweets really stood out to me in this part of the conversation; they really made me evaluate their point of view.

This is an excellent point. The Warriors have had to maintain their talent through free agency to be where they are now. The idea of luxury tax in the NBA is to give a more level playing field so that smaller market teams have a shot at big free agent signings.

According to an ESPN article I recently perused, the price tag for the Warriors to retain their current roster could be as high as $475 million. On the other hand, eight of the players on the roster were drafted by the Warriors. The organization invested in the development of these players from the jump. Should they be charged the same taxes as a team that assembles their talent in the free agency and trade markets? It's certainly food for thought and I won’t go too far into this current topic because that’s a whole other rabbit hole.

Now, this idea I like.

Forget about how many top five or top ten players a roster has. Forget what their names are and how they got to the team. How many top players can a team lose and still win? Of course, that concept involves a lot of moving parts that can’t be truly confirmed or debunked unless players get injured and nobody wants that. The unquantifiable variables make this framework ultimately untenable.

As this thread suggests, there are many ways to define a superteam. The very concept means different things to different NBA fans. Ultimately, there will never be one satisfactory definition that suits everyone’s ideas. This conclusion doesn’t come as any surprise, really. Basketball is rife with these kinds of complicated, nuanced situations.

Be sure to check out the tread. There are a ton of other great points made and I couldn’t include them all.

It’s one of a thousand things I love about basketball.