Sunday, March 6, 2011

The NBA is a Puzzle

And no, I don't mean that in a, "man, this regular season is wacky! I wonder who's going to win it all!?" kind of way; no, I'm talking about putting together basketball teams and starting lineups.

There's a movement in today's NBA towards building teams with multiple stars (well, more of a return to this idea, since so many teams in the 80s/90s were loaded). The idea before this was to get ONE star and build around him; but after the Celtics trades for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen gave Boston a championship (and then, the next two years, the Pau-Kobe combination in LA), the NBA has started to return to the multi-star mentality, with the Heat's Big Three, Boozer and Rose in Chicago, Westbrook and Durant in Oklahoma City, and the Knicks trading for Carmelo (and, in their own quiet way, the Spurs). But now, with all these deals, we can all see that there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. It's not enough to have the players at different positions; they need to play unique, complementary roles.

The Celtics, for instance, have an almost perfect combination. Ray Allen is a pick and pop shooter, Paul Pierce a driving slasher, Kevin Garnett a low post threat, and Rondo a brilliant distributor. (I would say the Bulls are trying to match that, with Rose as the slasher/distributor, Boozer the low post threat, and Luol Deng being a mix between pick and pop shooter and slasher, a poor man's Allen or Pierce. A shooter like Allen would make the Bulls so much better, and Korver does not count, for his lack of defense). Those four roles are what makes the Celtics the top of the East and a constant contender as long as they stay healthy. The Lakers have Kobe as the pure scorer and Gasol and Bynum in the low post, with Artest and Fisher to complement them.

And, if today's 87-86 Bulls win over the Heat was any indication, there's a wrong way to put together a team. It's the Heat. The Heat will always be able to beat bad teams with pure ability, but when faced against good defense, they will crumble, because they have two stars who are too similar. Dwayne Wade and LeBron James both need the ball to function; they both primarily drive to the basket. Bosh isn't enough of a presence to make a difference in the paint, so he usually stays close to the outside, allowing defenses to clog the middle against LeBron and Dwayne driving. The Heat, it seems, have about one person who can dependably hit threes (Mario Chalmers), so any kickouts from those drives are more often than not fruitless, and also don't have any 'true' distributors (as much as LeBron would like to say he is...he's not). In crunch time, in "need to hit it" situations, the Heat have a crisis- which driver to give it to, and what should the rest of the team do when he has the ball. The answer so far has been "stand around and let him drive or settle for a three". Oops! You put your team together wrong, Miami. Just because those three had fun on the Olympic Team (where they weren't all playing at once, against mostly inferior opponents, and had a real point guard), doesn't mean they can be an NBA Championship team. You'll see Boston, Chicago, LA, Oklahoma City (especially after the Perkins trade) and San Antonio in that group this Spring. Everyone on those teams knows their own unique role, for the most part. And that's what makes a winning team.

With this in mind, it'll be interesting to see what the Knicks do in the upcoming free agency period. They'll probably need to add a third star (Chauncey Billups is a good enough point guard, but not at his prime or a star). If they want Chris Paul or Dwight Howard (who will have to take a below-max contract), that would put them into the upper echelon. If they screw up and put someone too similar to Amare or Carmelo, then, we'll just have two overhyped teams in big markets without championships. Your move, Knicks. Make sure the pieces fit.

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