There’s a New Reality in the NBA
The NBA is and always has been obsessed with superstars. But if you look at what sets apart the best teams in the league today — from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Boston Celtics to the Oklahoma City Thunder — it’s something a bit less sexy, but more important than ever before. This is why the Minnesota Timberwolves are beating the Los Angeles Lakers, and why the sport is in a new era.
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40 Comments
Of all the teams in it still, Indiana can’t beat none of them 4 times
This has been the reality for a while but the media is stuck lookong for the Michael Jordan in every team.
Warriors lost game 5 and 6 because of this
This is all a credit to the new CBA. You’re now penalized to have 3 guys eating all your money. Being capped limits your ability to improve the roster no matter how much an owner is willing to spend. Twolves avoided this exactly with KAT last summer and now look at the depth they were able to gain from it. Going forward we’ll see teams want to build more duos and surround them with strong supporting groups, drafting high productivity rookies are gonna be the key. Being able to have multiple high level players at a fraction of a cost will win chips, aside from guys having to take pay-cuts.
The Thunder are just scary this year.
while it is true that over the past two decades the biggest improvements have come from role players i think just as important as that is the impact of the new salary cap rules.
Depth has always been king. This isn’t new.
Such a great analysis. Subbed.
Donavan only being considered top 15 is crazy 😭
Holy shit talk normally dude
Are we still pretending like Derrick White isn’t bostons best player?
2 stars and a bunch of good role guys is the best way for the nba to thrive
Rockets beat the Thunder and Cavs twice. If i remember correctly they are the only team to have accomplished this. Rockets also have a deep roster right now.
it's nothing new, you need superstars and a good supporting cast to win.
my guy, this has been a thing for decades. the spurs, bulls, every celtics chip, bucks, nuggets, GSW dynasty, raptors, etc. were all built, and predicated upon depth, I cannot believe you actually made a video about how it's important to have a team in a team game, go fucking figure. The only people claiming Jordan, and co. won all on their own is absolute casuals, or idiots like yourself. L + Ratio.
we all know this, nico died on this hill.
Pistons fan here. This video does not apply lol
I would just like to say, that although the wolves had much better depth thanthe Lakers, Ant was definitely the best player on the court aswell. That's what allowed to not just win the series, but absolutely stomp the Lakers.
Finally the game is played how its supposed to be. It is a team sport
@4:14 Tatum and Brown not a top 3 duo in the league😂
Cmon bench is cool but if you instead looked at best trios
Tatum Brown White or KP
Mitchell Garland Mobley
Shai Chet Williams
Best 3 trios in the league.
What other teams have 3 all stars
Okc
Celtics
Cavs
Best 3 starting lineups in the league, best teams in the league.
GSW set the precedent of gutting your roster to add stars. Brooklyn did it before them but they popularized it. It hasn’t worked much since. The Lakers were the last team to pull it off when they traded their whole team for AD and actually won that season
Your analysis is so brilliant and truthful ❤
Respect the cavs in the thumbnail 😂😂
In the 90s MJ was from the future and everyone else was eating his dust. In the 00s Shaq was literally unstoppable. In the 10s LeBron alone was enough to reach the finals every year. Now? Well it seems like a different team wins the finals every year.
Korzemba Jr
Hasn’t bench depth always been a factor for championship contention since… forever
Great vid. The NBA is more talented than ever. Success is predicated on limiting your bad minutes now. Depth is the only solution.
Hot take: no one in the NBA actually wants to win, or they would be less greedy with their own comp packages to build a more complete team instead of just trying to get a bag for themselves.
NERD SESH!
Except Knicks Pistons
Came so close to lumping the wolves in with the top four but didn’t have the stones. They have some of the top offensive and defensive lineups in the league. If you’re talking depth a team with a top five player, an all star, dpoy, second team defender, vet pg that shoots 40%. The bench has the 6moy, high volume shooter who averaged 20ppg in the playoffs, awesome three and d player (along with some young guys with promise between Clarke tsj dilly).
You might say he gave the wolves their props but the wolves didn’t have a good regular season. They traded a day before the season started, had three rotation players out at the same time for a month and everyone ignored their second half cause they played easy teams. They should absolutely be in that conversation.
This is so true but lots of fans don t notice this fact look what happened to both LA teams or sixers
It’s nothing new… This has been the formula for every championship team throughout history.
Didn't Boston win last year playing 6-7 man lineups because they had a top starting 5?
OKC matching up with the Wolves will be very interesting, the teams split the season 2-2 and Rudy and Divincenzo only played one of the 4 games, Randle none of them. Seeing OKC handle that size will be a huge question mark, especially since Reid, Gobert and Randle are almost as different of types of big guy as even possible. Rest of the players pretty much cancel out.
This is not new. The Spurs and Celtics were always deep.
This has never been a new trend or meta. Look at the 2010s with GSW, they arguably had the best supporting cast of all-time. They had fking Iguodala coming off the bench. But yeah depth is king.
Depth is king because injuries are inevitable.
great video and made some excellent points. however, the cavs and okc are all very young teams who rebuilt in a flawless way and eventually they are going to have pay all of these excellent young players. So they have this incredible depth for a narrow window of time. The celtics very well might see that window end at the end of this season where their fourth best starter jrue holliday is making more money than they can afford to pay and i'm hearing rumors of a trade. Yes depth is more important than ever before. gone are the days when lebron could drag a shit team to the finals and make booby gibson look like an nba starter. But also current cba makes keeping that team together for five years almost impossible.
why itll be OKC vs Celtics and tho i hate the celtics everything in me, and LOVE OKC . Celtics depth is proven and more talented