Although Devon Booker is not willing to admit that the sun is a “super team”, the reason is that “only Durant has entered the All-Star this year”, however, this kind of uplift obviously cannot change the external cognition that The Sun belongs to the super team.
On March 6, Beijing time, the Sun beat the Lone Ranger with 130-126 away. In this tough battle, Booker himself also tasted the benefits of the Sun as a super team.
Durant waved the Sickle of death and harvested the heads one after another. The whole audience blew 37 points. With Durant holding back a lot of defense, Booker easily freehand brushwork, slashing 36 points and 10 assists, and the two masters playing is unreasonable.
Although Sun’s lineup has the defect of “top-heavy and light-footed” shared by the super teams, the Sun’s fault tolerance rate is also higher after a super star is added, and Paul took over in the fourth quarter at the right time, among the role players, there is a Wayne Wright who just turned positive, and the Sun wins. Who does the Lone Ranger want to reason?
In the past two years, the formation of super teams by the Lakers in basketable nets ended in failure, which triggered a discussion in the industry on whether the era of super teams has ended. However, Sun’s exchange of Durant before the trading deadline also took the road of forming a super team and started quite smoothly. The era of super teams will not end, and there will always be teams waiting for opportunities. In particular, if the sun comes to the end this season, there will be followers soon.
After the Warriors lost Durant’s mode of ending the super team in 2019, the league teams were rational for a period of time. At that time, most of the strong teams chose the super duo group, and the Lakers also won the championship in 202020. But soon, basketable nets and the Lakers all chose a super team. Unfortunately, these two teams have fallen into a feather.
Basketable nets is different from the failure of the Lakers. Basketable nets was mainly lost to injuries and farce, especially injuries. Durant once said when interpreting the failure of basketable nets: “We have some similarities with the Clippers and the Lakers. To win the championship, you have to make sure everyone stays healthy, but we didn’t do it.”
The Lakers were also affected by injuries. James and Davis missed a lot of games due to injuries in the last three seasons. However, the Lakers lost to suitability in the final analysis. The Lakers sacrificed a lot of depth when they introduced Wei Shao, wei Shao is not compatible with the Lakers.
Will the failure of basketable nets and the Lakers scare off those ambitious teams? Not. Before the trade deadline, when Durant entered the trading market, the sun quickly shot, and the new boss Ishbia only said at the internal meeting, “it is a rare opportunity to get a star of this level”, then they were aggressive.
The logic of the sun is completely in line with the idea of Heat President Pat Riley: super stars are scarce products. To form a super team, you must first have enough big stars, and other problems will be discussed later.
Riley once said in an interview with Ian Tomson, the author of the book “soul of basketball”: “In history, those teams that won many championships were basically super teams, they not only cooperate for a long time, but also have at least 3 super stars, each of which is a great player. At the minimum, you have to have two super stars plus an ordinary star. You can’t win the championship by recruiting at the ordinary level.”
Durant + Booker + Paul at least met the “minimum” mentioned by Riley, and so did the hot three giants.
In this regard, the former Lakers are a counterexample, and the introduction of Wei Shao can already book “one of the worst deals in history”. The same is true for Ben Simmons when he sent Harden away basketable nets. Their failure also made an executive admit frankly: “bosses will be more picky when choosing the cornerstone of team building,, most bosses are still intoxicated with the Stars and fame.”
Under the salary cap system, forming a super team inevitably faces deep problems. Three or even four core players occupy most of the salary space, and the remaining positions can only be filled with mini middle-class contracts, basic salaries and rookie contracts.
When there is an opportunity to form a super team, the problem of top-heavy is one of the main reasons why the general managers of each team will hesitate. An executive once worried: “The Soha super star sacrificed the foundation laid before the team and lost the thickness of the lineup, which is not good for your team.”
However, this itself is the risk to build a super team. The risk coefficient is indeed very high, but the income may also be very high. For a long time, the alliance has never lacked a general manager who is willing to gamble. After all, talent is still the first productive force.
The times are constantly changing. In the era of social media, the relationship between players has been different from the past. At that time, Dream Team 1 went out to Barcelona, and Michael Jordan and other big stars competed fiercely in the training camp. After winning the Olympic gold medal, they returned to their respective teams to continue as rivals, and no one would discuss the joint matters. But now, the Olympic Games and the World Cup have become the stage for stars to establish private relationships and plot to join hands.
The three giants of heat plotted to join hands, starting from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Durant and Owen plotted to join hands, starting from the 2016 Rio Olympics. Durant and Booker made friends, starting from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
In the era of star empowerment, the cooperation between super stars is no longer simply the operation of the management, but often the choice and promotion of the players themselves. ESPN once put forward a “coastal theory”, which means that big stars tend to go to big cities to develop together, but Durant’s push to the sun this time shows that big stars have become increasingly indifferent to market factors, “As long as you win the championship, the commercial value will naturally come” is becoming their idea.
So, will the sun become another super team to win the championship, or will it become a basketable nets like the frustrated and the Lakers?
At least, from the beginning of the sun, they are developing in a positive direction. Booker became the beneficiary of “Du has gravity”, and the attacking end got more chances to score easily, with an average of 36 points in 3 matches, up to 56% in field goal percentage. When the opponent attacked Durant, Booker enjoyed unprecedented offensive space.
Durant has not yet done his best, but the output of 26.7 points per game is already horrible. You know, he only shot 14 times in the game, field goal percentage up to 69%. In addition, Durant’s defense was underestimated.
The cooperation between the two is simple and rough. Booker holds the ball on the strong side, Durant’s weak side uses Elton to hang a cover pocket and gets the chance to throw three points, they have entered the discussion of “the most powerful duo.
It is expected that the right to attack the end of the ball is reduced by Ayton. What is interesting is that Paul, in the last two games, Paul has been in the first three slams, and the last critical moment has sufficient physical strength to end. In the fourth quarter, Paul scored 17 points in 15 minutes and scored 5 out of 7 shots in 3-point.
In theory, the biggest problem of the sun now is the stable fifth score point and the output of the second lineup. But then again, when the playoffs shorten the rotation and play 9 people or even 8 people rotation, is this a problem for the sun with top talent?
Of course, the premise is health. Considering Durant, Paul and Booker’s injury history for nearly a year, health is the biggest enemy of the sun. As a general manager said:
“It is certainly good to have three heavyweight stars until injuries or other bad things happen.”