It’s straightforward to take satisfaction from a superteam falling brief. It’s a reminder that expertise alone isn’t at all times sufficient, and that different elements like match, chemistry and smarts nonetheless matter.
Here are some of the groups that learnt that the exhausting means.
LA LAKERS (2012-13)
The Lakers had their fanbase salivating after they added Steve Nash and Dwight Howard to their present core of Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol.
But Nash and Gasol couldn’t keep on the ground constantly, after which Bryant missed the playoffs, the place the Lakers have been swept by the Spurs within the first spherical.
Howard and Bryant by no means noticed eye to eye and the teaching upheaval didn’t assist both, with Mike Brown fired simply 5 video games into the season.
The following 12 months, Howard took much less cash to affix the Rockets and Nash managed simply 15 video games earlier than retiring. Kobe, in the meantime, by no means made it again to the playoffs.
BROOKLYN NETS (2020-21 and 2021-22)
Brooklyn went all-in after they added James Harden to a group that already featured Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, however these three guys solely ever performed 16 of a potential 113 video games collectively.
They received 13 of these 16 video games, however Harden needed out earlier than he’d even spent a full season with Durant and Irving, and identical to that, the entire experiment was over earlier than it began.
LA LAKERS (2021-22)
With Russell Westbrook, Dwight Howard and Carmelo Anthony heading to LA all of sudden final season, the Lakers would’ve had one of probably the most proficient groups of all-time if everybody was 10 years youthful.
Not solely was the roster extremely outdated, the items didn’t match, and barely anybody might shoot or defend at a excessive stage. The finish outcome was the Lakers lacking the playoffs totally.
GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS (2015-16)
After breaking the Chicago Bulls’ supposedly unbreakable document of 72 wins, something lower than a championship was at all times going to be an enormous disappointment for the 2016 Warriors. Blowing a 3-1 lead within the Finals solely made issues worse.
PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS (1999-00)
This Blazers group was completely stacked, with a roster that includes Rasheed Wallace, Scottie Pippen, Arvydas Sabonas, Steve Smith and Damon Stoudamire. They additionally had Detlef Schrempf in his twilight, in addition to a younger Jermaine O’Neal and Bonzi Wells.
A professional superteam earlier than the age of superteams, Portland completed the season with the second-best document within the NBA at 59-23.
But the frustration kicked in after they let the Lakers erase a 15-point fourth quarter deficit in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals. It was the evening of the well-known Kobe-to-Shaq lob, and after that well-known second, Portland was by no means the identical.
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