Harden gone, the Brooklyn experience came to an end: has the NBA (finally) drawn a line under the era of “Superteams”?

Brooklyn may one day win the timpani, if Kyrie Irving ever becomes a full-time basketball player again, Steve Nash does more than accompany his team and Ben Simmons brings his selflessness, versatility and defense to the game. edifice hitherto rickety. But right now, the Nets are still a franchise that bent over backwards to please its stars, welcoming them without much choice and risking selling out its future by dropping draft picks at gogo to lure Harden into his nets, with the result that we know.

The reckless takeover of players since the start of the 2010s has, here again, shown its limits. If LeBron James had initiated the movement by deciding to join Dwyane Wade in Miami and bringing Chris Bosh in his suitcase – for four NBA finals in a row and two titles – the result did not prove the “Superteams” model right. It is customary to say that there is no shortcut to the summits. it remains true. LBJ can testify to this: the Heat lost their first final against Dallas in 2011 and Miami needed to build to gain consistency. Snapping your fingers is not enough. Winning cannot be decreed.

The Heat, a true trompe l’oeil

The Heat experience, a true trompe-l’oeil with hindsight, has nevertheless had a few children. Trompe l’oeil because the trio formed in South Beach was complementary, in its roles on the ground, in the acceptance of the distribution of tasks and, more importantly, was not left to itself. It’s good to remember the rocky beginnings of this Heat and the fact that not everything came naturally to the stars of the squad. When these, doubting the talent and depth of Erik Spoelstra, came knocking on Pat Riley’s door to ask the latter to fire the young coach and replace him on the bench, the president of the franchise had allowed himself what few franchises now dare in front of the stars of the prosecution: he had said “no” and had not gone to bed in front of “los tres amigos”.

Since the Heat, the self-made rosters of League stars have regularly tripped over the carpet. And it is probably no coincidence that the teams crowned after Miami are the result of a thoughtful, slow and sometimes painful construction.

These are mostly franchises that operate as they all should. Everyone stays in their place. The players are playing. The coach trains. And management leads. On the side of Golden State or Milwaukee, to name a few, Stephen Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo do the job on the floor and do not take themselves for General Managers. The latter – Bob Myers at the Warriors and Jon Horst at the Bucks – have a clear mission: to build a coherent workforce and have a vision whose scope differs from that of the players, who aim for the short term when the GMs dream of lasting situations.

And while GMs’ informal mission is to make their stars happy, because you don’t win in a toxic environment, it’s by no means to give in to their every wish and other whim. What some have forgotten, for the results that we know.

The big winner: Daryl Morey

In Brooklyn, the Durant – Irving duo had knocked on the door of the Nets and ignored what had been built before their arrival. Everyone went to bed. Durant wanted Harden, who no longer wanted to stay in Houston? The bearded man landed on the banks of the Hudson. At the Clippers, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George thought of returning home to California before considering the possible consistency of their association. This season, the Lakers, finally, remind that LeBron James is still not a great GM.

Finally, the great winner of this sequence is called Daryl Morey. The General Manager of the 76ers did not panic when the sulky Ben Simmons decided to put the arrow. He waited and pressed the button when the time was right: when his new franchise wouldn’t lose out and a player of James Harden’s caliber would be available. Morey knows Harden well, for having detected what the others had not seen before him. Morey knows Harden well, having worked with him for eight years in Houston. Morey knows his job well. And does it quite well. The proof.