Adam Silver may be pleased that both the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers dominated their opposition and put on a shooting clinic during the Warriors 129-120 Game 5 win. Rather than be celebratory it is time to examine the health of the National Basketball Association and despite Mr. Silver and other’s praising both Golden State’s “beautiful basketball” if you are a fan of one of the 28 non-finals participants your answer to that question is probably more along the lines of “it stinks” than anything about pretty play. The reason? The unstoppable phenomenon (both on the court and in the Collective Bargaining Agreement) of “super teams” in which high-caliber players band together to try and win a championship with as much ease as possible. Why is this an issue now? Why am I picking on the Cavaliers and the Warriors who before this trilogy were snakebit for forty years?
Several reasons actually, the first of which being building through free agency was not an option for much of the NBA’s early history and even though there were Laker and Celtic dynasties, there was less opportunity for movement which meant even if the Big Bad Wolves came out on top, it was only after slugging it out with other great teams. The other big reason for this seeming misanthropy towards the reigning conference champions is that their cornering of the free agent market has both made the postseason incredibly banal and it encourages tanking. The later part can be argued because why would you want to be a good team in a league when the great teams can crush you like an elephant on an unruly mosquito? The obvious response is to try and land hot young talent, which is found at the top of most NBA Drafts. How does one get a top draft pick? Stinking up the joint.
The problem is how to fix this, because you cannot tell NBA Free Agents, be their name Kevin Durant, this year’s prize Gordon Hayward, or Cobra Commander where they can and can’t play. What can be done is a minimum salary, different than the league minimum, can be adopted for players based on certain achievements (All-Star appearances, MVP wins, NBA Scoring titles etc.), luxury tax penalties can be made stricter for high-spenders, or the league could try and shift to a hard salary cap rather than a soft cap which allows for overspending. This would require the approval of both the league office as well as the NBA Players Association so changes remain unlikely. Even if the plague of super teams is cured, smart teams will still find a way around it and I understand that, but better to try and solve a problem than remain idle. Your Move Mr. Silver.