In todays high-stakes NBA, a powerful pair beats three of a kind.
Teams who longed to build a Big Three are now striving for a dynamic duo, hoping two premier players are good enough to win a championship when the belief used to be that it required a trio.
And with some of the combinations assembled this summer, it sure seems less is more.
Thats certainly the thinking in Los Angeles, where LeBron James and Anthony Davis will try to power the Lakers back to the playoffs, and Kawhi Leonard and Paul George attempt to carry the Clippers further than theyve ever gone before.
Houston is putting James Harden and Russell Westbrook together in a backcourt of recent MVPs, and Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant made the Nets the talk of not only New York but also the entire NBA on the opening day of free agency when they decided to partner up in Brooklyn.
Everybody was looking for a Big Three, George said. It didnt work for a lot of teams, so now this is a new dynamic for the new generation of this league.
One that could make the NBA more balanced and exciting this season. If one team hoards too many good players, as Golden State did while reaching the last five NBA Finals, it leaves a lengthy list of clubs who have no realistic hope of contending for a title.
But if it only takes a pair of All-Star players, that opens the door for teams who already have two, or have one and the assets to get another.
The Big Three model kept some of those teams from going all in, but that era appears over.
I think thats the way the league just went, Davis said. Im not sure if it was done purposefully, but I think this is maybe the most exciting the league ever has been in a while. Its going to be fun.
James won rings with two versions of a Big Three, teaming with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh for back-to-back titles in Miami, and then rallying Cleveland to the 2016 championship along with Irving and Kevin Love. Now hell try to do it with one fewer, which might be enough if the Lakers put the right pieces around him and Davis, who are two of the top players in the league.
So are Leonard and George. Doc Rivers coached a Big Three to the 2008 title in Boston with Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, and the Celtics mightve won another if not for the Heat building a younger one two years later.
Now hell try to win with two, with a Clippers team that George thinks looks like many other teams in todays NBA.
I think what Boston did was special. I think what Miami did was special, he said. But I think it goes back to you have two guys that are the guys and then you have a group around them that supports them to the highest level, and that foundation is around a lot of guys in this league.
Though the focus has been on the tandem of twos, George said a number of teams could point to a complementary player and say they have a Big Three. Houston is one of them, coach Mike DAntoni said when asked the reason for the trend.
