From 1990 to 1999 only four NBA teams took home the O’Brien Trophy: the Detroit Pistons, Chicago Bulls, Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs. Looking at the Wikipedia page for the list of NBA champions actually looks like someone has gone in and played a prank on us by changing all the teams to the same name.
In the 10 NBA seasons from 2000 to 2009 there were only five different champs: The Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, San Antonio Spurs, Detroit Pistons and Miami Heat. Of these two past decades, three teams stand out as having a dynasty in that period in the Lakers, the Spurs and the Bulls. It begs the question: Who will be the next dynasty in the NBA?
I think it’s important to categorize what a dynasty is. It consists of two things: First, that the core group of players stays the same. Kobe. Michael. Duncan. That’s easy. Second, that in a 10 year period, they have to win at least three championships (not necessarily consecutive but it mathematically makes sense for them to come that way due to player aging and turnover).
What teams are poised to become a dynasty?
The Oklahoma City Thunder
Is there any doubt that Portland should have taken Kevin Durant at this point? I mean, really, when people were talking about likening Greg Oden to Bill Russell it made me laugh out loud. Not that Oden doesn’t have the same kind of skill set, but the idea that Bill Russell’s game — rebounding, defense and more rebounding — translates into today’s NBA the same way. The game just isn’t the same anymore, and if you play like Bill Russell today you’re basically Dennis Rodman. Today’s NBA has different defensive and offensive strategies based on the kinds of athletes that play it and different things are needed out of your big, first round picks. Having Bill Russell in 2007 is well and good but if you’re taking it in lieu of MJ-level scoring talent you’re flat out crazy.
The Thunder need to figure out what to do with Russell Westbrook, which isn’t as big a problem as everyone thinks it is. It’s simple — either he’ll become the player they need in the next two years or they’ll trade him to the Knicks or some other awful team that wants a problem-child, out of position scorer. Either way, you’ve got that to bank on plus what may be the biggest draft steal of the last few years (even though he was a first rounder) in Serge Ibaka. The Thunder are too good not to win a championship in the next decade.
The Miami Heat
Anyone who thinks the Heat aren’t good enough to win multiple championships is out of their mind. The Heat only did what all of us try to do in Association mode in NBA 2K12 — mess with your roster so that you can play with the best players at all time. What? It’s not realistic to have Chris Paul, Brandon Roy, Danny Granger, LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden on my Trail Blazer roster?
Chris Bosh isn’t as bad as people think, and as that team gels the Celtics, Lakers and Spurs will only get older. Those three superstars in the prime of their career will add some serious hardware to their collection. Count. On. It.
The Chicago Bulls
The Bulls are one legitimate scoring threat away from being an NBA championship team. They’re still finding their identity, and the best way to fix that is to get a real scorer who isn’t afraid to take touches and shots from Derrick Rose. Having Luol Deng as your second option is a bad choice, mostly because he’s been there long enough to realize that Rose is the top dog. If you’re a class-A scorer you can’t think anyone else can take a better shot than you. Taking the shots away from Derrick Rose and instead relying on him to create and be a playmaker is a better offensive choice for the Bulls.
Do they dump Carlos Boozer? Luol Deng? Any of the myriad offers they’ve received for Noah? I don’t know. No wait, I do — dump Boozer and Deng. Carlos Boozer has never shown — not even at Duke — that he’s a guy who “wants it more” than the other guys across from him. He seems entitled and he certainly doesn’t live up to his free agent price tag. A bunch of teams would take Deng in a heartbeat, it just depends on what you could get back for him. Keep Noah, dump the zeros.
The Houston Rockets
Those of you who have been paying attention in class have been watching Rockets GM Daryl Morey build up a huge amount of cap space the last two years, plus the recently vacated salary of their dearly departed Yao. Morey is a great GM and as that team gets worse their high draft picks will accumulate with their open spending limit.
To add to the treasure trove of NBA secrets, Dwight Howard’s close mentor is now Hakeem Olajuwon and Morey may be counting on The Dream to push Howard his way. They’ll certainly be able to pay him what he wants in a free agent market and with movable pieces like Kevin Martin the Rockets could easily go from bottom feeder to top dog some point very quickly in the next three years. You read it here first: Dwight Howard to Houston.
The newest edition to The Hoop Doctors writing staff, Dane Carbaugh is the editor and lead writer of the popular new basketball blog A Young Sabonis. Dane is a published research author and also writes for Dime Magazine and the ESPN TrueHoop Affiliate Portland Roundball Society. He can be found on Twitter at @DaneCarbaugh
