We Are Finally Witnessing A Changing Of The Guard In The NBA
Well, the changing of the guard in the NBA had to happen at some point right?
Back in October, if someone told you that Steph Curry, LeBron James, and Kevin Durant would all either miss the playoffs entirely or lose in the first round, I'm not sure there would be a soul on the planet who would believe that. With a healthy Steph Curry, the Warriors hadn't lost in the 1st round since 2013-14. LeBron has only been knocked out in the first round twice in his entire career (and one of those was a weird covid season), and Kevin Durant was on a newly formed superteam that made major moves in the offseason to "win now".
Yet here we are. Steph's Warriors missed the playoffs entirely, and LeBron and KD's teams are cooked, both down 0-3 in their respective first round series. Those things are over.
Hell, if you wanted to expand things even further, given the Clippers current 1-2 hole and Kawhi Leonard's knee not sounding all that great
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you can throw him in this conversation as well.
It does feel like the time has finally come for the passing of the torch in the NBA. Those 3-4 guys have owned the NBA for a long ass time as players who defined the previous era of NBA basketball. MVPs, titles, Finals MVPs, it's been a long time since we've had a year where all of these guys are going to be eliminated before we even get to mid May.
And while their dominance wasn't going to last forever, the tough part is all of these guys are still very effective players. It's not like they're washed themselves, the issue is more their teams are cooked while their competition continues to get better. The talent gap isn't quite what it used to be back when those guys ran the league, and eventually, things were going to swing.
We now live in the era of Nikola Jokic. We have young teams on the rise and young players who are hungry to take over the league and appear ready for that moment. The Tatum's, the Luka's, the Ant's, the SGA's of the world, we're seeing in real time what it looks like as they start to take over the reins from the previous generation.
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The question now becomes, what does the old guard do? If you're the Warriors, what's your next move? Lose Klay in free agency for nothing? Trade Draymond? Just hope things get better next year? It's pretty obvious Steph is still Steph, but how long will that last and will it even matter if you're already missing the playoffs? It's not like they have any sort of cap space as a second apron team, so it's not as if major improvements are all that easy to pull off.
If you're the Lakers, do you think LeBron is going to stick around for when the ship starts to sink? Have you seen his career? Back to back sweeps wasting these great LeBron seasons I imagine aren't going to sit all that well, and what moves could they possibly make that move the needle? Everyone wants them to trade for Trae Young, but what does that accomplish? If they feel like LeBron is going to dip, they essentially have to trade him. All he has now on his deal is the $51M player option for next season so it's not like they have a ton of time to get better either.
And perhaps the biggest dumpster fire of them all is KD and the Suns. They went about as ALL IN as you could possibly get heading into this season. A new owner who didn't give a shit about the future is now staring at a first round sweep with zero cap space and not too many assets moving forward to help improve the roster
Remember, Bradley Beal has a no-trade clause and is owed $160M, so it's not like unloading him is going to be easy should they want to go that route. And while I imagine KD and Booker still have value around the league, trading one of those guys would essentially be smashing the rebuild button on your franchise.
If the plan is to just run it back, well we just saw a full season of the issues with how this roster is constructed. I honestly have no idea what the Suns do, but my gut says they run it back and then try a different mix of veteran minimum guys?
For the Clippers, say they lose in the first round to the Mavs. You already extended Kawhi who might never be fully healthy again in the playoffs, and you now have to make a decision on both James Harden AND Paul George this summer. I know Steve Ballmer has endless money, but I imagine the expectations were a little higher than losing in Round 1, and those guys are only getting older.
Never in a million years did I ever think we'd be talking about a world where Steph, LeBron, KD and possibly Kawhi would all not see Round 2. For that to all happen in the same postseason feels like seeing Halley's comet, but you know what? I'm excited. The new generation is fun as shit to watch, just like the previous one was while they were first coming up. Change doesn't necessarily mean it's bad, it just means it's different.
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It was bound to happen at some point, and as it turns out that point is looking like the 2024 playoffs.