Villainless Basketball at the NBA Season’s End

It’s been just 48 hours since I watched Denver finish Miami and, like Nikola Jokić, I’ve already moved on. I don’t like my job anymore than the multi-million dollar superstar; I’m ready to go home, ride my horse, and drink copious amounts of Serbian beer.

It was a weird season. About the only thing that ultimately mattered prior to the playoffs was that Draymond punched Jordan and Ja went all Tupac on anyone who disrespected him in Memphis. Besides that, what story line mattered? Durant and Kyrie and Harden left Brooklyn and none of the four teams involved changed their trajectories in any meaningful way. Neither did Ben Simmons. The Lakers, Warriors, Bucks, Celtics, and most of all, Miami Heat, showed that the regular season barely mattered. Denver prevailed after a playoffs where no one was particularly awe inspiring. Maybe the Nuggets could have been awe inspiring themselves, but they never played anyone that really challenged them. Jokić will rightly spend the next four months as the best player in the NBA after being drafted during a Taco Bell commercial, but it would have been nice if he’d had a chance to go up against Boston, Milwaukee, or even Golden State.

We ought to be loudly celebrating the Nuggets. For one, they actually did try during the regular season! They have a modest superstar of the unicorn variety, an easy to root for side kick who has been way underrated, and lots of hard working veterans who finally get a ring after years and teams and more years and more teams. Jeff Green and Ish Smith have played for 24 teams between them!! D’Andre Jordan? (That they found minutes for him in the last game reminds me that the Celtics should have found minutes for Blake and Golden State should have found minutes for Kuminga…and they should have signed Boogie…anyway).

But can I admit that I miss the villains? I still remember all the profanities I yelled at my television when LeBron and D-Wade and Chris Bosh set up a superteam and talked about all their rings. How dare a 25 year old want to move from Cleveland to Miami!) I yelled even more at my phone when Kyrie lured KD and eventually James Harden to do the same in Brooklyn. Denver is exactly the opposite and represents all that is good in the NBA. Jokić getting picked last in the NBA Allstar game this year? How embarrassing of the league and what an amazing rebuttal by the Joker. (I’ll add my own embarrassing discounting disrespectfulness of Jokić: I thought the Nuggets should have traded him, and not Jusif Nurkić when they decided to split up their twin towers. Nurkić was so much more athletic! Oof)

Unfortunately, nice stories are also boring and forgettable. We need a new villain to restore meaningful interest in the NBA, and Jokić and Murray are not that. LeBron has gotten too easy to root for in his old age. I’m not from Philly, so I don’t rage every night over Ben Simmons. I’m from the Bay Area, so I’ll always have a soft spot for KD despite all the coaches he gets fired and fan bases he abandons. Dillon Brooks sucked so bad in the playoffs that I feel sorry for him. James Harden has passed from annoying flopper to the kind of roly-poly uncle who is wearing a really fuzzy sweater on Christmas morning. Even Kyrie is kind of harmless and quirky these days.

(Tangent since I’m mentioning Dillon Brooks…anyone looking forward to Canada’s team in the next Olympics? Jamal Murray, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Andrew Wiggins, RJ Barrett, and Brooks is a pretty pretty decent starting 5! Luguentz Dort, Bennedict Matthurin and Shaedon Sharpe coming off the bench? And Serbia has Jokić and Doncić? Hmm...)

Fortunately, given how boring it is to talk about the Denver Nuggets, the NBA is the best league at starting the next season as soon as the old season is over. The draft is right away, the trades and free agency moves come fast and wild. LeBron didn’t even let the finals start before hinting he’d retire. Coach Malone wouldn’t even enjoy one win—he had to say immediately they are going for a second. And because the Nuggets are so nice and boring, that didn’t hit like LeBron promising 6 rings or more in Miami. We all just yawned. Dame might be on the move. Kyrie wants everyone to know he could be on the move!

What is interesting about the Nuggets—maybe—is what their championship means for everyone else. The NBA is a copycat league. When teams win, everyone tries to replicate it. For a long time, winning championships couldn’t be replicated. The NBA has been a star’s league in a way pretty fundamentally different than any other team sport, and in the 80s that meant a lot of wins for those lucky to have drafted Magic, Bird, and especially Michael. Kobe and Shaq were at least a little different in that the Lakers had to trade for both. All of these teams superstars also had the great ‘second’ man—Kevin McHale, Kareem/Worthy, Scotty, Shaq or Kobe depending on who you take first. Then Danny Ainge put together the Big 3 with Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen, won a championship, and everyone else wanted in. Miami got in, and did it even (slightly) better than Boston. It became the consensus that to win you needed the top player in the league with a couple of all-stars around them. Miami had a big 3 and the biggest star. Nobody should have beaten them. And the guys from that generation—LeBron, KD, Kyrie, Harden—they still believe in that model. Poor, Brooklyn. Poor, Phoenix. Poor, Los Angeles Clippers and Lakers.

Then came the Golden State Warriors—a team largely drafted, and largely drafted late. A new system of three point shooting and 6’7 guys at as many positions as possible who can guard every position and switch every screen. It’s not just that they had the best player of the 2010s, it’s that they redefined what a starting five looks like. No more centers, and barely even a power forward. The new model superstar was no longer the great wing—MJ, LeBron, Wade, Kobe—or the dominant center like Shaq, Kareem, and Russell, but Steph Curry. And, equally important, the new most important player to get was the non-position facilitator, Draymond Green and Andre Iguadala. Worked for them, and the copycats followed. (Ok, true that they also then got the second best player of the 2010s and put together a super team with arguably a big 4—that’s not fitting my narrative now, but I get it). The team that was supposed to be the heir apparent to the Warriors was the Boston Celtics. Everyone on the Celtics can shoot (and apparently miss) the 3 pointer, and they are full of athletic big guards who can defend and pass, a center who can space the floor, and an overall lineup to expose anyone who doesn’t fit the formula.

Denver didn’t win with either of these formulas. Denver revolves around a big center, a great scorer, and lots of versatile weapons. They are a throwback more to the San Antonio Spurs of Duncan, Ginobli, and Parker. Another team of totally good, totally modest, and ultimately boring guys. Will Denver winning have a big impact? In one way, it’s going to be hard—it’s as hard to replicate the Joker as it is Curry, Shaq, MJ, and the others. But does it shift what other teams do this off-season? Does Boston keep its core because Denver did so and won? Does Philly think it can still win around Embiid because a relatively slow big man can win a championship as the centerpiece? Does Kyrie get fucked in his pursuit of another super combo because that strategy has been (for now) refuted? I’m going to say yes to all. Just like I knew that Nurkić was the future.

Maybe most importantly, does a Jokić centered team end the small ball era? Can teams still win going small like the Warriors have done so many times? As awesome as that Warrior team was, and it was awesome, did they ever beat a team with a premier big man? Cleveland, Houston, Boston… no. Would they have beaten this year’s Nuggets? Yes, 4 times… actually all 6 teams that they went to the finals would have beaten this Nuggets team. I could be convinced that they would have beaten them this year, which pretty much makes no sense except they beat them last year. But can the Warriors beat Jokić with Draymond and Looney? Can the Celtics do it with Horford and Williams? Does Phoenix keep Ayton around because they have to face the Joker? The challengers are going to have to decide whether they are going to give small ball one more chance. With Embiid, Giannis, JJJ in Memphis, a tall Thunder team, pretty tall teams in Orlando and Detroit and Minnesota, and a soon to be tall Spurs team, the Draymond Green era might be coming to an end for at least a while…. But I still want to see Denver beat one of those teams first.

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