In the world’s greatest basketball league, the NBA, teams need a collection of stellar individuals to get close to winning the title.
In recent years, that has been the trend and the list of winners since 2011 backs this assertion. Miami Heat’s back to back winning team in 2012 and 2013 had LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. San Antonio Spurs had Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker and a young but fast rising stopper in Kawhi Leonard.
In 2015, Golden State Warriors rolled out to a first title in over 40 years on the back of Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson’s play. James returned to Cleveland Cavaliers and orchestrated another “Big 3” build like the one he headlined in Miami to a title.
Every member of Cavs trio played a part in the historic comeback win over Warriors where James delivered a crucial block on Andre Iguodala, Kevin Love swarmed Curry into missing his shot and Kyrie Irving drilled the shot of his Hall of Fame career to clinch the win.
Seeing its second straight title aspirations go up in smoke, Warriors took the super team to the next level by adding former Most Valuable Player Award winner Kevin Durant to its roster. Two seasons after, Golden State has celebrated two ring presentation ceremonies and the team is the biggest favorite to clinch this season’s title. So the blue print has been laid and tested to the ultimate generating outstanding results in return.
Philadelphia Sixers has followed suit by trading for Jimmy Butler to team up with Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. Washington Wizards has a three headed dynamo in John Wall, Bradley Beal and Otto Porter albeit a dysfunctional one playing way below expectations. However, not all teams have the means to build a three man headlining act and the success of Toronto Raptors with Kawhi Leonard and Kyle Lowry and Portland Trailblazers with Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum means this style is workable and successful too.
But there are also the “have nots” in the league and these teams and players need at least another star player to really stand a chance of progressing deeper in the campaign.
Kemba Walker and Charlotte Hornets
Even the great Michael Jordan-who owns the Hornets-couldn’t win it all on his own when he laced it up for Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards en route to winning all those titles, got help. While his starting Point Guard and franchise player Kemba Walker is having a heck of a year, he is no Jordan and more strikingly, he needs help really bad.
Walker leads Hornets scoring chart with 27.9 points per game but the closest teammate is Jeremy Lamb who is averaging 14.6 points per game. Charlotte is in seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings with 10 wins and 10 losses. It is so easy to notice the extent of another shot creator and shot maker on a roster filled with underperformers. Getting a player with at least a 20 point average eases the burden on Walker and offers Charlotte a dynamic option to finish teams off.
Donovan Mitchell and Utah Jazz
After clinching the fifth seed in the Western Conference, returning to the playoffs and eliminating Oklahoma City Thunder in the postseason, expectations were high for Utah Jazz. The team had Defensive Player of the Year winner Rudy Gobert, Coach of the Year nominee Quinn Snyder, Executive of the Year nominee Dennis Lindsey and Rookie of the Year nominee Donovan Mitchell. It is important to note, Utah chalked this list of achievements just a season after Gordon Hayward left for Boston Celtics.
However, Utah has disappointed and sits just a spot above the worst side in the conference-Phoenix Suns. The team’s clear issue is a lack of offense beyond Mitchell which was clearly highlighted in Utah’s 107-113 loss to Philadelphia Sixers where Mitchell scored 31 points after attempting 35 shots.
LeBron James and Los Angeles Lakers
Everyone needs help and the greatest player of our generation does too especially on a Lakers team that lack three point shooters to finish off exquisite passes from James. When LeBron gets it going from deep, he easily wills his team to clinch the win. However, in games he struggles to score three point attempts as it pertained in losses to Orlando Magic and Denver Nuggets, there is little to fill the gap.
Despite possessing a talented group of young players with great production in the near future, the Lakers need more production from the likes of Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. For the record, LeBron is averaging 27.6 points which is 11 points clear off Kuzma in second place on the Lakers scoring chart with 16.7 points.
By Yaw Adjei-Mintah
@YawMintYM on Twitter
