How Will Today's NBA Teams be Remembered? PART 2
You asked for it!
Hey! A few days ago, I posted this article:
It only covered 1/3 of the league, but y’all seemed to enjoy it so we’re running it back with a bunch more teams. No time for small talk. Let’s ride.
How will these Minnesota Timberwolves be remembered?
I didn’t write about the Wolves in Part One because I get a little reckless when discussing this team and I didn’t want to say anything irresponsible. I’ll do my best to rein in my excitement here.
These Wolves will be remembered for appearing in at least one NBA Finals. They’ll be remembered for living fast and dying young and trading a whole lot of picks for Rudy Gobert in a move that everyone hated then everyone loved.
Do I think Anthony Edwards will be a Timberwolf in a decade? Unfortunately, no. But I think a lot of really good things happen very quickly before he departs for (REDACTED). These Wolves will be long disbanded in ten years so I’m going to have a blast watching them now.
How will these Cleveland Cavaliers be remembered?
If you’ve been here a while, you know that I’m mid-victory lap regarding the Cavs. Now I’m chugging a beer while running the lap, too. Now I’m taking my shirt off and waving it above my head. Sorry no one wants to think about that. Well maybe you do… pervert. (Call me.)
Anyway, I’ve been very vocal about my opinion that Cleveland should just try to win with the team it has and not get drastic— which includes definitely not trading Donovan Mitchell.
For the time being, they listened. Every Cav survived the trade deadline. Now what? Do they win it all?
Uh, probably not. Which is fine. Because I also don’t subscribe to the tenet that every non-championship season is a waste. Remember the Indiana Pacers from 2011-2014? They never won a title but those years were unequivocally successful. And that level of success, the early 2010s Pacers, is about the level I see Cleveland reaching too—one or two conference finals appearances, littered with lots of thrills along the way.
How will these Miami Heat be remembered?
Lord help me. I have no idea how to answer this.
Will we remember how unwatchable these Heat teams are during regular seasons? Will we remember solely the improbable (seemingly impossible) postseason runs they love to go on? Or will we remember both?
I think we’ll remember both, because the story of these Heat can only be told if it includes both the physically painful offenses this franchise churns out from October to March and also the strange juggernaut it systematically turns into when the calendar flips to April.
Jimmy Butler is a good player in the regular season who morphs into a madman hellbent on dribbling you into the midrange and calmly scoring over you thirty-six times per playoff game. But yes, we can only remember and appreciate things like this:
…if we also remember every time the Heat scored 83 points in a game against Memphis in February.
How will these Sacramento Kings be remembered?
I’m not sure how much better these Kings can get. De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis are both phenomenal players (who both missed the All-Star Game, which is bonkers) but they’re not going to take any big leaps at this juncture of their careers. Keegan Murray is getting better but I think he has a clear ceiling as a 19 PPG, high-level shooter. Malik Monk might have peaked too (though he does seem to just keep improving year over year.)
Basically, I think we know what this team can accomplish. They’ll be competitive every year, even winning a few playoff series here and there.
And that’s totally fine. Because they’ll also be remembered as the first team Sacramento can be legitimately proud of in about two decades. The team that brought the franchise out of the gutters. The team that shoots a fucking lazer out of its roof when it wins. Will the Kings be much more than that? Maybe not, but… can you even be more than that?
How will these Orlando Magic be remembered?
Alright, we’re entering the land of total guesswork. Orlando is just beginning to reap the rewards of its rebuild, so if you’re betting which team I’m going to be the most wrong about... this might be a good place to wager.
These Magic won’t be these Magic for long. A trade—or two or three—is coming soon (this summer?) and the makeup of this team might shift quickly, but its identity will not.
I’m confident they’ll keep those two big ass dudes in the middle for many years, so when I say these Magic I mean the Paolo/Franz/Suggs/Coach Mosely Magic.
I think, if all goes right, Orlando will be remembered as the standard of rebuilding in the NBA. Currently the team is in year three of a rebuild and the checklist is looking good:
✅Head coach who has the respect of his young players
✅Cornerstone building block
✅Likable role players who will become cult stars within the franchise
Ten years from now, I have no idea if the Magic will have a championship. But I am confident they’ll be in the mix yearly, and that’ll be due very good drafting, patience with on-court results, and (eventually) the big trade that vaults them into contention.
Also Paolo will be a perennial MVP candidate. Hold me to it.
How will these Indiana Pacers be remembered?
As runners-up in the first-ever NBA In-Season Tournament? Maybe not.
As the greatest offensive team of all time? They were that for a while, but… doubtful.
As a team that realized quickly its young point guard is a superstar and immediately tried to build around him and compete while he continues to ascend? Yeah, that one sounds most likely.
I like what Indiana’s doing right now. It’s not wasting any time loading up on reinforcements for its guy Tyrese Haliburton. The trade for Pascal Siakam was superbly smart and signals Indiana’s willingness to compete now, and that’s why I believe in ten years Hali will still be a Pacer. Trying to predict how the team around him will look then is silly, but I’m betting our memories of this current Pacers team—and Pacers teams of the immediate future— will be fond and will include memories of one surprise playoff run (maybe it won’t even be a surprise by then with the leaps Haliburton keeps taking.)
Hali + Pascal is a very good duo; them plus one other near-max player is a group that can do real damage in the East, and I foresee Indiana going all-out for that one guy this summer.
These Pacers will be remembered as a team that got greedy (don’t worry, getting greedy is encouraged in the NBA.) Indiana doesn’t want to wait, so it’s speedrunning a rebuild around its young star, and at the very least, that’s a noble endeavor.
How will these Dallas Mavericks be remembered?
At some point, a player becomes so dominant that his team’s success—or lack thereof— becomes a secondary storyline to his individual magnificence. I think we’re approaching that territory with the Mavericks. Whether the Mavericks win and we all say “yeah, Luka is incredible, huh? He’s carrying that team” or the Mavericks lose and we say “Well, at least Luka is still incredible,” the story is kind of becoming Luka. And I think that’ll stay true in the future, too. The Mavs made a conference finals just two years ago and no one seems to remember (I kinda forgot too, honestly.) They could lose in the first round this year and we’d probably forget that in a few years, too.
Luka’s going to break a shit ton of NBA records and that’s what we’ll remember most about this Mavericks team in a decade. The guy truly is unbelievable.
How will these Memphis Grizzlies be remembered?
Though you all know I’d like to say “as the launching pad for the Hall of Fame career of Vince Williams Jr,” that’s probably not the correct answer. Instead, I think our memories of Memphis (a lot of which still need to be made, granted) will be that of a team that got really good, really fast. Too fast? TBD.
Here’s Memphis’ win totals over the past five seasons: 33, 34, 38, 56, 51.
That’s a big jump between year three and four! And with that jump brought a new set of expectations; in other words, people want results now from Memphis, even though its best players (Morant, Jackson, Bane) are 24, 24, 25 years old.
The general public is not patient with teams or players. I hope the Grizzlies front office blocks out the noise and sticks with this trio for many years— at least into their primes, because I don’t think we’ve seen the best from any of them yet. If that happens, I see a Finals appearance down the line— it might take a few years and a few roster tweaks outside that top three, but two straight seasons of 50+ wins from a team this young can’t be a fluke—I’m confident in that statement.
What I’m Listening To: IDLES
A Few More Things
Steph vs. Sabrina at All-Star Weekend was delightful, if you watched it on mute. (I actually did because I was working while the event was happening and watched in the bar while my tables all wondered where their server went.) But then I got home and learned that Kenny Smith was basically this woman on the broadcast:
Mac went back-to-back. I like seeing G League guys get some shine so I’m happy that Mac McClung won the dunk contest again. His best dunks were this (which I’ve never actually seen before) and a dunk over SHAQ, which is cool as hell. I don’t care how many times it’s been done, jumping over a tall person and dunking will make me go “ohhhhh!” for eternity. It’s what humans have evolved for.
The Miami Heat are not remembered as a moment in time, Quinn. Each team collectively makes up the Heatverse, which has no start nor stop, beginning nor end. Instead, the undrafted players simply conglomerate into a Voltron/Megazord-like being, terrorizing the Celtics for all eternity.
You cannot stop it