If you look at the history of NBA champions, there is a clear pattern that these teams needed to develop over time. Often, there’s actually more “failures” in the NBA playoffs than there are successes. An NBA champion will experience several seasons of deep playoff runs that end up on the wrong side of a best-of-seven series before they’re finally able to raise the championship trophy.
Some of those examples off the top of my head include Michael Jordan’s Bulls. Chicago spent many seasons trying to overcome the Detroit Pistons while those same Isiah Thomas squads had to overcome the Boston Celtics. More recent championship teams include Steph Curry and his Warriors and how they developed from the NBA Draft, brought in some role players before they strung together three NBA championships. And it’s not just team cohesion, but serious contenders are often great defensive teams.
The short of it is that championship pedigree isn’t a trait that happens overnight, it’s an experience developed the timeline of multiple seasons and that’s one of the main reasons why winning an NBA championship is such a great feeling of accomplishment. It feels earned and not bought.
Can the Brooklyn Nets win the NBA championship?
That expected championship timeline may be different this year with the Brooklyn Nets as the team not only continues adding big names to their roster, but winning games with their impressive offense. Many of the NBA betting sites in NJ had the Nets near the top contenders earlier in the season but as the Nets continued winning, their odds have skyrocketed as the season progressed.
That’s because in the span of a few months, the Nets went from boasting Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving to adding James Harden in a trade with the Houston Rockets. Even with the addition of Harden, most everyone was in the “let’s see how this plays out” mindset, but Harden proved how invaluable he was to the team. His play over the course of several weeks even had his name being mentioned as a top MVP candidate – something that seemed unfathomable considering how he played in Houston.
Then they added Blake Griffin and picked up LaMarcus Aldridge. Even though Griffin and Aldridge are far from their peak powers, they’ve been contributed, and the Nets continue winning.
Nets are favorites in the East, but there’s questions
As of this post, the Nets are tied with the Philadelphia 76ers with the top record in the East and most NBA experts are now picking Brooklyn to come out of the Eastern Conference.
There are three outstanding questions when it comes to Brooklyn’s real chances at bringing home a title to New York City: First, what does the team look like when everyone is healthy? A roster with Durant, Kyrie, Harden, DeAndre Jordan, Blake Griffin, Aldridge and Joe Harris sounds great, but how does that translate on the court? We just haven’t had enough of a sample size with all that star power playing along one another.
Secondly, NBA history tells us defense needs to be very good to elite to win an NBA championship. Can the Nets, who had the worst defense in NBA history earlier in the season, continue to upgrade their defense to a good enough level to truly threaten.
And lastly, can they beat teams like a healthy Los Angeles Lakers, the league-leading Utah Jazz, or a motivated and focused Los Angeles Clippers squad?
If they can solve for these questions, the Brooklyn Nets will be one of those very rare NBA teams that didn’t go through the trials and tribulations of postseason disappointments on their way to win an NBA championship and we don’t know if that’s a good precedent for the league.
