Four teams lead a new era in the NBA without depending on stars
Four favorites to be NBA champions present long-term projects with a maxim that defines them: no player is better than all of them together.
The NBA reaches the last month of the regular season and there is a trend that stopped being a hypothesis and became a conclusion: the stars are not so important anymore.
As? Yes, just as it reads. The sky-high super contracts do not go hand in hand with what happens on the field. At least in part. It is obsolete to think of a superhero capable of impossible feats: today, thanks to the new collective bargaining agreement, and the financial flexibility necessary to think about long-term projects without the emergencies of day-to-day life, it takes collective effort. It is the definitive farewell to all for one to enter the field of all for all. In a horizontal way in sports and vertically in terms of leadership: never before have the general manager, coach and players been more united than in 2026.
The explanation can be given through casuistry. The free agency that happened, and the summer that will once again have a major attraction due to the magnitude of figures that will be at stake, is more fun for the fan who consumes social networks than for the teams. Knowing whether Giannis Antetokounmpo will continue with the Milwaukee Bucks, or go to the Miami Heat or the Los Angeles Lakers, for example, has more to do with potential enjoyment, with a search for a sports paradise, than with the surrounding reality.
For some time now, the NBA no longer works with the Big Three bought on the corner market. They are done over time and for that you need the perfect medicine for TikTok and Instagram: patience. You can’t build an empire in a season, any more than you can explain the Russian revolution in a minute. Knowing how to wait is today the most important asset that exists. We must understand that cracks today are related to the course of nature: plant the seed, germinate and enjoy the fruit once it is ripe. Neither before nor after.
Sam Presti was the first to understand this process. The trio of Shai Gilgeous-AlexanderJalen Williams and Chet Holmgren was built with a lot of frustration behind it. You had to lose and then win. Present and future draft picks, and what few say: hours of flight on the field. It works very well in small, undemanding markets, and not so much in large ones. Although we will get into a success story (Boston Celtics) who managed to contradict this logic with his formula.
Mark Daigneault followed the highway that Presti led and was the executing hand on the bench. But the strategy was global. We had to put together the championship puzzle little by little. We also had to think about a potential dynasty. No one can be irreplaceable, neither in the books nor on the field. Today it is demonstrated: without Shai in a large number of games, without Williams in many others, and without Holmgren on several nights, the Oklahoma City Thunder remains first in the West.
Coincidence or causality? You will say.
Let’s now turn to a negative example. Luka Doncic’s Lakers. Never has a transfer generated more stir and impact than that of Doncic to Hollywood. The world literally came to a standstill. We write millions of words about it (I am included in that list) and the Lakers, with LeBron James, Austin Reaves, Deandre Ayton and company, navigate in total inconsequentiality. Luka is young, but no one is too sure about that project. What if Giannis arrives? What if they add another star? It doesn’t work like that anymore. It is necessary to build a solid surrounding, a perfect ecosystem that is above any sports deity.
No player is better than all of them together.
There are three more examples that illustrate the future outlook. The first, that of San Antonio Spurs. Three draft picks that will be the future of the franchise: Victor WembanyamaStephon Castle and Dylan Harper. In that order. But when one or two of them were missing, the rest were up to the task. They did not urgently need even Wemby, basketball’s unicorn. De’Aaron Fox, Keldon Johnson, Luke Kornet, Devin Vassell, and whoever was there to do their job. It is unfair to name a few because the truth is that the following happens: in the era of individual polyfunctionality, each player has a defined role in the team. Each individual contribution is vital so that the human body as a whole is not damaged.
Another case is that of Detroit Pistons. Owners of the worst streak in franchise history in 2023 with Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren on the roster, turned history 180 degrees to be candidates in the East. Again: waiting and not despairing was the way to put together something genuine that will last over time.
And finally, my favorite case. The one of Boston Celtics. I say it’s my favorite, because of what Brad Stevens and Joe Mazzulla decided when they had to get rid of Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday, Al Horford and Kornet due to the market, and Jayson Tatum due to his achilles injury. They did not choose the tanking path of the Utah Jazz or Sacramento Kings, aspiring to follow the line of the Thunder or the Spurs in an artificial way, walking along the ledge of the regulations; They provoked a silent reconstruction, within the walls, with the material they had at hand. They were not willing to lose because the history of the Celtics indicates so. Because you can’t do something like that in the land of Red Auerbach, Bill Russell and Larry Bird, among others.
They then formed a team without stars or stars.: because Jaylen Brown He carried the offensive, but it was everyone’s business. Distributed minutes, defined roles, joint effort. Payton Pritchard, Derrick White, Hugo Gonzalez, Neemias Queta and many others appeared. Anfernee Simons passed and Nikola Vucevic arrived. And because they won so much, they didn’t need to light candles for Tatum. It was something like whispering in his ear: “Don’t worry, Deuce, we’ve got your back.” And in that decision, the prize arrived: now, with a full squad, they can go for Larry O’Brien.
The new NBA 3.0 shows, to the world, that the figures have changed: neither Shai, nor Wemby, nor Cunningham, to name three examples of MVP candidates, are high profile. They are the best, but they don’t think they are the best. They don’t shout it, they don’t boast, they aren’t pedantic.
The route to success is not simple. The path is not just the red or white of roses: there are thorns. To achieve the goal in 2026, then, no impact blows are required. It takes hard work and integrity: doing things quietly when no one is looking so that later, actions make all the noise.
Without knowing it, we have said goodbye to the era of dependency; Welcome, then, to a new chapter, that of the sum of wills. Neither you, nor you, nor you: we will be, from this moment on, us.
Against everything.
And against everyone.
