Lessons Learned About Superstar Teams in the NBA This Year

The Los Angeles Lakers have been one long lesson on superstar teams throughout the 2012-13 NBA season.

A superstar team sounds great on paper. You're pairing two or more players who are used to being the No. 1 options on their respective teams, theoretically making your squad that much harder to defend.

In reality, egos often get in the way. Some players can't concede the alpha-dog role to each other, leading to head-shaking breakdowns on both ends of the court.

The Lakers are the newest superteam in town, but they aren't the only one in the league by any means. The Miami Heat, San Antonio Spurs, Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder and New York Knicks all qualify, too.

Between those seven teams, five main lessons have emerged during the 2012-13 season.  

Superteam Chemistry Is No Guarantee

Teams that cobble together a handful of Hall of Famers aren't necessarily guaranteed a spot in the NBA Finals (or the playoffs, for that matter).

Just ask the 2012-13 Los Angeles Lakers.

Having talented players is the first step on the road to an NBA championship, but developing legitimate team chemistry plays just as much of a role. Not every team can be the 2007-08 Boston Celtics, who won a championship in the first year of the Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen era.

Even the Miami Heat struggled in their first year-and-a-half after uniting LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Although it's easy to forget now, the three Heatles couldn't quite figure out how to harness each others' strengths most effectively until the latter portion of the 2011-12 season.

This lack of immediate superstar chemistry shouldn't come as much of a surprise. Most superstars expect to shoulder the brunt of the load for their team, but there's only one ball to go around.

Building a superstar team requires sacrifice, more than anything else. Dwight Howard has to accept that as long as Kobe Bryant's around, he's going to be relied upon by the Lakers more for his defense than his offense.

The superstars who played for Team USA in the past two summer Olympics at least have the experience of sacrificing their high usage rates for the greater good.

Any team looking to construct a superstar-laden roster must consider how the stars will fit together, lest they want the New York Knicks' awkward Amar'e Stoudemire-Carmelo Anthony "we don't mesh very well" dynamic.

No Stopping a Superteam with Chemistry, Though

Chemistry is a vital ingredient for any superstar team with an NBA championship on the mind. It also doesn't develop overnight.

But when it does develop, a la the Miami Heat since February 2013? Hide yo' wife, hide yo' kids, because the rest of the basketball world hardly stands a chance.

It's no coincidence that the Heat are riding a franchise-record 21-game winning streak with the likes of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. All three appeared to finally hit their stride in February, with James in particular putting up some of the most video game-esque numbers of his career.  

The Oklahoma City Thunder, pre-James Harden trade, represented another recent example of what the power of three superstar-caliber players in harmony can do. In the 2012 playoffs, the Thunder trumped the San Antonio Spurs' Big Three of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, this era's original Big Three.

With three superstars playing side by side, defenses are left powerless to stop everyone at once. Want to throw a double-team at James or Wade? Bosh will be more than happy to drill a wide-open mid-range jumper.

Coaching, strategy and effort all help, but in the end, basketball comes down to talent. Whichever team has the more talented players on the floor will walk away victoriously more often than not (unless their coach is named Mike D'Antoni).

While the Los Angeles Lakers may be defying this rule, the other NBA teams with multiple superstars—the Heat, Thunder, Spurs, New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Clippers—have been largely dominant this year.

There's a reason teams go all-out to acquire superstars. 

Can't Ignore the Supporting Cast

The new collective bargaining agreement, which we'll address later, makes this next lesson one of the most important of all when constructing a superteam.

Acquiring max-level stars isn't enough. You need to build a reliable supporting cast around them, and you need to do it for cheap.

If you have LeBron James on your team, you might be able to convince role players to take a South Beach discount. It's otherwise a tough sell, especially for younger players looking to secure long-term deals.

One of the most glaring flaws with the 2012-13 Los Angeles Lakers happened to be their lack of a strong bench behind four future Hall-of-Famers. When Steve Nash went down in the second game of the season and Pau Gasol's injuries flared up not long after, the Lakers were at a loss for warm basketball-playing bodies.

Even superstar players need quality backups, as they can't be expected to play all 48 minutes every game. While superstars will absorb most of a team's cap space, each team needs to save some room for either building young and inexpensively through the draft or resorting to veteran-minimum contracts.

Mike Miller's performance in Game 5 of the 2012 NBA Finals, where his explosion from three-point range ended all doubt of an Oklahoma City comeback, speaks to just how critical the supporting cast typically ends up being in a championship run.

The New CBA Could Mean the End for Superteams

The NBA's latest collective bargaining agreement could, believe it or not, usher in an era of fiscal responsibility in the league (relatively speaking, of course).

The CBA contains severe penalties for teams exceeding the luxury tax, as explained by ESPN.com's Larry Coon in his Salary Cap FAQ. This season, teams paid $1 for every $1 that their salary cap exceeded the luxury tax level ($70.307 million).

Starting in the 2013-14 season, teams pay incrementally more depending on how far over the luxury tax they go. Teams that exceed the luxury tax by up to $4.9 million will pay $1.50 for every dollar they're over, with a maximum penalty of $7.5 million.

It only goes up from there: Teams that exceed the luxury tax by $5 to $9.9 million pay $1.75 per $1 they're over, with a maximum penalty of $8.75 million; teams between $10 to $14.9 million over the tax level pay $2.50 per $1 they're over in that range, with a maximum penalty of $12.5 million; and teams between $15 to $19.9 million pay an exorbitant $3.25 in tax for every $1 dollar they're over in that range, with a maximum penalty of $16.25 million.

If a team exceeds the luxury tax by $20 million or more, they'll be paying $3.75 per $1 dollar over that $20 million level. There's no maximum penalty for teams $20 million or more over the luxury tax.

If that wasn't bad enough, the "repeater rate" comes into effect in 2014-15, meaning teams pay even higher rates if they exceeded the luxury tax in each of the previous three seasons.

Long story short: It's already dangerous for teams to be above the luxury tax, and it's only going to get worse in the next few years. The days of having three players each earning $15 million or more on a single roster could be at an end for any team that's not printing money like the Los Angeles Lakers. 

2013 Is the Year of the Superstar Team

Because of the more severe luxury tax penalties set to kick in soon, the era of constructing superstar teams could soon be coming to an end.

That should only make the 2012-13 season that much more memorable.

The LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh triumvirate in Miami are riding a 21-game win streak and counting. Meanwhile, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker have guided the San Antonio Spurs to the best record in the Western Conference.

Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook have the Oklahoma City Thunder trailing closely behind the Spurs, with the Chris Paul and Blake Griffin-led Los Angeles Clippers breathing down their necks. In the East, Carmelo Anthony, Tyson Chandler and Amar'e Stoudemire (to a lesser extent) have the New York Knicks sitting with conference's third-best record.

Unless you're the Indiana Pacers or Denver Nuggets, you need at least one veritable superstar on your roster to have any realistic championship aspirations this season.

And if anything, the most memorable storyline of the 2012-13 season so far has been watching the Los Angeles Lakers, replete with four future Hall of Famers, struggling to qualify for the playoffs. While Kobe Bryant and Co. finally appear to have turned the playoff odds in their favor, Bryant's recent ankle injury was a reminder of just how fragile their season remains.

Superstar pairings won't become extinct in the next few seasons, but the new CBA makes superteams like the Lakers all the less likely. That just means we have to savor teams like the Lakers, Heat and Spurs as long as they can keep their superstar rosters together.