Why a 'Big 3' Lineup Will Never Win an NBA Championship

After the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics popularized the notion that it takes three superstars to win a title, it appears as though that championship formula is changing before our eyes.

As the Miami Heat and Oklahoma City Thunder endeavor to be the next star-studded champions, it's the ensemble effort of the San Antonio Spurs that has thus far looked unbeatable.

Indeed, after two sweeps and eight consecutive postseason wins, San Antonio's success is anything but hype. Dating back to the regular season, the Spurs have won 18 straight games altogether.

Outside of the underrated Tony Parker and aging Tim Duncan, Gregg Popovich's club doesn't have much that would qualify as star power.

Manu Ginobili once again plays the role of a sixth-man specialist, and Stephen Jackson's minutes have been sporadic at best in the postseason.

It goes without saying that—as stars go—Parker and Duncan don't hold a candle to the larger-than-life likes of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade or even Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum.

But that apparent disparity has more to do with playing time and offensive game plans than any real talent differential.

The reduced minutes have helped preserve the Spurs' health while other teams struggle to overcome key injuries. And Popovich's willingness to play a 10-man rotation was prepared his troops for postseason roles that guys like Danny Green, Kawhi Leonard and Tiago Splitter aren't especially accustomed to.

Of course, the Spurs aren't the only ones making this kind of model work.

The similarly deep Indiana Pacers are holding their own in a series in which they're currently tied at two games apiece with the Miami Heat. Had the Chicago Bulls escaped the one injury they couldn't afford, Tom Thibodeau's team would almost certainly be doing the same against the Boston Celtics.

As franchises like the Los Angeles Clippers, New York Knicks, Dallas Mavericks and Brooklyn Nets push to form their own superstar clusters, one can't help but wonder if they're following the wrong example—and not just because the flavor-of-the-moment San Antonio Spurs did things their own way.

Star trios are especially vulnerable to catastrophic injury, as Chris Bosh's absence has proven all too well.

With the vast majority of team funds tied up in two or three players, it isn't easy for general managers to build sufficiently well-rounded rosters. And even when they do, those peripheral role players understand their roles to primarily involve staying out of the way—hardly a recipe for a first-rate supporting cast.

The New York Knicks should also serve as a cautionary tale. Unlike the Thunder—who drafted and groomed its stars internally—the Knicks decided to take a page out of the New York Yankees' playbook, signing and trading for their talent.

While Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire were ostensibly enthused about their pairing initially, the on-court results have been underwhelming at best.

There may still be time for New York to salvage its misguided experiment, but otherwise James Dolan will be left with a painfully expensive mistake and precious little ability to fix it.

The allure of adding just one more big name is sometimes too much to resist. Even San Antonio's general manager R.C. Buford was caught up in the starry-eyed logic once upon a time, according to Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski:

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Privately, Spurs management will be the first to confess that they let themselves get swept away in the NBA's arms race. Three years ago, they watched the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics win championships with four and five elite players, and believed they had to find a big-money fourth player to surround Duncan, Parker and Ginobili.

They made the mistake of trading for Richard Jefferson and the $29 million still owed on his contract three years ago, and they paid a price for it.

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But rather than remaining mired in an arms' race this organization couldn't possibly win, San Antonio later opted to rely on its scouting, coaching and championship pedigree. The institutional knowledge that made this franchise so successful since 1999 has continued to compensate for a less glitzy lineup.

Don't be surprised if the next wave of champions includes teams like the Pacers, Memphis Grizzlies or Denver Nuggets.

Whether they wind up looking more like the talent-laden Thunder or flawlessly-managed Spurs, they could prove yet again that buying a championship is easier said than done. The Lakers and Celtics got their championships, to be sure—much to the delight of NBA pocketbooks.

But the next dynasty won't be importing talent from the Cleveland Cavaliers or Toronto Raptors. Tactics like these may make for nice TV ratings and ready-made headlines, but they're not a sustainable means of winning championships.