Keep It NBA

Playoffs 2012:
In With the New, Win With the Old

By Ichank Nasution, Keep It NBA contributor

Living legend Tim Duncan, left, showing encouragement

to rising second year shooting guard Danny Green, right.

The toughest challenge for championship-contending veteran teams with a core that has been together for years is to remain competitive year after year. Keeping the veteran core intact is often times the priority; yet winning is always the lone measurement of success.

Aging stars are faced with increasing mileage, declining athleticism, decreasing endurance, longer injury recovery time and eventual makeover of style of play to compensate. And that’s just internally. Nightly, they must compete against younger, more energetic and athletic players that can run faster and jump higher. Reliance on these veteran stars’ individual abilities must be lowered by default.

Acquiring new talent is the logical solution. However, at what cost? Adding quality talent means owners must open their pocketbooks. Meanwhile, league regulations in the form of the NBA salary cap and luxury tax discourages teams from going overboard with payroll. Often, the veteran star’s large salaries themselves create the inflexibility to acquire quality players. Additionally, the adverse effect of being perennial playoff teams is the inability to secure a high draft pick to add a young impact player.

For two former championship squads, the Boston Celtics and San Antonio Spurs however, competitiveness has been extended for at least another year as they have discovered a formula for success in this lockout-shortened season while retaining veteran stars. The Celtics’ Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen and the Spurs’ Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker represent the “Big Three” veteran stars of each respective team. Never prematurely predicting their trophy tallies, between them is a total of five NBA championship trophies, four won by San Antonio’s Big Three. These Big Three have kept their winning pedigree for their current teams, resulting in the Celtics’ fifth consecutive Atlantic Division first place finish and the Spurs’ second consecutive Western Conference first seed finish. Both teams currently remain alive in the championship pursuit, with San Antonio securing a Conference Finals matchup and Boston one win away from duplicating that feat.

All signs didn’t point toward this, however. Last year, neither team survived this deep in the playoffs; the Celtics lost 4-1 to the Miami Heat in the second round while the Spurs were eliminated in the first round by the bottom-seeded Memphis Grizzlies. Neither made a significant free agency signing in the offseason. Each team’s draft pick were outside of the draft lottery, not a place to add an impact player especially in what was considered a weak draft class. Celtics’ forward Jeff Green, a talented young player acquired at last year’s trade deadline, was forced to sit out this season due to a diagnosed heart illness. Moreover, Duncan and Garnett, each team's most dominant player, have shown a noticeable decline recently, at least statistically.

As the condensed 66-game schedule featured a gruesome number of back-to-back and even, back-to-back-to-back games, the doubt of analysts and observers grew even bigger. Somewhat right, the season did not run smoothly initially.

Shortly into the season for the Spurs, the former Sixth Man of the Year and 2-time All Star Ginobili sustained a hand injury which forced him to miss 22 games. Ginobili, who was playing his best basketball after Coach Gregg Popovich decided to insert him into the starting lineup, did not have a proven backup to immediately replace him. For Boston, after a sizzling start, Ray Allen fizzled and missed 20 games. Jermaine O’Neal and Chris Wilcox, two veteran big men brought in to provide interior help for Garnett, never were able to avoid injuries and made minimum contributions for Coach Doc Rivers.

Yet management of both teams succeeded in bringing in new young talent to complement the aging stars. Celtics’ newcomer Brandon Bass provides front line offensive punch; Avery Bradley supplies much-needed perimeter defense and rookie Greg Steimsma is an excellent shot-blocker. Spurs’ management, considered among the league’s best, added versatile swingman Danny Green and gritty rookie Kawhi Leonard. At the trade deadline, veterans Stephen Jackson and Boris Diaw were acquired to provide experience and depth.

Both Rivers and Popovich magnificently managed to mesh the new with the old. But as the saying goes, the stars are the ones who win the games.

For those who like to equate "old" with "will never win", take a good look at how these new-look Celtics and Spurs are faring in these playoffs. Call them whatever you want, but we might be looking at the two teams who will compete in the NBA finals in a few weeks. Then you’ll be forced to call one of them “Champions”. And multiple championships never get old.