Sports
NBA Star Pairings That Just Don't Work – Bleacher Report
Basketball in practice is different than basketball on paper.
A team’s front office will do its best to field a roster that can compete at the highest level, but most teams are done before (or two weeks into) the playoffs. Many are felled by pairing “names” instead of fits.
NBA chemistry is an elusive thing. Hopefully, the price to put together the wrong players won’t damage the franchise for years. But not every team will admit to or even identify the mistake.
Then there’s the fear of pulling the plug too early. Maybe the team wasn’t healthy enough, or the deficiency was at another position or a fired coach’s fault.
The following are pairings that just haven’t worked, worth keeping an eye on when momentum towards trade season kicks off again in mid-December (if not sooner).
When the Minnesota Timberwolves traded 4-6 first-rounders (including Walker Kessler) to get Rudy Gobert from the Utah Jazz, many competing executives were puzzled by the decision.
The Frenchman has a long resume as one of the league’s best defenders, but with the league going smaller, was he going to work next to Karl-Anthony Towns?
Towns is one of the league’s best big-man scorers, but is he mobile enough at 7’0″, 248 pounds to defend at power forward? Does Gobert, who isn’t a floor spacer, crowd the paint and push Towns away from the basket offensively?
The results weren’t impressive. The Timberwolves barely got through the play-in to be ousted in the first round after five games by the Denver Nuggets. Some around the league believe the franchise will eventually need to trade Towns since it won’t be near getting back what it gave to get Gobert. Few expect a happy ending to this story.
Still, Towns missed most of the season with a calf strain. Any NBA player typically needs time to get back into peak condition, so judging the team by his 29 games (15-14 record) may be short-sighted.
The team also lost Jaden McDaniels for its brief first-round playoff run; the forward broke his hand after punching a wall in a moment of frustration. There was also the incident where Gobert punched teammate Kyle Anderson. Clearly, the heavily-invested Timberwolves have some issues to resolve.
But the team still has hope that a healthy, stable roster from training camp on (the team swapped out starting point guard D’Angelo Russell for Mike Conley at the deadline) will yield a much better result this coming season.
The Atlanta Hawks gave up 3-4 first-round picks last summer to the San Antonio Spurs for Dejounte Murray, who plays the same position as point guard Trae Young.
The notion made some sense, with Murray giving the team a second playmaker who could offset some of Young’s defensive deficiencies.
In practice, the pairing wasn’t necessarily bad. The team won fewer games than it expected (41) and lost in six games to the Boston Celtics in the first round. But the franchise went into this offseason telling competing franchises that it still believed in its core rotation (outside of moving big man John Collins, partly for financial flexibility).
Perhaps coach Quin Snyder, hired by the team in late February, can better utilize training camp and an entire season to integrate the two guards. Young, in particular, needs to find a way to be more impactful off the ball.
Given what the team gave up to get Murray and his recent multi-year extension taking him through the 2027-28 season (player option on the final year), Young may be the odd man out if the franchise decides the backcourt pairing isn’t a fit.
Per B/R’s recent ranking for the 2023-24 season, the LA Clippers have two top-18 players in Kawhi Leonard (13) and Paul George (18). The duo paired up in 2019, getting as far as the Western Conference Finals in 2021.
Both are talented scorers and long, rangy defenders. George has shown he’s willing to be the Clippers’ second star to Leonard, and there’s no real conflict off of egos or off-the-ball roles. Neither the basketball nor the personalities are an issue.
However, L.A. can’t get both players on the floor together through a postseason run.
Leonard suffered a knee injury that kept him out of the WCF against the Phoenix Suns in 2021. He missed the entire next year and, after trying to load-manage his body through the 2022-23 campaign, he was felled by another knee problem versus the Suns in 2023.
Meanwhile, George missed the series altogether (knee) and has struggled to stay healthy throughout his time in Los Angeles, averaging 47.3 games a season.
As to why it matters now? Leonard and George are extension-eligible and can opt out of their contracts after this season. The Clippers must decide if it’s worth recommitting to one or both, or going in an entirely different direction.
What’s most frustrating for the franchise is a belief that the two could win it all if they were healthy enough together when it mattered most.
Like the Timberwolves, the Cleveland Cavaliers gave up a haul of first-rounders (six including Ochai Agbaji and swaps) for an All-Star from the Utah Jazz. And the pairing of Donovan Mitchell with Darius Garland took the franchise back to the playoffs for the first time without LeBron James (dating back to 1998).
The Cavaliers won 51 games, so this entry may be more controversial. If the goal is to win a lot of games and maybe a round in the playoffs, Cleveland may be well-situated. The more significant concern is earning a deeper postseason run with a pair of 6’1″ guards.
It’s why, in part, the New York Knicks decided not to go all-in on Mitchell to pair with 6’2″ guard Jalen Brunson. And it’s arguably why the Portland Trail Blazers had several great years, including some deeper playoff success, but ultimately a limited ceiling with Damian Lillard (6’2″) and CJ McCollum (6’3″).
Hiding a single shorter guard in a championship quest can be challenging enough, but two? That may be near-impossible in the modern game. The Cavaliers hope that the big-man pairing of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen will be able to offset the team’s diminutive backcourt.
It may still work, but even if it doesn’t, the Mitchell/Garland backcourt may be fine for the Cavaliers if the goal is to stay relevant and make the playoffs annually.
The skill level alone may be unparalleled in the NBA. The Dallas Mavericks can boast two of the league’s most talented offensive players: Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving.
The pairing didn’t work last season, partly because the franchise gave up too much depth in-season (Irving was acquired in early February). With an offseason to improve, adding Grant Williams, Richaun Holmes, Dereck Lively II, Seth Curry, Olivier-Maxence Prosper and Dante Exum, perhaps that will be enough to give the team a more credible playoff chance.
The bigger question in Dallas is similar to the one in Cleveland: Hiding one defensive-deficient player is a challenge, but two? Irving doesn’t have the height (6’2″) and rarely shows enough consistent effort on the defensive side of the ball. At least Dončić is a legit 6’7″, which can somewhat diminish what he doesn’t do on defense.
The Mavericks may need more athletes and long-rangy defenders (who ideally can shoot the three-point shot) to cover the ground that Irving and Dončić give up defensively.
Dallas’ fortune may be predicated on outscoring opponents nightly, but as with Mitchell and Garland in Cleveland, offensive talent usually takes a team only so far in the playoffs.
If James Harden gets his way, one pairing will end shortly. The All-Star guard is seeking a trade, though the Philadelphia 76ers seem reluctant to make a deal.
The franchise has gotten as far as the second round in five of the last six seasons, but more recently, the prior two have been with Harden.
His style of play, which typically relies on getting to the free-throw line, may not mesh well with center Joel Embiid. Harden’s free-throw attempts dipped to 6.2 per game last season (his lowest since 2011-12). Is he starting to slow down with age (34), or is it the fit with Embiid?
Perhaps a more significant concern is the defensive pairing in the backcourt with Tyrese Maxey. Whatever the core issue, Harden’s marriage with the Sixers will be over soon enough (if not by trade, then by free agency next July).
The long-term fate of Pascal Siakam in Toronto with the Raptors is also an interesting one to keep an eye on. The 29-year-old forward is extension-eligible and an unrestricted free agent next July. Is he the right long-term partner for the much younger Scottie Barnes (22)? It’s not like the .500 Raptors were a force last season.
Some NBA sources have long questioned the Jayson Tatum/Jaylen Brown pairing in Boston with the Celtics, claiming the two don’t complement each other well enough to win a title. But that one doesn’t seem to pass the smell test: getting to the Eastern Conference Finals nearly every year with a credible showing against the Golden State Warriors in the 2022 NBA Finals.
