The NBA fans who complained relentlessly as the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers faced off in the Finals for four straight seasons must be having a party right now. With a 98-90 Game 7 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday, the defending champion Denver Nuggets were eliminated from the playoffs, meaning there will be a new NBA champion for the sixth consecutive season.
No team has won back-to-back titles since the Warriors in 2018, and the fate of recent champions has been dire. In the last five postseasons, no defending champion has even made it past the second round.
It’s been a tough situation for the last five NBA champions.
There are many potential reasons for this recent phenomenon (fatigue, salary cap restrictions, injuries), but there’s no denying that NBA parity is at an all-time high. At the end of this postseason, the Minnesota Timberwolves, Indiana Pacers, Dallas Mavericks or Boston Celtics will hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy. All of those teams finished .500 or below in at least one of the last four regular seasons.
Not only that, but no player from any of the four remaining teams has won an MVP award. A budding superstar age 26 or younger (Anthony Edwards, Luka Doncic, Jayson Tatum or Tyrese Haliburton) will win their first title next month.
After Sunday’s Game 7 loss, Nuggets coach Michael Malone talked about how difficult it is for a team to repeat in today’s NBA.
“We knew it was tough, something I talked to our team about in training camp,” Malone said. “With the rules as they are now, I think it will be increasingly difficult to repeat as champions.
The “rules” Malone is referring to involve what is known as the second apron for luxury tax teams. Essentially, once a team spends a certain amount of money on players, it cannot use its mid-level exception on free agents or sign players on the buyout market, and faces significant trade restrictions. Logically, as a team improves, its players will earn increasingly higher salaries. Therefore, it is almost inevitable that a championship-caliber team will eventually pass the second platform unless it parts ways with one of its highest-paid players.
The intent of the second apron was clearly to avoid situations like we had with the Warriors and Cavs in the late 2010s, and we’ve already seen a massive increase in parity before the rules have fully taken effect. More fan bases may realistically think that their path to contention may be shorter than expected (the Oklahoma City Thunder are a prime example), and that’s always a good thing for the league.
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