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In the brave new world of the NBA and its luxury tax second apron, the era of bringing together a “Big 3” to win a title is, if not dead, on life support. The cost of assembling those three stars makes it very difficult to put enough quality talent around them to win, and once over the aprons many of the levers of team building previously used are cut off.
Duos are in — two stars surrounded by high-quality rotation players. Look at the last two champions: Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum in Boston (with Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis and others around them), and Nikola Jokic with Jamal Murray (Aaron Gordon, Bruce Brown, Michael Porter Jr.).
Who are the best duos in the NBA heading into the 2024-25 season? Let’s break it down.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown (Celtics)
After years of fans and pundits — inside and outside Boston — calling for breaking this duo up, they proved last season that it worked at the highest of levels as the Celtics lapped the field in the regular season and were clearly the best team in the playoffs, on their way to banner No. 18.
For a couple of decades, elite wings have been the key to an NBA title and Boston paired two — the Celtics had a +8 net rating last season when Brown and Tatum were on the court together. Tatum averaged 26.9 points and 8.1 rebounds a game last season shooting 37.6% from three (good enough to earn him First Team All-NBA), while Brown averaged 23 points and 5.5 rebounds a game, then stepped up in the playoffs and was the Finals MVP.
Jaylen Brown was SENSATIONAL on both ends in the 2024 Playoffs en route to his first championship!
☘️ 23.9 PPG
☘️ 5.9 RPG
☘️ 3.3 APG
☘️ 1.2 SPG
☘️ 56.9 eFG%
☘️ ECF MVP
☘️ Finals MVP pic.twitter.com/erz4UPOyG6
— NBA (@NBA) June 21, 2024
The rest of the league should be giving the side-eye to USA Basketball for lighting a fire under Tatum and Brown this summer — Tatum got benched by Steve Kerr in key games against Serbia, while Jaylen Brown was snubbed and left off the team entirely. This duo is not coming in with a championship hangover, they are fired up and have a chip on their shoulder again. That’s…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba-season-2024-25-preview-182708351.html
Author : NBC Sports
Publish date : 2024-10-10 18:27:08
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