NBA superteams are almost commonplace now. The championship blueprint has been set for nearly a decade; acquire three star players and fill the rest of your roster with veteran ringchasers. The original superteam was the 2003-2004 Los Angeles Lakers, who added legends Gary Payton and Karl Malone (albeit at the tail end of their careers) to a roster that already boasted Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal.
The inaugural Big 3 was created in 2010, when LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat. Since then, other teams have attempted to replicate the success of the Heat. James' next stop was Cleveland, where he won a championship alongside Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. The Philadelphia 76ers now roster Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, and Jimmy Butler.
Other squads have two main stars, such as the Raptors with Kawhi Leonard and Kyle Lowry, the Celtics with Irving and Gordon Hayward, the Thunder with Russell Westbrook and Paul George, and the Rockets with James Harden and Chris Paul. All of these teams are good, although some are better than others. Back in 2010, James and Wade nearly joined with a different superstar, and had that superteam come to fruition, the NBA would be a very different place today.
During the 2010 NBA offseason, the Chicago Bulls had some work to do. They had one of the brightest stars in the league in 21-year-old Derrick Rose (who would become the youngest MVP in league history the next season), but they finished just 41-41, and didn't put up much of a fight against the Cavaliers in the playoffs. T
he team had some solid pieces, such as Luol Deng, Taj Gibson, and Joakim Noah, but Rose needed more help. If James left the Cavs, Cleveland would no longer be a threat in the division, and the Bulls would have a much better shot at advancing deep into the Eastern Conference playoffs. Their big offseason acquisition ended up being Carlos Boozer, but there were rumors that something much bigger could have happened.
Wade's hometown is Chicago, so when he left the Heat in 2016, the natural destination for him was the Bulls. However, he also considered going home six years earlier. Wade and James had discussions about joining Chicago, but decided to team up in Miami after Chris Bosh entered the picture. Bosh's shooting ability and off-ball play ended up being invaluable to Miami's two championship teams, something that James and Wade could surely have foreseen.
Had Bosh remained in Toronto, what impact would James and Wade becoming Bulls have on the league? For starters, they would have been joining a better roster than the one that the Heat fielded the season before. The Heat won six more games than the Bulls, but didn't have role players that could compare. Add in the veterans that joined Miami in order to win a championship, and Chicago's roster becomes formidable.
PG: Derrick Rose, Mike Bibby
SG: Dwyane Wade, Kirk Hinrich, Mike Miller (Ray Allen would be added in 2012-2013)
SF: LeBron James, Luol Deng, Kyle Korver
PF: Taj Gibson, Kurt Thomas
C: Joakim Noah, Zydrunas Ilgauskas
This lineup has no real apparent weakness. It is big, physical, and athletic, It has some elite defenders, good playmakers, and excellent shooters. The biggest issue is one inherent in the game; there is only one basketball. With Rose, Wade, James, Deng, and the role shooters needing looks, there could very well be some unhappy campers from time to time.
James, Rose, and Wade are all ball dominant players who are not great off the ball shooters at this point in their careers. There would certainly be growing pains, perhaps even more than there were in Miami, but this Bulls team would be capable of doing something the Heat couldn't; winning a championship in their first season together. The Mavericks put together one of the all-time great team performances to knock off Miami, but had LeBron James not been inexplicably off his game for the duration of the series, the Heat would have won. Even assuming that James has a bad few games in this scenario, Rose is more than capable of picking up the slack.
On paper, this superteam is easily capable of winning four straight NBA Finals. The rest of the league would have an extremely difficult time providing any resistance, and the Bulls could very well win the title each year until the Warriors add Kevin Durant following the 2015-2016 season.
At full strength, this current Golden State team would be able to put up a very good fight. Even though three-point shooting is not this team's strength, they would have the advantage of playing in the era just before the three-pointer exploded. Even still, James would end up developing into a very good spot-up shooter, and Rose is currently fourth in the league in three-point percentage at a clear career-high rate of 46%.
A clash of eras would occur in the 2014-2015 NBA Finals, and if the Bulls would want to keep their dynasty alive, they would need to begin incorporating the three-point shot into their offense more and more.
As dominant as this team would be, and as demoralizing as it would be to face them in a playoff series, the biggest impact would be what didn't happen. If Derrick Rose has two of the best players in the league to help him, perhaps he doesn't tear his ACL in the playoffs, beginning a string of tragic injuries and setbacks that forced him to re-evaluate his playing career and love for the game of basketball. The NBA is better when Rose is playing well, and this season newer fans are getting to experience what others did nearly a decade ago.
The Miami Heat of the early 2010's were dominant. Over the past five seasons, the Golden State Warriors have been even better. Had LeBron James and Dwyane Wade joined Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls, a dynasty surpassing that of Michael Jordan's Bulls may have been created.
There would have been no such thin as parity for a while. While Bulls fans are left to wonder what if, the rest of the NBA has to be thankful that this team-up happened eight years too late.
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