Throughout the years, the NBA has seen the game and the culture of the league continue to adapt and adjust to the newest trends that helped franchise's find success towards reaching the ultimate goal of winning an NBA title.
This has seen players move more comfortably toward the idea of teaming up with each other in order to make those championship aspirations more obtainable and realistic. With that in mind, former All-Star guard Dwyane Wade has voiced that he believes he was a part of that change in mentality around the league by his involvement in forming the Big 3 with the Miami Heat alongside LeBron James and Chris Bosh, according to Joel Weber of Bloomberg Businessweek.
JW: Do you need a dynasty now to win an NBA championship ring?
DW: Right now you do. I raise my hand as a part of the problem. When the Miami Heat decided to bring the big three together—myself, LeBron James, Chris Bosh—in 2009, the game changed. Players understand their power. I don’t see that slowing down. I see the next generation—my son’s generation—getting even tighter.
It was a move that helped force a change in the league as the rest of the NBA had to move to build their teams that could compete with the Heat's talented trio. However, it could be argued that this move was made in part to what the Boston Celtics had constructed with Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen that saw them reach a pair of NBA Finals while winning one of them in the process.
It just so happened to be that the Heat were able to extend that window further given that each of their three All-Stars were in the prime of their respective careers. This allowed for them to help navigate the team to four straight NBA Finals while winning a pair in that short four-year time frame together.
The league has since taken a more comfortable view to something that was taboo among players in the previous generation with likes of Kevin Durant being comfortable with the move to the Golden State Warriors and Chris Paul to the Houston Rockets. There is only going to be more similar moves like that being made this offseason and beyond with the Warriors being the current dynasty in place with four legitimate All-Stars leading the charge.
It is simply where the league has adopted that approach as being what is necessary for a franchise to find sustainable success that helps them compete for an NBA title.
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