NBA Superteams in 2025: A Cautionary Tale

While there are many roads to success in the NBA, the most glamorous and flashy strategy is the acquisition of multiple superstar players to form a “superteam,” usually a proposition that carries an extreme sense of urgency created by the melding of age and contract status.

Historically, superteams are hit or miss. Examples of success include the Miami Heat’s back-to-back championships in 2011-12 and 2012-13 with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Combinations of superstars that have failed are plentiful, most notably the 2021-22 Brooklyn Nets’ confluence of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden.

The current NBA collective bargaining agreement has introduced a second salary cap apron to further restrict teams’ ability to build rosters. But we haven’t seen the complete elimination of superteams. Now, when a restricted free agent wants to sign with another team, he and the new team sign an offer sheet. The terms of that deal — which must be for at least two seasons — are given to the player’s original team, which has two days to match.

If the team matches, the player is under contract with his original team but at the principal terms of the offer sheet. If the team passes on matching within two days, the player is under contract with the new team.

A way around those requirements is midseason trades that allow teams an abbreviated run to a championship via a rental, as it were, of a superstar player. The cost for using that tack? The loss of potential future stars and draft picks on which a team could build, or rebuild, from within.

The 2024-25 season started with three superteams: the Philadelphia 76ers, the Phoenix Suns and (marginally) the Los Angeles Clippers.

Of that trio, the Clippers are the only team with even a winning record — 40-30 and in seventh place in the West as of this writing. Phoenix (34-37) currently occupies the final spot in the West play-in tournament thanks to three straight wins, while Philadelphia (23-47, 13th in the East) has been an unmitigated disaster, losing eight of its past 10 games and falling off the pace for the postseason.

Let’s look at these three teams and break down why things have or haven’t worked out, from worst to best:

The 76ers

Philadelphia added free agent Paul George in the offseason to augment center Joel Embiid and All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey but rarely had the three players on the court at the same time because of injuries.

After playing in just 39 games in 2023-24, the 31-year-old Embiid participated in only 19 games this season before being shut down at the end of February due to “ongoing issues with his left knee.” He averaged 23.8 points per game this year after averaging at least 30 points and winning two scoring titles in 2021-22 and 2022-23.

George, who left the Clippers to sign a four-year, $212 million free-agent contract, was shut down for the campaign on March 17 because of adductor muscle and knee issues. He played in 41 games this season, averaging 16.2 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists. It’s the fifth time in six seasons George has played fewer than 60 games.

Maxey has not played since March 3 while working his way back from back and finger strains. He’s missed 10 games since then, and the 76ers have dropped eight of those contests.

The 76ers were only 7-8 this season when Embiid, George and Maxey started together.

“I don’t think anybody envisioned it going like this,” Philadelphia coach Nick Nurse said. “It’s disappointing on a lot of levels.”

The Suns

The offensive firepower of Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal was supposed to be able to overwhelm teams in the West, but the trio has also been affected by the injury bug and a lack of chemistry.

To make matters worse, Phoenix attempted to trade the 36-year-old Durant at the deadline without the superstar forward asking for it. Don’t expect Durant to return to the Suns even if they find a way to put it together, make the postseason and create some noise there.

“We expect a lot out of ourselves individually, and it just hasn’t materialized the way we wanted to,” Durant said. “It’s been disappointing to see us play this way. We gotta think about the day ahead of us and trying to get better and figure out how we’re gonna win the next game and go on from there.”

The three players were brought together before the 2023-24 season after the Suns took Denver to six games in the Western Conference semifinals the previous year. Phoenix finished sixth in the West last year and was swept by Minnesota in the first round of the playoffs.

Phoenix has the second-highest payroll for any American sports team at $408.9 million, with the team getting anything but a real bang for its buck.

The Clippers

The Clippers’ melding of Harden with Kawhi Leonard and budding superstar Norman Powell has the chance of making waves in the postseason, as Harden’s elite play of late has Los Angeles climbing.

Harden is averaging 29.1 points, 6.3 rebounds and 9.3 assists across his last nine games as the Clippers have won their past five outings — a stint that has them challenging for the sixth spot in the West.

Leonard’s numbers (19.7 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3 assists in 27 games) are the production of a complementary player rather than a star, but one would be foolish to discount him when the game, or the season, is on the line.

Powell still leads the team in scoring at 23 points per contest despite playing in only 49 games, missing time recently because of a left knee injury. He returned from a five-game absence on March 16 but tweaked his hamstring.

Having Powell at full strength will be a key factor for Los Angeles over the final three weeks of the regular season and into the postseason.