I was reading this article for some reason and read this quote:
Yet obvious questions will require months, maybe years, to answer. For instance, Are the new Big Three too old to win a championship? That's a fair concern because no NBA team has ever won a title with its top three scorers all in their 30s. Ainge contends that their style of play and body types will enable Allen, 32, Garnett, 31, and Pierce, 30, to remain productive for the lengths of their contracts. Still, the Celtics will be trying to break new ground with old legs.
And was a bit fascinated by that stat. It makes sense when you consider most teams have their 3rd best player as the youngest. But It had literally never been done in NBA history until the Celtics did it in 2008, but since then we've seen 2 teams do it (Mavs and Spurs).
I had GPT do an analysis of top 3 scorers for champo
Year Team Top 3 Scorers Age
2008 Boston Celtics
- Paul Pierce 30
- Kevin Garnett 31
- Ray Allen 32
2009 LA Lakers
- Kobe Bryant 30
- Pau Gasol 28
- Lamar Odom 29
2010 LA Lakers
- Kobe Bryant 31
- Pau Gasol 29
- Ron Artest (Metta World Peace) 30
2011 Dallas Mavericks:
- Dirk Nowitzki 32
- Jason Terry 33
- Shawn Marion 33
2012 Miami Heat:
- LeBron James 27
- Dwyane Wade 30
- Chris Bosh 28
2013 Miami Heat:
- LeBron James 28
- Dwyane Wade 31
- Chris Bosh 29
2014 San Antonio Spurs:
- Tony Parker 31
- Tim Duncan 37
- Manu Ginóbili 36
2015 Golden State Warriors:
- Stephen Curry 27
- Klay Thompson 25
- Draymond Green 24
2016 Cleveland Cavaliers:
- LeBron James 31
- Kyrie Irving 24
- Kevin Love 27
2017 Golden State Warriors:
- Kevin Durant 28
- Stephen Curry 29
- Klay Thompson 27
2018 Golden State Warriors:
- Kevin Durant 29
- Stephen Curry 30
- Klay Thompson 28
2019 Toronto Raptors:
- Kawhi Leonard 27
- Kyle Lowry 33
- Pascal Siakam 25
2020 LA Lakers:
- LeBron James 35
- Anthony Davis 27
- Kentavious Caldwell-Pope 27
2021 Milwaukee Bucks:
- Giannis Antetokounmpo 26
- Khris Middleton 29
- Jrue Holiday 30
2022 Golden State Warriors:
- Stephen Curry 34
- Klay Thompson 32
- Andrew Wiggins 27
2023 Denver Nuggets:
- Nikola Jokić 28
- Jamal Murray 26
- Michael Porter Jr. 24
2024 Boston Celtics:
- Jayson Tatum 18
- Jaylen Brown 27
- Kristaps Porziņģis 28
It's also interesting to see both the 2011 Mavs and 2014 Spurs took down LeBron's Heat, even though Miami was the heavy favorite both times. The Mavs relied on Dirk and a veteran group to outplay the Heat, while the Spurs used some of the best ball movement we’ve ever seen to dismantle them. It’s tough to see that happening again in today’s NBA, where it’s all about young stars and athleticism, but those teams showed that experience and smart play can still beat pure talent. It’s rare, but not impossible.
Weirdly enough, with where the league is going, I don't see this happening again any time soon. Maybe if KD, Curry and LeBron join forces one more time?
by matrixreloaded
29 Comments
Bron can’t resist those DILFs
2024 Boston Celtics:
Jayson Tatum 18
Jaylen Brown 27
Kristaps Porziņģis 28
Kawhi was the Spurs’ 2nd leading scorer in the actual ‘14 finals though, and only behind by 0.2 pts.
> […] even though Miami was the heavy favorite both times.
No?
https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/series.html
The 2014 Spurs were favored over the 2014 Heat heading into the Finals.
And honestly the 2011 Mavericks weren’t significant underdogs relative to most Finals series. From 2007-2024, only the 2014 Spurs and 2022 Warriors were smaller favorites (so considered closer series) than the 2011 Mavericks.
1998 Bulls just missed out on being the first. Kukoc turned 30 three months after the Finals.
That’s why I don’t consider the Celtics as the team that started the superteam era… those guys were on the back half of their careers and were brought together via trade.
LeBron was 25 when he joined the Heat, Bosh 26, Wade 28.
>Weirdly enough, with where the league is going, I don’t see this happening again any time soon.
Giannis turns 30 in December. Bucks are still contenders and he, Dame, and Middleton will all be in their 30s.
2014 kawhi?
I had to do a double take on that 2015 stat. Checked and apparently Dray was indeed the 3rd highest PPG in the regular season on the 2014-2015 Warriors.
The celtics won a championship in 2008? First time I heard about this.
Father time does beat LeBron, those ads are lies
So, people here bashing star players for not winning titles at 23-24 y.o are completely clueless.
So 18% of NBA champs have had their top 3 scorers in their 30s. You get one more if you lower it to 29 y/o, raising it to 24%, and 4 more if you lower it to 28 y/o, raising it to 41%.
28 y/o is no less arbitrary a cutoff than 30 y/o, especially considering the average age of NBA players last season was 26 y/o.
Fake news media, Tatum is 19 years old
LeBron is so charitable. Helping teams win.
Because it takes experience to beat a player that’s at. GOAT level. Or atleast players that can compete at those ages.
Duncan and Dirk were no push over. However 2014 the spurs were favorited for titles
2014 spurs and their non big 3 mvp Kawhi Leonard…
People love painting the Mavs as some huge underdog story. They swept the back to back champ lakers prior to the finals and basically ended their run. (They traded for Dwight and Nash the following offseason, which is really what ended their run).
They were deep and talented and had an all time player at the peak of his powers. Yeah, you can argue if Lebron played to his potential Heat should have won, but the Mavericks were not an easy out by any means.
That honestly is a wild stat to uncover
this gotta be the most boring fact
gotten into numerous arguments w/ bron stans who still claim that heat lebron had no help cause bosh and wade were washed, when they got beat by 36/37 yo duncan and gino. i just don’t get it
What’s funny about this list starting in 08 is that the 98 Bulls to this day are the oldest team to win a title. And the 1968 Celtics are third.
It’s an old man’s league
2014 Spurs were the best TEAM ever. Emphasis on team, hear me out.
Spurs winning in ’14 is such an aberration in comparison to any other finals team that’s won or lost. They’re so far out of the age range with their core players even compared to this list.
Completely *unheliocentric* basketball with supporting players contributing significantly; they’re easily the deepest finals team ever to be created. The scoring load was spread so far into the roster, it was a legitimately 12 player deep team.
They had 12 players with positive BPMs. Twelve! ‘96 Bulls had six, 2014 Thunder had seven, ‘91 Bulls had *four*. It’s unprecedented. Even in the playoffs the Spurs had ten.
What’s different also is how it was built with players that were basically discarded by the NBA let alone a team. Green was waived after about 100 minutes of play by the Cavs, Patty was sent to the G League, Diaw was known as the laziest player and well on his way out of the league, Marco was seen to just be a low efficiency black hole, Splitter was a very very basic big, no significant athleticism, no offensive prowess, he was just okay and dependable.
Two picks from the end of the second round (Ginobili and De Colo), a pick from the mid-second round (Bonner), four picks at the end of the first (Parker, Splitter, Cory Joseph and Kawhi Leonard, acquired for George Hill, a former late 1st) and four cast-offs picked up for nothing in free agency (Diaw, Belinelli, Patty Mills and Danny Green). That doesn’t sound like the stuff of which all-time great rosters are made.
I really don’t think a team like this will win ever again, not as a small market or until its a normal thing for 36 year olds to be competing in their peak with future sciences a couple of decades from now lol.
This proves it – lebron will never beat a team of 3 guys in their 30s
Last season, **only the Clippers** had all of their top 3 scorers be age 30+.
It isn’t a common occurrence for *any* team to meet these requirements which makes sense we’ve only seen champs meet these requirements a few times.
My guess is that for many seasons, zero teams even met the criteria.
Surprised Kawhi didn’t crack this list in 2014 for the Spurs… is this right?
Bron been running the league, so statistically this makes sense.
Does GS winning a ring with Wiggins at SF weaken KD’s rings even more? We won with Wiggins at the 3 bro……3 different 3’s won with the splash brothers