Jokic, who reached his peak in the 2020-2023 season, finally led the Nuggets to win the championship and became the biggest winner of the year. But just when we all thought Jokic was about to start a new era of personal dominance, the team lost two championship heroes, Bruce Brown and Jeff Green, and the management failed to reinforce them in time.
So, in the 2030-2024 season, when this team faced off against the Timberwolves with a thicker lineup in the Western Conference semifinals, they were eliminated by their opponents in the tiebreaker. Although Jokic's performance is still unstoppable, the team's only teammates in the starting lineup can help him share the pressure, and the players on the bench are no longer as strong as in the past. When Jokic could only choose three-point shooting to score, it meant that the Nuggets' offense encountered a big problem. The Nuggets, whose lineup was not strong enough, eventually fell under the iron heel of Minnesota.
The failure to retain the winning heroes in time after winning the championship was a major reason for the failure of this Nuggets team; this is true for the Nuggets in 2023, as well as the Warriors in 2022 and the Lakers in 2020.
As the saying goes, learning from the past is a lesson for the future. After the Celtics won the O'Brien Cup in 2024, the management seemed to spare no effort in retaining the heroes who won the championship. So you can see that the team completed the contract extension with star Tatum with a five-year super maximum salary contract of US$315 million, and successfully renewed the contract with top 3D White at a price of US$126 million over four years. So far, the starting five have been able to stay well, and the management has not let anyone go.
Brown, the second-best player, received a five-year, US$289 million contract last year. Holiday completed a four-year, US$135 million contract extension with the team, and Porridge also received a two-year, US$60 million contract, plus White's US$126 million and Tatu. Mu's total salary is US$315 million, and the total salary of the starting five is as high as US$930 million. The starting lineup alone has cost more than 900 million U.S. dollars. This is the wealthy style of the defending champion Celtics. In order to seize the championship window in recent years, the team owner has spent a lot of money.
What is even more unexpected is that by the 25-26 season, the annual salary of the Celtics' starting five players is more than 30 million US dollars, and the annual salary of both players exceeds 50 million US dollars.
This means that in the near future, this team will have to pay a huge luxury tax. But so what? Look at this team's opponent in 2022, the Warriors Dynasty. Since the introduction of Durant and the extension of Curry's contract, the team has paid a high luxury tax almost every year, but the boss still gritted his teeth and spent money. Subsequently, the Warriors dynasty became the greatest dynasty in the 21st century, and the team's market value has become the highest among the 30 teams in the league.
This is the unique vision and superhuman courage of an elite boss who has seen the success of the Warriors in the past ten years. Itās impossible for the Celtic boss not to understand the logic. Now, after retaining the core lineup with high wages, the Celtics have the opportunity to achieve two or even three consecutive championships, and their ambition to build a dynasty has slowly been revealed.
Of course, although the core lineup of the Warriors dynasty only has Curry and Green, and these two have entered the end of their peak period, Warriors boss Lacob does not want to give up yet. During this summer offseason, the management is still making progress in reinforcements, and is still patiently pursuing All-Star insider Markkanen.
From this point of view, the Celtics and Warriors are very aggressive in their pursuit of the championship, and the Nuggets and Lakers should also learn from it.
