Over the last seven seasons, seven different teams have won the NBA Finals. While the Golden State Warriors largely extended their long-running dynasty with their championship in 2022, there has not been an emergence of another dynasty to take over for them.
After winning the 2024 NBA Finals, the Boston Celtics will try to do so, but if another team wins in 2025, it will further push the notion that dynasties are dead. And if you ask Jamal Crawford , that’s just the way he wants things to be.
Jamal Crawford dishes on why he thinks dynasties in the NBA are dead
Despite playing in the NBA for 20 years, Crawford never managed to hoist that elusive Larry O’Brien trophy. However, he did witness dynastic runs from the Los Angeles Lakers, San Antonio Spurs, and the aforementioned Warriors during his time in the league.
Creating a dynasty is far more difficult to do in the NBA now for a myriad of reasons. With that in mind, Crawford believes that the big three era of dynasties is dead, while also noting that he thinks two-star teams are the new way for teams to consistently win in the league.
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“I’m not sure they’re dead, but I think they’ll be harder to do,” Jamal Crawford said on The Dan Patrick Show . “When you go back and think about (Michael) Jordan winning three, taking a year-and-a-half off, coming back and winning three more, we will never see that again. And especially the way player movement is as well, the way contracts are structured.”
“I think it’ll be the two-star kind of model, and you build around that. I actually like that model better to be honest with you. I think that third guy sacrifices a lot and he never gets a chance to be him, and I think the two guys have to figure it out, and I miss that part of it,” Crawford added.
Jamal Crawford highlights the change in dynasty-caliber teams in the NBA
In recent years, teams across the NBA attempted to create their own big three to replicate the Warriors Stephen Curry-Klay Thompson-Draymond Green trio. But with how the league has gone as a whole, that’s not how you build a dynasty nowadays.
As Crawford notes, the key is acquiring two stars and building around them. This strategy worked for the Celtics with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, the Denver Nuggets with Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, and the Lakers with LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
It’s tough to keep those rosters in tip-top shape, though, which is why Crawford thinks dynasties as we once knew them in the NBA are gone. The Celtics have their entire title team under contract long-term, though, so it’s fair to wonder whether they could buck that trend.
Crawford seems to be a fan of this roster-building trend, and if the Celtics keep on winning, teams all across the league will try to copy them. If they lose, though, it will be fair to wonder when we will see the next dynasty in the NBA.
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