THOUGHTS | SUPERTEAM PLAYERS: WHEN THE RING CHASERS GET OLD

One of the blatant differences between the PBA and the NBA is the prime years of the top players. In the PBA, players usually start their careers in their mid-20s.

This is why a guy like RR Pogoy, the TNT deadshot who is just entering his ninth season, is already 33 years old. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won his first MVP title when he was just 26. Meanwhile, Derrick Rose is the youngest player in NBA history to win the MVP award at 22, and most PBA stars are still sophomores in college at that point.

That said, there are a couple of anomalies who are still playing in the league and are still averaging big-time numbers. Aside from the anomaly that is LeBron James, we have Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Paul George, Jimmy Butler, Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, and Kawhi Leonard. Yes, some of them have slowed down, but there are those like Westbrook, Butler, and Davis whose numbers have decreased because they got injured, became part of a superteam, or were traded more than three times in their careers.

I have this thing where a player can be traded only two or three times in their career before they reach 30. When LeBron started this whole "player rights" shtick, team loyalty was thrown out the window. That said, it works both ways because, again, except for LeBron James, team owners are starting to fight back. There are Top 75 guys like Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul who played for money, and when they got old, the teams couldn't care less whether they played sporadic minutes or if their worth on the team was beneath their talents.

It's one thing to play for a championship team as a benchwarmer. It's another thing entirely to play for a tanking team and still be a benchwarmer.

2025-26 NBA SEASON

PLAYER	YOB	TEAM	GP	PLAYOFFS	SALARY
LEBRON JAMES	1984	LAL	60	WEST SEMIS	52.6M
STEPH CURRY	1988	GSW	43	PLAY-IN	59.6M
RUSSELL WESTBROOK	1988	SAC	64	DNQ	2.3M
KEVIN DURANT	1988	HOU	78	WEST RD1	54.7M
JAMES HARDEN	1989	LAC/CLE	70	EAST FINALS	39.1M
JIMMY BUTLER	1989	GSW	38	DNP	54.1M
PAUL GEORGE	1990	PHIL	37	EAST SEMIS	51.7M
DRAYMOND GREEN	1990	GSW	68	PLAY-IN	25.8M
DAMIAN LILLARD	1990	PORT	0	DNP	14.1M
KLAY THOMPSON	1990	DAL	69	DNQ	16.7M
KYRIE IRVING	1992	DAL	0	DNP	36.6M
ANTHONY DAVIS	1993	DAL/WAS	20	DNQ	54.1M

Westbrook is currently suffering from this, and I think James Harden will follow suit. Westbrook had some resurgence in Sacramento, but I doubt the Kings will bring him back next season. And while Harden just enjoyed an Eastern Finals run in Cleveland, I doubt Donovan Mitchell would be content with a guy who got outplayed by Jalen Brunson and, of all people, Landry Shamet en route to a sweep.

Also, because the Washington Wizards won the top pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, Anthony Davis will probably suffer the same fate he did with the Dallas Mavericks because a young star can't grow with two veteran all-stars "mentoring" him. Davis may be only 33, but since leaving New Orleans, he has only had one 70-plus game season.

Also, he's the odd man out in the Washington equation. If the Wizards are going to go with AJ Dybantsa, Caleb Wilson, or Cameron Boozer, the best players to pair him with would be a superstar guard in Trae Young and a non-threatening big man like Alex Sarr. Davis may be a good player, but in terms of developing a future star, he'll likely stunt their progress. Even a guard like Darryn Peterson would only make him equally as important in the pecking order. If you're Washington, you'll need Davis to work well because he's a trade asset, and not much else.

I mean, one of the reasons why Cooper Flagg's superstar stock improved toward the end of his rookie year is because Dallas didn't have Irving, and Anthony Davis got injured.

The only viable veteran helping Flagg is Klay Thompson, the former Golden State sharpshooter who left his first team after 11 seasons while helping the team win four championships. As a matter of fact, his departure from GSW was mutual, as both sides agreed it was time for each to move on.

And not only that. Klay is an S-tier sidekick. He may not be on the level of Scottie Pippen or Dwyane Wade, but one can argue that he's at par with John Stockton, James Worthy, Kevin McHale, Joe Dumars, and Tony Parker. And unlike Westbrook, he'll have a couple of good games, but he's not there to disrupt the team's dynamic. Klay is a mentor-type who knows his place, and this is why I can't see A.D. sticking with the Wizards, who are one healthy season away from ruining their future.

And I guess this is what this topic is all about. We have a bunch of thirty-somethings in the NBA who are certified Hall of Famers and are also hired guns with zero loyalty to the squads they're on. These guys at least played for one or two teams that either endured their load management or drained their future by automatically going into win-now mode.

Davis is now on his third team in two years. Harden, Irving, and George are now damaged goods either due to age or injury. Butler's stock is now low, and what team would want to snag a player like Durant if the consequence would be Houston's dream of getting their first-round picks back?

And how about Kawhi Leonard? His attitude throughout his Los Angeles Clippers run must be a red flag for prospective takers.

There is no denying that Kawhi Leonard is a good player. However, he's also going to turn 35 at the start of next season. Yes, I am well aware that he's still averaging awesome numbers, but during his time with the Clippers, he also averaged 34.7 DNPs per season, including one season in which he was completely out.

The Clippers also averaged 46.4 wins from 2019 to 2026, which means their record is actually an underachievement, given how the team had him, George, Harden, and Westbrook at different points in time.

This is why Damian Lillard's return to Portland makes a lot more sense now, because at least the Trail Blazers will take care of him. If Lillard can’t win a title, at least he’s going to play for the team that will take care of him, give him his due praise when he retires, and treat him like a rock star even in his old age.

Yes, these stars benefited from LeBron James' decision to look out for himself instead of prioritizing loyalty, but again, he's an anomaly.

But LeBron James, too, isn’t bulletproof. For years, we’ve seen superstars shy away from joining him because of the implications he brings. For every D-Wade and Irving, there’s a Westbrook, Melo, and Dwight Howard, who saw their numbers drop while also gaining notoriety from fans.

Not even Chris Bosh and Kevin Love were spared, because while they won championships with LeBron at the helm, their superstar stock still plummeted as the third scoring option on superteams.

The catastrophic Nico Harrison trade was one of the worst, not because of what happened with Luka Doncic, but because of what happened to the Dallas Mavericks afterward. And it's not because of the injuries to A.D. and Kyrie. It's actually because they lucked out with Cooper Flagg.

When Andrew Wiggins was traded from Cleveland to Minnesota, we thought he'd be the next LeBron James. But after an okay start to his career, the Timberwolves got Karl-Anthony Towns and then Jimmy Butler. Jimmy Buckets may have messed up Wiggins, but having another top pick in Towns also affected his trajectory.

When Flagg arrived in Dallas, they experimented with him as a point guard when the right answer should have been to give him whatever position he thrives in and let the others ogle at his awesomeness. This is what happened with Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee as well as with Anthony Edwards in Minnesota. Yes, Towns was still with the Wolves when Ant-Man arrived, but it was clear that it was only a matter of time before he got the keys to the throne.

When Durant went to Phoenix, Devin Booker felt like he got handcuffed. It's the same case now with Alperen Sengun and Amen Thompson in Houston. And if the Clippers get a wing or a shooter in the 2026 NBA Draft, I expect him to defer to Kawhi and become his sidekick.

The only game-changing deal for next season is Giannis, and I, for one, believe that whichever team gets him will have to switch to win-now mode while destroying its future. The only good thing that's working for him is the fact that he has stayed healthy for most of his career.

The New York destination can't be a thing now. That said, will Cleveland have enough assets to get him? Harden's stock is at an all-time low now because he's the type to come up big in the regular season, which is basically what Milwaukee would be with its current roster. But aside from picks, they also need to unload players because of Cleveland's astronomical salary cap.

Detroit also has a young core.

How about Denver or San Antonio?

And yes, there are other places for him to go, but for him to go to those teams, he's bound to come with an expensive contract. But again, is a team willing to take on a superstar trap and all the assets that come with the trade?

But here's the thing: this is not really a problem. It's just the way the world works. Sooner or later, players retire. And this isn't the first time a great group of players has slowly been weeded out in favor of a new set of superstars.

It happened after Bill Russell's retirement, when guys like Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Willis Reed, Oscar Robertson, Lenny Wilkens, and Jerry West started to decline. It was the same thing during the 2000s when Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, John Stockton, David Robinson, Scottie Pippen, and Hakeem Olajuwon were about to call it a career.

The only difference between then and now is that the current mix of players has skyrocketing salaries, multiple team affiliations, and an extended number of rest days, even to the point of taking entire seasons off. These players will eventually have their jerseys retired. Hopefully, the future Hall of Famers we have now have logged enough time with their teams and earned enough fan approval to have their jerseys hanging in their arena rafters.