Obviously Miami has proved otherwise (they did have Lebron though, after all), but the limited cap and luxury tax make me think teams won't be going "all in" on a Big 3. It's tough to believe it's a viable model (unless Lebron is one of those 3, and even then, it still may not work out).
A team like Houston with Howard, Harden, and James would literally have no money to spend on any other decent players. And I'm not sure why the media is reporting that multiple teams are fine with taking Asik and/or Lin. The biggest reason Houston couldn't deal Asik this year was because of his contract. While teams may be interested in either of those players, I find it hard to believe that teams actually are interested in them...and paying $15 million a pop for them (not sure what Lin's real number is this year). These were just ridiculous offer sheets and contracts to begin with by Houston.
But then again, Rudy Gay is making 19 million this season, the Kings are in talks to bring in Josh Smith (12 or 14 million?), and the owners have conceded in the last 2 work stoppages in the league that they have to "save themselves...from themselves," so I can also see about 27 of 30 NBA owners or GMs making a stupid move.
The best decision for James was to opt out of his deal, while I think the best decision for Wade and Bosh is to not opt out-- tough to believe any other team would offer either the max deal they already have in place with Miami. I get guys taking less money to go and try and win, but those 2 guys would be giving up 10 or 10's of millions of dollars to play on a new contract AND try and win. That's a shitload of scratch to essentially piss away.
My prediction is that, going forward, the top guys (the very best) like James and Durant will realize they may have to sacrifice a max deal in order to win. But those guys can make up for it with endorsements. Hopefully guys that are top 10ish, top 20ish realize they too can't take max deals (or near max contracts)...and expect to win. So I could see more teams trying to follow in the Spurs footsteps (legitimately-- not just hiring 1 front office guy to run your team or just another assistant coach to be the head coach like about 15 or so teams have done) of getting the players to fully buy into winning. They try and make the love of the game and the love of winning trump everything else-- guys that can and will play hard and play their role.
"Buying a championship" and giving multiple max deals requires astronomical amounts of luck (getting each star to commit to your team, chemistry, lack of injuries, convincing veterans to play for less to fill out the roster, good coaching, etc., etc,), I find it difficult to see the trend continuing. Or at least see it continuing with success.
