By: JJ Lanier

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

NBA franchises were forming Super Teams or The Big Three long before LeBron James decided to take his talents to South Beach.

That particular situation is oftentimes looked at as being the origin for the idea because it was the first time the players actually made it happen, as opposed to it coming together through trades or the draft.

Those instances take place more frequently in basketball than any other sport mainly because three players joining together can have more of an impact than say in football or baseball.

That doesn’t mean franchises in those other sports can’t make an attempt in their own right, the approach may just be a little different.

When Tom Brady decided to take his talents a few hundred miles north of South Beach Adjacent you knew Tampa would double down and bring in as many as players as they could to help complement their new quarterback.

The names of some of the players brought in are impressive on paper (Gronkowski, LeSean McCoy, Leonard Fournette) yet they don’t remind me of LeBron and Chris Bosh heading to Miami as much as they do Karl Malone and Gary Payton joining the Lakers.

Gronkowski, arguably the greatest tight end in NFL history, is the headline grabbing name, but who knows what type of production the Bucs will get from him.

Even though he took what amounted to a year sabbatical from the game, remember, he originally retired due to the beating his body and mind were taking.

A year off may help him recover from some of those wounds he already received, but it doesn’t protect him from future ones. The potential to be great is there, alongside OJ Howard, but so is the probability he’ll only play a handful games.

The McCoy acquisition would’ve been bigger news four to five years ago, but there’s not much left in the tank for the former fantasy football stud. I can’t see his impact on the field being more than minimal, at this point.

Which leaves us with the newly signed Fournette, who may wind up being the best signing of the group.

The young running back’s time in Jacksonville ended earlier than expected for a variety of reasons, but he’s coming off what statistically was his best year as a professional.

The improvements he’s made catching the ball out of the backfield, combined with his ability to pass block (extremely important with Brady under center) and his 4.0 yards per carry, expect Fournette to get a majority of the carries throughout the season, especially during crunch time.

Playing with Brady should allow Fournette to see a lot more openings as he faces less man fronts.

I may be a prisoner of the moment, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him put up Pro Bowl type numbers throughout the season.

Brady is definitely an upgrade over Jameis Winston and the potential for their newly acquired players to contribute, along with players like OJ Howard and Mike Evans, could make the offense in Tampa Bay one of the more exciting ones to watch.

There aren’t any super teams in the NFL, but you can see where Tampa has attempted to make a splash on the offensive side ball.

And even if they are more like the Lakers than the Heat, that’s not exactly a bad thing, the Lakers did make it the Finals that year.