Things at Gil’s Arena got heated this week. Nothing extraordinary there. But it does get when Rashad McCants drags the debate onto social media and pulls out the receipts. Here, ‘receipts’ are Kevin Garnett. He’s over the LeBron, Curry, KD phase. He’s on the Jokic hype train and loves the SGA and Haliburton era. Now this became a debate focused on the Big 3 era that he’s not willing to back down from.

McCants, this time said on Gil’s Arena, “The blueprint is one superstar like a Jokic, a Giannis, Shai, have them core pieces around.” He touts the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers’ model, which is touted for the depth in the rosters, even in the absence of superstars like the time Tyrese Haliburton went down in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals.

Not that Gilbert Arenas is pro-super team. He just isn’t fully convinced about the new model based on OKC. His defense was, “Big 3s went down. It’s not like Big 3s played and failed… that’s not a blueprint to me because y’all are not proven that.”

One thing about Gil, though? He loves his superstars, and being a former franchise star himself, he loves a LeBron-Lakers and Steph-Warriors setup. So he got argumentative, and McCants got louder too to make his point. “They got nothing to do with injuries, none of that shit. It has everything to do with camaraderie, chemistry, execution, play hard, play smart, play together.” McCants would later re-share this exchange on his official X page with a little something extra to double down on his point.

“They don’t like the Messenger!!! I get it!!! Yet the message is still the truth!!! Btw I didn’t tell KG to say this lol 😂It’s obvious 🤷🏾‍♂️,” is what he wrote while sharing Kevin Garnett also commenting on this debate on KG Certified. It had nothing to do with Gil’s Arena. It was pure coincidence.

But KG’s comments are near similar to McCants when he claims, “the recipe is from OKC and what Boston did and what Indiana is doing. You got to have depth now. Ain’t no more Three, ‘we gotta have three.’ No, no, no. We gotta have nine.”

Coming from Big Ticket, it’s significant. He was part of the Celtics Big 3 with Paul Pierce and Ray Allen that won the ’08 championship and took on the Miami Big 3 of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh. The Celtics have moved on from that model. Now they have a number of stars coming off the bench for less than 30 minutes while still contributing.

A third of the Big 3, Pierce also agreed that giving out three max contracts to superstars hurts the depth of the entire rotation. KG gives the example of the erstwhile Warriors, where Shaun Livingston and Andre Igoudala added that depth.”The Warriors just started this little thing where they had like a solid Nine. That’s what the OKC and the Pacers look like they have to me. They have a solid nine, ten. And they can really put a while five in there and give you a whole start,” is how Garnett unknowingly bolstered McCants’ argument.

But was Shad done? Far from it.

Rashad McCants makes an Olympian clapback

Like Arenas, a lot of fans weren’t fully convinced that a team can function without a LeBron James and Stephen Curry. One fan responded to McCants, “Let’s put KD, LeBron, and Steph on the same team and settle this. Put them on the East and let’s have a chemistry vs big 3 finals. Smoke show for the big 3🤣”

McCants had a mic drop reply to that. “They barely beat France lol jus sayin.”

Well, yeah. A stacked Team USA with LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and more had many close calls in the gold medal game against the hosts of the 2024 Olympics. Victor Wembanyama and Guerschon Yabusele were tough, and Rudy Gobert was… there.

Team USA is the only place we can get this Big 3. And it beat Nikola Jokić, whereas the Lakers and Warriors have staggered before The Joker. McCants is not wrong about them stumbling before France.

Then again, a Team USA without this Big 3 that had Myles Turner, Jaylen Brown, Kemba Walker, Donovan Mitchell, and Harrison Barnes (your standard talent for a dream roster with more depth, less glam) couldn’t beat (79-89) France at the FIBA World Cup last week. France was missing Wemby and Yabusele, but it still had Gobert, who gave 21 points, as well as Evan Fournier and Nicolas Batum.

So, does having the max-contracted Big 3 make a difference? Maybe. Is McCants right about the OKC and Pacers model? Why not!  It depends on which model wins the next championship.