Eh. Sure, it's a superteam. But, these superteams are never as good nor as long-lived as they are supposed to be. Having so much talent on one team means each of those guys need to sacrifice some of their potential utility. And then, inevitably, the team will erode from injuries, defections, chemistry problems, and age. Anyway, I'm a bit disappointed in Durant for coat-riding instead of trying to beat those guys since he was on a legit contender in the first place. It's not like he was some lone superstar wasting his talents and time on a team that didn't know how to put together a championship roster. As the same time, I'm happy to see the OKC Thieves suffer. As sympathetic as I am to the city, their ownership are a bunch of crooks. Maybe now the Thunder have to blow things up and Westbrook will come to Houston?
Well Durant showed his colors.... GSW yellow. If they don't win a chip then it will be all on Durant... and how he ruined the GSW. He went from being a God in okc to possibly the most hated player in GS if everything doesn't go well. Good for him.
I think Durant saw the writing on the wall. Westbrook's decline will be a steep one. For that same reason I hope Houston doesn't sign Westbrook. Curry's game will age much better. Seems like a sensible decision to me on who you want to rely on as your co-pilot.
there's going to another team and there's going to a 73-9 team with two times MVP 3 all stars Finals MVP COY and current finalist and former championship winner.
Durant is the old man at 27, and there hasn't been a super team like this since at least the 80s. So age is probably 4-5 years from mattering. We will have to see what happens next offseason when Durant, Curry, Iggy, ZaZa, & Livingston become FA. That is a pretty good starting 5 that will cost a lot to retain without discounts from the players.
For one, fans are the reason the Solomon Hill's of the world get 4 years, $48 million and the KD's of the world will get hundreds of million. So if the fan-view is a little complex, and perhaps not perfectly fair, that's still ok. For two, you're principally describing fans of the team in question. Lebron took heat as much, if not more, for the way he left Cleveland and joined Miami, than the fact that he did it. KD is taking heat, to me from what I'm seeing, and what I actually believe, because of where he's going, not that he's going. I get that OKC wasn't working for him - though, it ABSOLUTELY HAS TO be pointed out, it wasn't working in large part because of his failure. See Gm 6 this year, see some other close out games he's had. But if you're going to join the 73-9 Warriors, with the 2 time MVP, with 3 players an all-nba teams (effectively 3 top 15 players), with a great coach, etc... well, as a fan, I'm going to call that the ultimate coattailing decision. I've NEVER seen anyone in any sport do it to that extreme... EVER. And neither have you, or anyone else, because it hasn't happened. It's Lebron to the extreme. So it just is what it is.
You know what, I think Draymond Green for everything he is might be > KD overall. If you examine the entire package. Very controversial but when push comes to shove KD was alot like James Harden in the Play Offs..
Literally, there are 28 teams in the league that KD could have gone too and he wouldn't face a lick of slack... Well maybe 27 if you throw the Spurs in the mix. KD wanted a heel turn, he hates the nicknames fans have for him, he hates the pressure of being the guy, and he didn't appreciate what Westbrook did for him and his career. KD and Westbrook were good because of each other. Now, I don't even know if he is the third option on that team. OKC bungled a lot up, but KD had his mind made up a long time ago. He values doing less and getting more. That's the American way.
Its not really about how much KD make GSW better, its about how much this move is making the other team worse. The only team that could beat the Warriors this coming year is OKC, this move single-handily destroyed the only team that has a chance against them. Even if the Warriors make zero improvement with this change, the fact that OKC is now completely irrelevant make the upcoming NBA hard to watch.
Eh. I don't know. Cleveland sure looked like they beat them to me. Also, don't rest on San Antonio. The Clippers might not beat them, but they sure as hell will beat them up. There is a lot that they have to go through to win a title. Sure, this team might go 73-9 again next season, but they won't stroll into the title. There will be resistance. People also forget, this team overnight has gone from the pride and joy of the NBA to the heels of it. Maybe they don't get away with all those illegal screens anymore, maybe Green gets called for his dirty plays, and maybe refs stop swallowing their whistles because this team is no longer the darling it used to be. Heels get taken down, babyfaces get propped up. It's human nature.
When presti got rid of ibaka that was the change. How many 3s did ibaka hit in the playoffs. The thunder were never going to push the dubs to the brink again. And when wb's knees go out in 3 years what was KD going to do, get caught with his pants down.
Pretty much this. I don't think anyone expects the Warriors to do better than 73 wins, and if they fail to improve on 73, it doesn't mean their season is a failure or this was the wrong move. The only bar they have to reach next year is winning a championship. And I honestly think the fit issues are kind of overblown. This will be an easy fit. If there's ever one best player who is humble and willing to concede shots, it's Steph Curry. Klay Thompson is the same exact way. If there's ever any players who move off the ball it's Curry, Klay and Durant. None of these guys are ball dominant. It's gonna be beautiful to watch all 3 of those guys run off an endless stream of screens, with Draymond hitting the open man. My god. Think about the Curry/Durant PNR............ ................. WTF do you do? You need 2 lebrons to cover that. I've watched enough Warriors games (like all of them last two years) to know This team is great because they pass the ball and don't care who takes the shots. The most selfish one is probably Draymond Green, mainly because he has so many responsibilities. Durant will take the most shots next year, book it, and no one will care. This my friends is called good team culture, and why the GSW and Spurs are at the top of the league right now organization wise. link
Man, so many doubters. This isn't going to be the Karl Malone Lakers or poorly coached 2010 Heat. This will be the best team of all-time regardless of their regular season record and slight decline on defense. Barring injury, nobody is going to come close to touching this team. KD fits in perfectly fine. Hell, if you can play with Russell Westbrook, you can play with anyone.
This is the make or break year. If they win it all, I could actually see the team being dismantled as they can't pay everybody and nobody will be sticking around to win more just to win more. If they don't win it all... which I'm sure plenty are rooting for... it merely gives all of them incentive to try and make it work. Lost in all of this is that Curry, who is vastly underpaid, may never see a huge pay-day in his prime.... he's going to end up deferring money to get everybody else paid until he's well past his prime and then he'll be collecting reparations Dirk-style.
Won't the Warriors be able to go over the cap to sign them all as necessary? Sure, they'd be in luxury tax hell, but one would suspect they'd be all right with that, especially since they could trade those guys for tax relief if necessary. At this point, keeping all 4 of Curry, Durant, Thomson and Green, all at max contracts, is certainly doable...
Good Move by Durant. Go to Warriors. Hopefully win a championship and then he could go back to OKC if he really wanted to. At the end of the day all superstars got a championship ring in their belts. Even if OKC beats the Warriors, they likely would have lost to Cavs with their "super team".
