<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Daryl Morey; "I'd say we need a great player to go with James & Dwight Howard is a great player so its for sure an option we’re looking at."</p>— Calvin Watkins (@calvinwatkins) <a href="https://twitter.com/calvinwatkins/status/726187304201515008">April 29, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> I'd say the second part is just lip service since he did tried to trade Dwight mid-season.
I agree that the Thunder without KD would be better as a team than the Rockets this year but that's not saying much. The Jazz were a better team than us and quite honestly should have made it over us but we lucked out and played some bottom feeders at the end. All our games against the Thunder were close and could have gone either way. That's with KD in the lineup. The "what ifs" don't really work because we could easily say more games for the Thunder could have gone against them. Those 2 games we lost to them maybe would have been won and we'd possibly have a winning record as one of the worst teams in the playoffs. Too many variables could go differently. WB maybe hurts himself again because he has to up his minutes. It's kind of pointless to debate.
Give Durant the key to the city, name a school after him, free food at every Pappasitos... And VIP service to the classy Colorado....
Very unlikely Durant signs long term deal with Thunder this off season because there is no guarantee Westbrook will be back after next season. That is precisely why places (like Houston) that have cap space and a star are appealing.
To be fair, a substantial part of that was the fact we aren't going to offer full max for Dwight and with 8 baby mamas he needs all the cash he can get.
No, Morey tried to get rid of Dwight before the trade deadline, but couldn't do it since nobody wanted Dwight at the price he was asking for.
The Rockets only discussed trading Dwight Howard after his then agent asked the Rockets to try and get him to a team he would be interested in resigning with. You will notice there was no anamosity between either camp because Howard asked the Rockets for a max extension. The Rockets declined, Howard's camp informed they would exercise their option to be a free agent and said Dwight was open to being dealt to a team willing to give him the max and that Howard liked. Howard would have been dealt to the Bucks but he refused to exercise his 1 year option and wanted the full max, something that Milwaukee wasn't comfortable with at the time. I don't really have any animosity towards Howard. He just doesn't have the physical ability he once had and he doesn't burn with a passion.
No, Howard was open to being traded.... He wasn't traded because teams wanted Howard to pick up his option and he refused. If he had, he would be on the Bucks or Blazers.
Another aspect to consider is that the Thunder will not have room to improve their roster, so if Durant sees that they're just on antoher level from Spurs and Warriors, that plus the Westbrook situation may be enough to convince him that he needs a change.
It's very unlikely that Durant would sign a long term deal with any one. If he played one more season before signing a long term deal his max deal will increase from 30% of cap to 35% of cap, and also the cap is expected to explode yet again for the 2017-18 season. This basically translates to almost $11 million more per year for him. So most likely he'll sign the "Lebron deal" (2 years with the 2nd as player option). If he signed such a deal with any team other than the Thunders, the new team will not have his bird's right when he opts out and will not be able to go over the cap to resign him.
Whats the spurs' cap situation this summer? Are we assuming it's unlikely bc kawhi plays his position? KD talked about SA's coaching, really high on them, I guess not a surprise though....so Rockets may be waiting on Messina, knowing JVG will only consider Houston anyway, so he's not going anywhere.
I do not think they can pay Parker, Kawhi Leonard, LMA and Durant.... and still pay Duncan, West, Diaw, Martin, Green... a tad above average pay
