Well, it's as unique a combination of skill and luck as you'll find. Curry signing his last contract when there were still injury concerns and before he improved 100% year over year. Bogut and Iguodala being towards, but not quite at the end of their old scale high $ contracts - they both have one more year left at about $11/$12 million. Klay still being rookie scale for a while. The skill here was declining to trade Klay for Love, which is the obvious choice in hindsight. Draymond being rookie scale, then only just getting maxed. Barnes being rookie scale. And most lucky of all, timing it all up perfectly with the jump in the cap. It is impressive in the sense that they picked Green, Klay and Barnes. They decided to keep them together. They chose Curry over Ellis when it wasn't so obvious. They exchanged Jackson for Kerr. On the other hand, they exchanged Lee for Jason Thomson, effectively, and say what you will about David Lee, he DID contribute to that championship two years ago, and the Warriors maybe could have actually used him in those Finals.
From a technical standpoint, they were all free agents (which negated tampering) where as Harden is under contract.
I think once you get to the point of making the right decisions repeatedly, it stops being so much luck as it is skill. The Warriors are in amazing position because they signed Klay and Dray right before the cap increases. 15M for Draymond Green or 25M for Horford, easy decision. 25M for Derozan or 15M for Klay Thompson, easy decision. They're gonna have 3 of the best non rookie contracts next year in the entire League, and all top 20 players.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Carmelo Anthony tells ESPN that his recruitment of Kevin Durant has already begun, saying: "We've been together. We've been talking."</p>— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNSteinLine/status/747495034832850946">June 27, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I expected a second tweet by Stein to be honest...like: "Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony have indeed been hanging out this week, but league sources say the visits will have no impact on free agency. The Knicks, league sources say, are not a team Kevin Durant plans to consider in free agency, despite New York's well-known fondness for him"
It's an easy decision today cause they expired one/two years before the cap rise. That said, Myers is a very good gm, top 5 without a doubt.
Lol, so if Carmelo is calling that a meeting then it's official. The Rockets had the first meeting with Durant after all!
As Vivi noted, it wasn't skill that made them expire when they did. They expired, he effectively max'd them out per the rules at the time. Maybe Draymond left a little bit on the table in that it wasn't a true max, but he got about as much money as anyone else would have offered him... Point being, the skill is in the drafting, and that's certainly impressive. But the ability to still be able to add Durant is about the cap increase. And that's timing luck.
On Monday, Durant told ESPN that he's "been ready" to his looming free agency and that having "fun" ranks high on his priorities for choosing a team. "I'm ready for it all," Durant said. "Since I was a kid I've been ready for everything that comes with being an NBA player. So (I) try to take that approach and take it a day at a time. ... "I want to have fun playing ball. That's just my main concern and that's always been my main concern. But I'm locked in on Team USA, man. Just trying to shift my focus back and forth, from that (free agency) stuff to being on the USA team. I just wanna have fun playing ball." KD is coming guys, he wants to have fun playing basketball? Than what's better than play with your best buddies Harden and Beasley under D'Antoni?
Technically you are correct, but still they don't really need to leak anything, just 3 friends hanging out together. Nobody has to know what they talked about. On the other hand, you have Melo openly accepting that he has already started recruiting Durant. My point was, Harden doesn't seem all that excited to recruit Durant for some reason. Could be that Durant already told him he will stay with OKC for a year.
If you want to see the spin job by Marc Stein and ESPN, then look no further than how Harden & KD hanging out was reported, and how Melo & KD hanging out was reported. Beard & KD hanging out: Well before "sauces" / "agents" say which teams are front runners and which aren't. Hanging out but "no recruiting taking place" and "Houston no real shot" Doesnt count as recruiting. Melo & KD hanging out: Even after "sauces" / "agents" say Knicks don't have a meeting yet....well there's still a chance because they haven't been told they wouldn't get a meeting. Hanging out is definitely recruiting, counts as the meeting. And no mention of Knicks having no shot, but instead heavily suggesting the chance of Melo influencing KD. It's a perfect example that all of these reports should be taken with a huge can of salt, regardless of how solid you think the reporter is. Woj is being careful by using wording like "it appears as" , "earlier reports have said" etc. No one really knows. Some of the reports are saying definitively that Houston is out based on an agent's opinion which is based on that agent's assessment on if we can contend next year. Opinions are wrong. Opinions had Spurs vs Warriors in the WCF in 2015 followed by Clippers vs Warriors. They had the hubris of saying Warriors in THREE over OKC, then it was unanimous from all the "experts" that the Warriors would repeat. Ridiculous to say Rockets are out based on one agent's opinion on if we can put together a championship contending team. Harden-KD-and another max contract guy would be a championship contender. Spurs haven't sniffed the WCF in 2 years. Warriors 1st ship has a huge asterisk on it, and last year proved they ain't as historically amazing as the media was forcing down everyone's throats.
