Woj Sources: Warriors serious threat to sign Kevin Durant

Yep i see harden leaving in FA

 

Yep players playing for championships is a bad thing now i suppose

 

If Durant joins the Warriors, a bunch of fans will say "Well, he isn't earning these titles, legacy invalidated," much like they did with James. And they'll be wrong. People care about that stuff at the time it happens...20 years from now, no one will care. Durant's résumé will simply list his many personal accolades along with 2x or 3x champion and he'll be compared to people like Larry Bird.

 

Lowe: Golden State's Kevin Durant question

Spoiler

It's a cruel irony for Thunder fans that perhaps the best parallel to the momentous choice looming in Golden State -- whether to bust up an all-time team and pursue Kevin Durant in free agency -- is Oklahoma City's decision to deal James Harden.

In trading Harden to Houston, the Thunder chose depth and flexibility over a core of four stars that might have left them capped out in perpetuity. Harden needed the ball, but so did Durant and Russell Westbrook; there are real diminishing returns in pairing three ball-dominant players, and it was unclear if any of those home-grown stars had the shooting touch and deferential nature to evolve into Oklahoma City's Chris Bosh. The Warriors soared toward history the moment they gave Stephen Curry the ball on every possession. They wouldn't be able to do that with Durant on board.

Paying four players close to the maximum salary leaves almost no money for nine or 10 leftover roster spots. Top-heavy teams scrounge every summer for one-year minimum bargains, undrafted rookies and aging ring-chasers. Look how hard it has been for the Clippers, with three max guys, to build workable depth. Doc Rivers has handicapped L.A. by dealing draft picks and signing bad players for bad reasons, but filling eight roster spots on the cheap is an uphill battle. Even the Heat mostly whiffed on buy-low veterans during the Big Three era.

The Thunder's record in spreading out Harden's salary slot has been spotty, as you would expect. They churned through Kevin Martin and Reggie Jackson until they became too expensive, and have settled for now on Dion Waiters, who will likely be elsewhere next season, once he signs a pricier deal. They used the cap boom to pay Enes Kanter more than Harden, which, umm, probably isn't ideal.

They snagged extra draft picks that became Steven Adams, Mitch McGary and Alex Abrines. Adams is already a solid two-way center at 22, with a delightful mustache, but the other two aren't playing for a team that fancies itself a contender.

Maintaining wiggle room below tax hell also allowed the Thunder to chase third-tier vets like Anthony Morrow and Kyle Singler with deals in the $3 million to $4 million range.

That was the idea: The extra breathing room would expand Oklahoma City's long-term core from four guys to six or seven, and leave more money for everyone else.

It also left only three stars, and when any of them got hurt at the wrong time, the Thunder were done. And that, in the end, may be the most persuasive argument for Golden State going after Durant: Adding a fourth star is a hedge against an injury to one of the other three. If any of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Durant get hurt in May or June, the Warriors could still have a fighting chance. In the postseason hothouse of shorter rotations, that extra dose of star power might be a better cushion against bad luck than a deep bench.

Most of the two-dozen or so team executives I polled over the past two weeks on the Durant-Warriors possibility described it as a no-brainer ("Bench smench," texted one GM), but there is some division within the Warriors, and you can understand why. They might have the best basketball team ever assembled! How can you shake that up? They are obliterating victims by about 13 points per 100 possessions. Unless the league adds a 4-point shot or lengthens the game, it is almost literally impossible to get any better. And the Warriors have already been proven right choosing continuity over a sweet-shooting shiny object in Kevin Love.

Signing Durant would carry risk, especially with Festus Ezeli's future unclear after another knee surgery. Signing Durant with cap room would cost Golden State Harrison Barnes, and at least two of Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston, Andrew Bogut and Ezeli. The Warriors would have to offload two of those guys into someone else's cap space, and they are privately worried they might have to attach one or even two future first-round picks to grease the wheels.

When they needed to shed about $25 million in dead money to sign Iguodala in 2013, they bribed the Jazz with two first-round picks -- including their 2017 first-rounder. Flip two more, and Golden State -- a team that drafts well -- would be out three precious chances to fluff the roster with young talent on cheap rookie contracts.

Trade partners will know what's up, and they might drive a hard bargain in exchange for facilitating the birth of a monster. Then again, with 20 teams hoarding max-level cap space almost by accident, it might not cost much to deal quality players such as Bogut and Livingston into unused salary slots.

Another concern: The second key building block for teams over the cap -- the midlevel exception -- has been borderline useless amid the cap boom. Overflowing cap space soaks up almost every viable rotation player now. Only one guy, Brandan Wright, signed for the full midlevel last season, and other teams used chunks of it to sign game-changers such as Dante Cunningham, Shane Larkin, Alan Anderson, K.J. McDaniels and a broken-down Paul Pierce.

The Pierce example is especially relevant: Ring-chasing fogies will flock to Golden State, but for every David West and Ray Allen, there is at least one geezer who proves unplayable at money time.

Ezeli is still young, and that's why his injury is scary. The ideal Durant path for Golden State would probably involve keeping Ezeli -- a young center ready to succeed Bogut -- and Iguodala, the LeBron antidote who perhaps best represents Golden State's brand of versatile, unselfish, high-IQ basketball. Iguodala keeps the machine running. Livingston does, too, but he can't shoot 3s, and he's not stout enough to defend LeBron. The Warriors can live without him.

It's exciting to dream of Golden State going all-in on the Death Lineup by keeping both Iguodala and Livingston, but they are already worried about overexposing Green to the rigors of guarding centers; they just ate tax money to sign Anderson Varejao.

The Warriors can squeeze Iguodala, Ezeli's cap hold and Durant under the cap by the hair on their chinny-chin-chins, but if the cap sticks at $90 million -- the league's current official projection, per league sources -- Golden State might also have to deal Kevon Looney or the player it picks in June's draft. Several teams are already projecting a $92 million cap, and that tiny uptick could make a huge difference in Golden State keeping as many of its current guys as possible.

Ezeli would also have to be complicit, and hold off on signing an offer sheet from another team in a way that could screw up the timing of all these dominos. That is why Golden State's dream scenario -- a Barnes-Durant double sign-and-trade -- is such a long shot: Barnes would have to agree to the scheme, and using the sign-and-trade tool introduces a bunch of thorny cap complications the Warriors might wish to avoid. (It would be easier to use Green or Thompson in a sign-and-trade, but that isn't happening. The possibility of dealing Thompson down the line to open up cap flexibility is intriguing, though -- and also unlikely).

The costs are real: a couple of rotation players shaved off a 50-5 juggernaut, plus the ability to restock. Recent versions of the Heat, Cavs and Lakers have reminded us that the slapped-together super-team thing is never as seamless as we anticipate.

But those worried about messing with perfection make the mistake of assuming this particular brand of perfection will last beyond 2016. Livingston, Iguodala and Bogut are all over 30, with injury histories that make you wince about how they might age. Barnes is about to quintuple his salary; combine that with the mega-max Curry has coming after next season, and keeping the current core together becomes just as expensive -- and just as restrictive going forward -- as signing Durant.

Durant is just 27, on the same age timetable as Golden State's three core stars, sporting a skill set that should eventually mesh well with the Warriors' fluid system. He's an historically elite shooter, and elite shooting smooths over jagged edges. The Warriors are deadly because almost everyone, including Curry, is a threat away from the ball as a screener, cutter and spot-up killer. The LeBron-Wade fit would have been much cleaner, much sooner, if they both shot 3s like Ray Allen. Durant is already working off the ball more now that Westbrook controls Oklahoma City's offense.

Durant also brings the same kind of positional versatility that makes Barnes so valuable, only he's Kevin freaking Durant, and he'll probably be earning only about $5 million more than Barnes in 2016-17. He can tussle with power forwards, switch onto guards, and unlock the small-ball lineups that make these Warriors so deadly. He's an underrated team defender, though he can get a little off-kilter when he isn't dialed in. Plop him into Golden State's steadier scheme under superior coaching, and he'd be fine.

He does hold the ball, and that runs counter to everything Steve Kerr has built. Curry is the only guy who gets to keep the rock for more than a couple of seconds hunting shots, and even then, he's manipulating jittery defenders with a live-wire dribble. No Warrior gets to catch the ball in triple-threat position, jab step for five seconds, and finally slice toward the rim.

But Durant is good at that, and it's a useful weapon to have in the bag, especially when Curry sits. The Warriors are an ugly minus-132 for the season with Curry on the bench. That number is a little misleading, since Golden State has logged a lot of time with bench mobs that won't see the light of day when it matters; the Warriors are plus-36 in the 130 minutes when all three of Thompson, Iguodala and Livingston have played without Curry, per NBAwowy.

Still, those non-Curry stretches are tenuous exercises in survival. One way to build a bench is to play a star with your bench players. Having four stars makes it easier to do that. And if they play their cards right, the Warriors can sign Durant and keep two of their most valuable reserves. Bat just .333 on bargain ring-chase signings, and you've got a workable 8-man rotation -- all you really need for the playoffs.

Golden State already gives Thompson, Barnes and Green permission to feast on size mismatches in the post; Durant would make even better use of those same touches. He can fly off pindowns, and has a ton of experience working both ends of the pick-and-roll -- something you can't really say for Barnes.

If an opposing coach throws everything at snuffing the Curry-Green pick-and-roll, the Warriors can slide Durant into Green's spot as Curry's screener, and let him make those 4-on-3 plays off the dribble. If Curry needs a break, Durant can run the show. As pretty as it looks, Golden State's offense outside Curry's pick-and-roll magic is pretty simple: One guy holds the ball, a bunch of great shooters cut and screen for each other all over the floor, and the passer finds the open man.

Durant isn't a great passer, but he's a good one, and he can surely manage that. He would have to make quicker decisions, and the other Warriors would have to modify their games to accommodate him. Guess what? Every team does to varying degrees every season.

Easing Curry's load is healthy in the long run. Green and Thompson have probably hit their ceilings running the pick-and-roll and creating one-on-one in a pinch; there are times against top defenses, including during last season's Finals, when it feels like all Golden State has is the unprecedented gravitational pull of Curry sucking out traps 35 feet from the rim. Another go-to option would be nice.

Whether Durant is up for being just another go-to option on Curry's team is unclear. Durant has said nothing of substance about his free agency, and his team at Roc Nation has been diligent in keeping everything within a tiny circle of confidantes. Any noise about personal issues between Durant and Westbrook is bunk, according to sources close to the situation. They get along great, though there has been minor tension about touches as Westbrook's role has ascended, those sources say. Durant can go to any team he wants; all 30 teams will move the earth to sign him.

If he cares most about winning, Golden State is probably the only place that inches him closer to a title than sticking with the Thunder -- as long as Westbrook, a free agent in 2017, sticks around, too. The same old-school purists who mocked James for joining a super-team probably want Durant to stay true to what he has built in Oklahoma City, and seize the throne from Golden State. Whatever. The man can do what he wants, and only a few people on the planet know what that is today -- if Durant even knows himself.

Signing a one-year deal with a player option for 2017-18 is by far Durant's most lucrative path, but inking that contract with a team other than Oklahoma City gets tricky. That team -- say, the Warriors -- would not have Durant's Bird Rights in the summer of 2017, when the cap is projected to approach $110 million. Durant's maximum salary will leap with it, and without Bird Rights, the Warriors wouldn't be able to go over the cap while re-signing Durant, as teams typically can in bringing back their own guys. Instead, they'd have to open up something like $35 million in room to re-sign him. They can do that pretty easily as things stand now, but it would also limit the pool of players they might sign in the interim.

Hovering over all of this is the spectre of a new collective bargaining agreement in 2017. Major changes -- a harder cap, a harsher tax -- could make an expensive team in today's terms untenable in 2018 and beyond.

But Golden State will be expensive regardless of which fork in the road it takes -- if Durant even indicates any interest in going there. That is the price of greatness. The basketball question is the interesting one. There is some risk in sacrificing depth and picks to sign Durant; I'm not quite there with the rival executives who chuckle and say, "Duh," when presented with the question. Some admit they laugh a bit out of fear, and because it's easier to contemplate a dilemma that doesn't apply to them.

In the end, though, the fit would be as clean as we've ever seen with a super-team. There is just so much passing, shooting, versatility and unselfishness in that four-man core. If they have a chance in July, the Warriors should probably do almost whatever it takes to sign Durant.​

 

Eh...Lebron and Bosh going to a mediocre Miami team is a bad look, but not as bad as Durant going to to arguably the greatest team ever.

 

that's only true for the casual person who tunes in during the NBA finals just because. There's more than plenty of fans who follow the game closely that will remember what teams won the title along with whom. You may think people won't care yourself but in reality plenty of people out there will.

 

Nah, it'll be true for most people. Outrage boils hot and then cools. Sure, there will be a few people who cling to it forever, but they won't be the majority.

And current NBA fans will also age out. People today who are complaining about what a "jerk" Curry is probably lionize Larry Bird with no sense of irony, mostly because most of them never saw him play or read about the taunts he yelled at people. And others have simply forgotten. Context is lost as the years go by. Only the stats remain.

 

its true just because you say so? not really. at the end of the day people will remember things like Lebron going to Miami or KD joining one of the greatest teams in NBA history. Curry must not be thought of as a "jerk" by many because hes become probably the most popular player in the league.

 

And what you're saying it true because you say so?

We're giving our viewpoints, guy. I don't see many "in my opinion" in your posts, either.

 

never said anything about that. imo doesn't need to be stated as it's something generally understood

 

Yes, that's my point. It's not true "just because I say it," it's obviously my opinion of what's going to happen in the future.

 

The Heat were called the Miami Cheat. Players of Lebron and Bosh's level joining another superstar in free agency to win rings was unheard of. It was just assumed that they would win rings and they did. Think Lebron cares at all about the early criticism? Or Bosh? They've cemented their legacy as champions. Lebron is now GM'ing his own team and Cleveland fans rushed to unburn their jerseys upon news of his return. And where was the criticism from Rockets fans when Bosh almost signed with Houston to form another big three with Harden and Howard?

But the die hard fans will remember? Who gives a ****?

 

Why does Durant care if you or anyone else cares?

 

probably because the general public is actually a big part of the business they are in, especially through the media who he has grown tiresome of as the years have gone by

 

J.R., how come Lowe didn't speculate on Durant joining forces with Horford to team up with Harden and the Rockets? I mean, after all, it was Lowe that dropped the nugget that Horford is on a short list of players Durant would like to team up with.

 

If they can afford him, they'll get him. With his recent injuries, already max salary, and lack of a ring, of course he'd go to a place that guarantees he'll win one or five ASAP. This is why the Rockets have zero chance of getting him: they can't pay him more than anyone else, and they're a mess of a team.

 

I have not the slightest idea!

Just more Warriors dick riding!

 

Durant to Warriors possibility, and the historic potential of cap spike

 

Durant wants to be part of the Warriors lol

 

So...

Is this more likely or less likely now?

On the one hand, I can see him hating the Dubs, especially Draymond, and probably wouldn't want to be any part of that dirty, arrogant team.

On the other hand, I can see him thinking if I can't beat them ahead 3-1, I'll never beat them. He might also be thinking Curry is a more clutch sidekick too.

So.. 50/50 chance of him joining the Warriors?