Because some owners don't care about winning, like Cuban, he wants to field a competitive team for $$$
I agree. Extremely weak move. I'm not sure this will work out so well. Green already had issues with not getting enough shots last season. He won't be getting any shots now so expect all kinds of issues with chemistry once he starts complaining. I can also see Klay's ego getting the better of him now that he has to share the ball with the new second fiddle. How does a rythm player like KD handle going long stretches without being the primary or even secondary option on offense? Does Green, Klay or even KD become the new version of the Lebron-Heat era Chris Bosh?
Dude Durant is going to be able to do whatever he wants on the court now. Him and Curry can pick their spots when they want to score, and focus on defense when they want. Will be able to sit out multiple 4th quarters, and rest up for the next game.
Lebron set the first precedence making it ok, I think you are going to start to see A LOT more of this. I'm worried, particularly for our team. We rally, build, and get behind a player all we want only to have him bolt. I feel for the thunder right now.
Weak. Durant is one of my favorite players and I just hate that he took the easy way. He is gonna get Lebron x10 hate if they don't win in his first year. I think the Spurs can give them some problems and it usually takes a year for teams to fully gel. I will be rooting against them.
The league has a problem. Either it wants to be like La Liga with 2 or 3 teams having any shot at winning or not.
Curry and Green won't have any problem at all. They will play off each other quite well and Green will gladly accept fewer shots because of his respect for KD. I wonder about Klay Thompson though. His 24.3 PPG is going to drop substantially.
In a couple of years, after WB bolts out of OKC, that place might become unrecognizable. Without any stars, what free agent will call a cow pastured destination their home? As before, OKC's only hope is the draft. Come to think of it, it might be ours too.
I feel for them too. Durant has the right to go anywhere he wants, but honestly I think of this as a cowardly move. The Thunder could have gone to the WCF, with him. I didn't like the way Lebron left Cleveland for the Heat, but the Cavs weren't as talented as the current OKC team.
Maybe this will light a fire under other players especially Harden.. Maybe now Houston can become a destination once again..
Houston will be alright, that's the problem...alright. OKC though will probably be a lot like the Kings, Twolves...they will have to draft their next star. On the flipside if we can keep Harden and have a good year this season who knows. There's always Westbrook and I imagine he has some kind of positive relationship with Harden.
If the league really wanted to maintain any parity, they really shouldn't have given every single team a huge cap increase. This move essentially allowed everyone - even the top teams with maxed out payroll - to add a top tier player. Now we see the end result - the Warriors are so unbelievably loaded that there's no chance anyone will be able to compete with them.
Its a hard situation to fix honestly. Bird, Magic, Jordan, Piston bros, etc would never think about doing something like this. It was a matter of honor, much like we feel about everyday things ourselves. The players have gotten into too much of a "me first" situation.
