Ah, I see. That's interesting. Those are live odds as of right now? I thought you could get the 3:1 or 4:1 number on the Durant sweepstakes online, but maybe that's not valid anymore based on your info/today's news.
Yeah, those are the most current NBA futures odds in Vegas. I'm not sure about the online free agency prop on where Durant will sign since they don't have those kinds of bets here. It would be interesting to see if it's still available anywhere and what the odds currently look like.
Only did a quick search, but don't think the odds are live anymore. However, that's crazy if the NBA futures odds are live in Vegas right now at those numbers. Maybe they have the same source as haralabob.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Key question for Celts' pursuit of Durant is how much Horford signing means to him. Source says it was between OKC and GS before that deal.</p>— Steve Bulpett (@SteveBHoop) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveBHoop/status/749786877763477504">July 4, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A phrase Durant has repeated often during his time in Oklahoma City: "I'm no frontrunner."</p>— Royce Young (@royceyoung) <a href="https://twitter.com/royceyoung/status/749765119551287296">July 4, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I really doubt Durant is the type of person to join a team that just eliminated his OKC thunder in the WCF.
3 with gsw is obviously better than none at boston. but a lot of it will be how he wins. part of what took the heat off lebron is that wade and bosh clearly weren't on lebron's level on either of the title teams and the heat did not win easily. lebron seemingly "earned" the wins by being all-time great in those playoff runs. if durant goes to GS and they win 3 titles while going 16-1 in the playoffs every year, durant won't be looked at like lebron i don't think. obviously it sounds kind of counterintuitive to say that a player's team being worse and having to earn it actually indicates that that player is better, but i think that will be the perception. it would almost feel like a grade of "incomplete" for his legacy. and honestly, even if you didn't care about legacy, wouldn't you almost get bored with being so much better than everyone else and wouldn't you stop feeling like it was somehow an achievement on your part to get a ring?
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Why would you go back <a href="https://twitter.com/KDTrey5">@KDTrey5</a>? <a href="https://t.co/Ah0r71650w">pic.twitter.com/Ah0r71650w</a></p>— Celtics Junkies (@CelticsJunkies) <a href="https://twitter.com/CelticsJunkies/status/749797871931752448">July 4, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
and how ridiculously lucky would the warriors be if on top of the super-lucky steph curry contract that allowed them to build their team and the unbelievable growth of green that allowed them to become great, they just happen to have this team in the same season a player of durant's caliber becomes a free agent and their just happens to be a cap explosion that somehow makes it realistic for them to sign a max contract free agent and that free agent is motivated by stacking his team to historic standards at the expense of his legacy. granted, as someone who rooted for lebron in miami, i can't say much, but this would obviously be another level or two above that in terms of team-stacking.
Silly argument. Did the US stop feeling like it was somehow an achievement to win the gold medal once they started allowing NBA players? And if that proved anything, it's that it's not guaranteed.
exactly, the league could veto it if they wanted to. they could reason it using the idea malakas mentioned of all the best players trying to just join 2 or 3 teams. even without such a clause i would guess that virtually anything would be allowed if a certain number of owner votes were reached to make it happen, but maybe not.
i feel like that's somewhat different. kevin durant is essentially trying to prove how great he is (if he cares about his legacy). based on how we grade most all-time greats, that means coming up big and leading your team to big game victories. winning every playoff series with ease while not having to have 40+ games to wreck the other team won't say "kevin durant is so great", it will just say he plays on a great team and that's nice for him. even in something like a pickup game it gets boring being much better than the other teams out there if you just picked the teams to stack them one way or the other (i say this realizing that every GM is trying to stack their team). i have no idea if durant cares about his legacy. but if he does then his best bet is probably to have it work out like lebron where curry/thompson/green decline by enough that durant has to clearly lead the team to victories. with the US national team, i don't think we consider the gold an achievement. we just consider the silver and embarrassment and want to be good enough to prevent that from ever happening. i would actually argue that we did get bored and that's precisely why the winning stopped being guaranteed. lesser and lesser players kept showing up because who cares about going to the olympics to beat everybody by 30. once the winning stopped happening, the national team stopped being bored and suddenly got it's act together. and now we're not trying to prove we can win a gold medal. we're trying to prove that we are the unchallenged dominant country in basketball and that we win every gold medal and do it with ease even when the rest of the world has caught up. and it's essentially an on-going legacy each player tries to be a part of. no individual team gets an abundance of credit for their gold medal the way an nba championship team does. and no individual gets an abundance of credit for a gold the way lebron just got for winning. but if the US team suddenly got back to dream team dominance (not going to happen) where they win by 40 without even breaking a sweat, i do think they would get bored again. who wouldn't?
I do see your point, however, forming super teams is hardly a guaranteed championship (at least not in the first year). If Durant TRULY cares only about basketball, he'd go to GS. I forgot who said it, but I saw a tweet that said 'KD doesn't need GSW, and GSW doesn't need Durant. Feels like two parties agreeing to test the boundaries of excellence.' Steph, Klay, and Draymond are basically basketball robots that only care about basketball. None of the outside BS. That's gotta have some kind of draw for Durant, who is a basketball robot too, unlike Westbrook. Also, surprised that nobody has brought this up, but do you think Nike has any say in this decision? The best way to hedge against a Curry/UnderArmour uprising is to put your #2 guy on his team. Anything Curry does will result in just as much attention for Durant/Nike.
If this happens for the Warriors I would truly be jealous of being a fan of that team. I mean chances of that team coming together like that are beyond minuscule. The Warriors lose after going up 3-1 against Lebron in a record breaking season. To getting Durant and breaking the record again, then proceeding to win the tiebreaker against Lebron by sweeping him in the finals. LOL it's too much.
hey, if durant is wired that way, then definitely go to GS. i would never tell a player what they should want to get out of basketball because that's up to them (but i might hate them for what they want because that's up to me). if durant just wants to hold the trophy, however it may happen, then sign with GS and vaya con dios. but maybe he should ask lebron how that cleveland championship felt. because he's got a shot at that, sans the 52 year drought, in okc. a real shot considering how close they were last year. i wanted lebron to win last year, but durant and westbrook were my second choice because i want to see them get it done there. hopefully durant does, too. i've heard that mentioned, although i suppose you could inadvertently elevate curry even more and not gain the same benefit for durant. i have a hard time believing shoe contracts affect team construction, but the way people mention it apparently they do. money does weird things.
I'm not even talking about winning rings, as I don't think that's guaranteed (injuries, etc). I'm just talking about playing NBA basketball at a different level. It would be something we haven't seen before, and that may be what attracts a basketball robot like Durant.
Five big reasons why KD is going to HAVE to go to Golden state. 1. Golden state lost. And Golden state's first win was tainted because irving and love... err... well... irving was hurt. So even though Golden State won a ring, they're still missing that ultimate respect. If KD goes to them and they do become basically the best team ever, KD won't be some superstar tagging along for the ride. He will legitimately be the reason. 2. Jerry West had a conversation with KD. He told him how even to this day, it ate him alive that he lost so many times on good teams. So many times he came close... only to lose bitterly. KD knows if he goes anywhere but Golden State, he risks ending up like Barkley. A great player, overlooked cause he didnt win a ring or only one a single one. 3. Finally, Lebron went to Miami and got his rings And getting that monkey off his back is what allowed him to come back to Cleveland, build a little super team there and secure his legacy. KD knows once he gets his rings he's going to secure his legacy. He'll never get another chance like Golden State. 4. Going to Golden state vastly increases his chances of getting a ring. It's not because Golden State is so much better than OKC. It's because if he goes to GS, GS gets better and OKC gets worse. That leaves only the clippers and spurs in the west to contend with now. 5. What loyalty does he owe OKC? They drafted him. He played lights out for them for years and made them legitimate. But its different than Lebron James and Cleveland. James was born in Cleveland and all that. PLUS... who the Hell wants to be in Oklahoma City all the time?
