Will Bill Simmons and Ryen Russilo have the same bashing energy for Durant asking out that they did for Harden? They went absolute ham on bashing him on every podcast for months. Labeling him as the selfish malcontent. Yet Harden is the one who is taking a huge pay-cut to make his team better. I don't expect them to eat crow, on Harden or the Rockets.
So ... Miami had Wade already, the best SG in the league at the time who had already won a ring pre-LBJ, and he brought Bosh with him GS had Curry already, the best PG in the league at the time who already had a ring, plus Klay/Dray in place This made LeBron's first move substantially different than KD's?? Then for the second move ... LeBron joined Kyrie in CLE and added Love in a trade to join an afterthought franchise that had never won anything KD joined Kyrie in BKN and added Harden in a trade to join another afterthought franchise that had never won anything These 2 scenarios are also substantially different?? Third move ... LBJ joins the Lakers, along with yet another top-10 player in AD, in a premier market for a legendary franchise Only way KD's next move could rival that is if he joins Tatum in Boston to add to their trophy cabinet PS - The Lakers have arguably signed the 3 greatest free agents in the history of free agency Kareem Shaq LeBron Cannot begin to understand where you're coming from on the 'Lakers couldn't sign free agents' angle
If I am BRKLN, I try to do a rebuild NOW while they have a rockets (maybe lotto?) swap next year. Trade KD to SAC for fox, filler, and 2-1sts and 2 swaps. SAC has proven they will be lotto every year so the picks would be nice. Trade simmons for a 1. Trade kyrie for 2 ones. Kick start the rebuild and replace their missing picks plus some. They also have some from PHIL. Then the rockets get a lotto from BRKLN the next 2 yearz while they rebuild. Sacramento can finally get a real star which they can trade if necessary. ORL could also play the SAC role in this scenario as they are also lottery locked every year.
But they also won't likely be a bottom 5 or even bottom 10 team for the next few years. It's still a win for the Rockets.
One team was in the lotto (WITH WADE. The other had just played in their 2nd Finals, and broken the wins record. If you think those are comparable we can agree to disagree.
And you got clowns on here saying bill simmons didn’t mean what he said about jalen green. Yet voted a defensive guy over him for all rookie
Send his ass to the kings for unprotected 1st round picks. Only way Nets can salvage your draft assets and fasten a rebuild, betting on kings incompetence taking down even KD.
Nets were forced into being awful just a few years ago. Boston got picks #3. #1 (traded for #3) and #8 (traded for Kyrie) out of the Nets. All the while the Nets had no incentive to be bad whatsoever. Teams made up entirely of role players win 30 games tops. also LOL @ Westbrook, he's a Wall-tier tank commander at this point at age 34.
They finished 9 games out of the bottom 10 this year with Durant playing 44 mpg at the end of the season. That's not that far to fall.
And with a pouting Harden for half the season and missing Kyrie for most of it and not much else around Durant. Again, this is good news for the Rockets just should temper your expectations until we see the package the Nets received for Durant.
Wade's title was won with old, fat Shaq and they had no other stars around him after Shaq fell off rapidly Of course they were in the lottery with Wade Doesn't mean he wasn't still elite and the best at his position in the entire league The Warriors were just in the lotto WITH Step last season, and still had Draymond despite KD leaving and Klay getting hurt KD was the best player on 2 Warriors champs Curry was also best on 2 LeBron was best all 4 times Perhaps this is because he just better than the other 2, and not because of his teammates Still don't see your point that KD has played with better teammates than LeBron Kyrie is a wash for both Curry was better than Wade Bosh was better than Love Harden was way better than Klay AD was way better than Dray Seems like a wash in surrounding talent to me, but whatever
Nets won’t avoid tanking just because we own their picks. The picks are gone and our success doesn’t matter to them unless we could theoretically meet in the Finals. They need to get the best return to actually succeed as a franchise. And the best return is likely S+T Ayton, Bridges, and maybe Cam Johnson plus all the picks the Suns are willing to throw in. Early-career guys who could grow with the draft picks. That’s a lotto team given brooklyns trash depth, and why push lux tax to pad the bench just to spite us?