I honestly think it'll be between OKC, Houston, and Boston. From what we know of Durant I think he has too much of a pride and ego to add to someone else's legacy. He goes to GSW to help Curry become one of the greatest players ever or he goes to the Spurs to just add to the Popovic legacy. I think OKC, Boston, and Houston is what will be the decision. OKC - Gets to remain loyal, gets to be the face of that franchise until something better comes along. Gets to continue playing with Westbrook who he obviously has a strong relationship with and he won't feel like he's turning his back on Westbrook if they give it another year. Boston - Gets the hell out of the West, joins an organization that knows how to build contenders. Houston - Joins James Harden his friend, he has some kind of liking towards the organization. I remember reading way back and I think this was during his college years that the Rockets were his favorite team. That would explain all that "This is my city!" stuff he does when he plays against the Rockets. Any ways, he gets to join an organization that is willing to do anything to win. You can say what you want about the Rockets but they are desperate and hungry to win. It is this super aggressiveness that puts them in these situations.
Forget Durant dont loose precius time in him look for a promising big (Biyombo, Mahinmi) good young players with star potencial (fournier) Morey is good finding talent in underrated players (Dragic, Lowry, Scola,Ariza) Conley can be a sure thing take bad contract for picks build something nice to fight for a champ in 3 years
Someone who's more knowledgeable about the cap will have to explain it to me. Whiteside is currently signed for under a mil. If he resigns for say 20 mil, how does that impact Miami's cap? Same goes for Wade. He's making 20 mil this year? So hypothetically if he takes a pay cut to 15 mil next year, is that how much cap space he takes up? Regardless, I don't think the Heat are as good a destination as SAS thinks. I didn't realize that Bosh is already 32. Not only does he have the blood clot issue, but he's getting up their in the years himself. Even Dragic is gonna be 30 in 4 days. That's not old by any stretch, but he's probably going to be declining from here.
Miami doesn't have Whitesides bird rights, so his cap number is what it costs to keep him. Wades cap hold will be whatever he signs for.
Fair point but I think there might be one or two other destinations and Houston should be way at the bottom. Harden alone will not cut it..... no real coaching candidate in sight
I think all comes down to Wade, if he's ok in taking a big paycut they can pay Durant, if not they need to let Whiteside (or Wade himself) go. Anyway i agree, i was high on them as a destination for KD months ago, but right now not so much. You also have to keep in mind that Whiteside is unrestricted so he can go wherever he wants, if someone is going to pay and offer some sort of franchise player status, i think he's gone...but what if they're ok with this so they can pursue Horford AND Durant?
Was KD that much of a T-Mac/Rockets fan that it would supersede his earlier thoughts on Vince Carter/Raptors? Kevin Durant’s favorite team growing up was the Toronto Raptors Spoiler <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">T-Mac the great!!! Thank you, just watching you as a kid helped me get to where I am today! Good luck in the future</p>— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) <a href="https://twitter.com/KDTrey5/status/372122750275432448">August 26, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Miami will have a hard time bringing back both Wade and Whiteside, there is no way they can get Durant unless Bosh retires or they move Dragic and and have Wade take a sizeable pay cut.
Already been touched on a couple of times, but regarding Miami and KD. Miami can't keep Wade, Whiteside AND get KD. Wade is not going to take a cheap contract. Just like LeBron, Wade is going to want his salary. Whiteside is a market max player and Miami has to use it's cap room to retain him. They could let him walk to get KD, but Whiteside would be an important piece in getting KD there. Further, what does the future hold with Bosh? Who knows? That's big! I think Miami should be in the KD discussion. It is a viable landing spot. But there are a lot of questions there and it isn't as neat and tidy as Stephen A. Smith makes it. BTW, LOL SAS throwing out NY and Carmello. Talk about feeding false hope to an audience. The bottom line with the KD to Houston scenario is 1) James Harden. A FRIEND and a player KD has played with before. Knows they mesh. Harden is in his PRIME (not broken down like Wade). 2) Rockets have to get a 2nd Max contract player like Al Horford in the front court. 3) Head Coach. Can the Rockets get a high quality head coach (at least someone better than Billy Donavan). Could JVG or now Frank Vogel be that guy? I don't see the above items as pipe-dream scenarios. Clearly the coaching situation has to be finalized before the Rockets can put their full court recruiting press for KD. When KD does his FA tour and does his Houston stop, the Rockets have to have a full game plan in place. I am sure they will.
Not sure, but if Wade is ok with taking a big (and i mean big) paycut i think they're not that far...
Or maybe not, now i'm taking a look at their salary cap and yeah, seems almost impossible... Bosh + Dragic: 40millions Winslow + Wade: 2.5 + (let's say) 1.5 So it's already 44 on 92, not enough for Durant and Horford -> and they still have McRoberts under contract for one year at 5.7 + player option at 6.0 for 2017/18 which will not be easy to move...
What exactly is Houston's selling point to KD? Harden? Let him handpick the coach? They aren't exactly strong selling points... He stays in OKC or goes to DC or Golden State.
Basically, their only chance (if they want KD) is to resign Whiteside and Wade at vet min or to trade Dragic heap PG. Anyway i think they'll be without bench if not some scrubs at min.
It sounds like the consensus on here(and I'd agree with it) is that Durant only comes here if the Rockets can also get Horford(or another big name free agent) and have the coaching situation resolved in a way that satisfies him. I can't see him wanting to sign here if it's just him and Harden. That's not really any better than his situation in OKC. In fact, it's likely worse.
What I stated above and posted below. The bottom line with the KD to Houston scenario is 1) James Harden. A FRIEND and a player KD has played with before. Knows they mesh. Harden is in his PRIME (not broken down like Wade). 2) Rockets have to get a 2nd Max contract player like Al Horford in the front court. 3) Head Coach. Can the Rockets get a high quality head coach (at least someone better than Billy Donavan). Could JVG or now Frank Vogel be that guy? I don't see the above items as pipe-dream scenarios. Clearly the coaching situation has to be finalized before the Rockets can put their full court recruiting press for KD. When KD does his FA tour and does his Houston stop, the Rockets have to have a full game plan in place. I am sure they will.
Right, yeah I wanted to mention this that his possible fandom for the Rockets probably just had to do with Tmac being on the Rockets for a large part of his career. He sounds like he was a player fan, you know those guys who liked the Cavs...then liked the Heat...and are now Cavs fans again lol. I think the answer is probably that Tmac was a Carter fan first and then Carter's prime started to slip when Tmac was doing things for the Rockets.
I want to say that when it comes to coaching I think we will see pretty soon how the Rockets plan to move. Realize how other teams are already deep in the coaching search, not the Rockets. I'm betting that as soon as the Thunder are eliminated you'll start seeing that heat up. If there is any collusion between Durant and Harden then James will have to wait till they are eliminated to start fishing around. Would be rude to just call Durant tonight and be like "Hey brah, what you think of JVG?" If Harden is as good of a friend of Durant as we hope, then Harden will know for certain the coaches that the Rockets should go after. I think it's kind of fishy how the Rockets (correct me if I'm wrong) haven't been in a hurry to fill their coaching vacancy while other teams are.
well the rockets were just eliminated in the playoffs. All of the other coaching hires were by teams that were sitting at home. The coaching vacancy will be filled very soon.
