People are acting like Durant just want a ring last night lol Durant is still leaving unless he makes the finals this year, lets be real.
That playoff success is 100% due to him though so why that's supposed to be a valid argument? Everywhere kevin durant goes he's gonna achieve playoff success as long as he's healthy, we saw that when WB got injured and KD became the focal point of the offense were pretty much owning everyone. Rockets without KD has accomplished more and reached further in the playoffs than OKC without KD.
To me the only idiots are people thinking we can rebuild with 27 year old Harden on the Roster. According to everyone he was a lazy bum this year and we are the 8th seed. The year before that he spectacular and we were the 2nd seed. What makes anyone think that Harden is going to suck enough for them to rebuild? Rockets are going to do everything they can to build a contender, next year.
If they get to the finals I can see Durant opting back in. Okc has made it to the wcf too many times now for Durant to be impressed.
Even if they did Durant is not leaving OKC, the people on here are so delusional and wonder why this team sucks. The good teams don't plan for free agency two years in advance, they load up their rosters with talent and go play while our general manager signs middling bull**** chuckers and sits back and wait for the free agency so he can strike out yet again. We might as well be the sixers
Think the series win over SAS is going to lead Durant to pick up his player option. Makes too much sense for him.
Planning for free agency two years in advance landed Pat Riley and the Miami Heat Lebron James and Chris Bosh and delivered two titles and 4 finals appearances.
Let's be clear that most of that had to do with Wade's relationships with those two. Yes it's good to be prepared but it's foolish to plan your entire next season off of one free agent. It shows you didn't learn anything from the last season's catastrophic failure.
Durant is not going to join the rockets even if he is leaving OKC, stop wasting time to speculate this. Winning over the Spurs further enhances his chance to stay in OKC. I would say he will return to OKC at least for one more year.
That's different. LeBron, Bosh, and Wade all planned a year ahead of time to play together. And Wade had previously led the Heat to a title, so those two knew they were joining a former champion player and organization. Why would Durant wanna join Harden who's only led a team on his own to the WCF once? And even that's being generous considering he was on the bench when the Rockets made that Game 6 miracle comeback against the Clippers. There's nothing wrong with cap flexibility, but Morey does it to a fault. We keep dumping or flipping solid players so we can leave open the possibility of having room to sign a big name free agent down the road. How about instead we actually hang onto some of this talent and try to build around it?
Probably because the same reason Lebron joined Wade? Wade was his friend so he trusted his friend? You can't speak to Durant's friendship with Harden. Again, for all we know Durant puts the blame on Harden not having any help for that reason. It's not like Harden had Durant playing with him. I think people kind of underestimate that great players realize they make a great impact. It's like someone said "The Thunder have had more success than the Rockets..." Yeah, because Durant plays on that team. If you put Durant+Harden I think you get the same success you would with Westbrook and Durant. That is to say that Westbrook and Harden are the same tier of player. Again, the reason Durant would join the Rockets is because of a strong friendship with Harden + adding another all-star player, plus hopefully having a better coach than the Thunder ever had (though that remains to be seen) I've always said that if Durant leaves OKC the Rockets will be a strong option and MOST of the people that are optimistic about that have said that.
I think a point lost on a lot of posters is that Morey does try to acquire good players. But he does it in a fashion so that he won't just acquire someone just to do it in the name of "playing for this season". He has to make the unpopular decision that if adding a player won't add that much more to this team then let's do without that player and see where it gets us. Everyone one would be so angry at acquiring players that don't move the needle and then we missed out on even the chance at landing someone big in free agency. I honestly can't think of any players that he was supposed to add that would have changed the outcome of this season. Yes getting better 3 point shooters instead of Ty Lawson would have been great but who? Nothing would have overcome Dwight's need for the ball in the post when he doesn't do anything with it. No one acquired would have solved mental lapses by James Harden. We have several options in play this off-season. I don't think a lot of you remember how it used to be when we had no hope in free agency. Remember... only one team is happy at the end of the season.
Wade's relationship certainly helped, no doubt but Riley started positioning himself 2 years in advance. BTW where did I say that we should plan an entire season on one FA? I didn't give an opinion either way. I simply provided historical evidence that some good teams do indeed begin preparing 2 years in advance. Just because I cite ah historical event doesn't mean that I agree with it or disagree with it.
Durant *has* to be impressed by Donovan's coaching now. Most of us on the outside are. So we're thinking he's going to leave max money, a great head coach, and an obviously very good team... to come to a bubble team with no coach and with the worst chemistry in the league this year, if not the worst chemistry that's been seen in league history. Sounds likely!
