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Having now heard four different interviews with The Oklahoman Thunder beat writer Darnell Mayberry in the last 48 hours, I am now convinced that Durant left primarily because of his hatred of the local press.

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8 minutes ago, ChuckBrown said:

Having now heard four different interviews with The Oklahoman Thunder beat writer Darnell Mayberry in the last 48 hours, I am now convinced that Durant left primarily because of his hatred of the local press.

Distant Thunder: What Did Oklahoma City’s Media Do to Piss Off Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant?

Things have apparently been tense for quite awhile. That Grantland article is from early 2015. Durant probably never forgave them for that Mr. Unreliable column in 2014 either.

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9 hours ago, _MJ_ said:

Disagreed.  I believe plenty of people would be criticizing this hypothetical move.  For Durant, any move that wasn't going back to OKC(the safe choice) would have been criticized.  Even moving to your Spurs, who are usually bulletproof when comes to media criticism, would have generate some blow back.

There is always going to be some criticism or blowback. However, in my scenario, there is a squad that is creating something, not jumping on a bandwagon. Durant jumping on the Warriors train doesn't show a man taking the hard way. It shows a man resigned to the fact he doesn't have the qualities to lead a team to a title. 

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Maybe... but it doesn't matter. He will do it on a team where he is able to take open shots because the championship squad already earned the appropriate fear from being the best team in the league. 

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25 minutes ago, goodhelmet said:

There is always going to be some criticism or blowback. However, in my scenario, there is a squad that is creating something, not jumping on a bandwagon. Durant jumping on the Warriors train doesn't show a man taking the hard way. It shows a man resigned to the fact he doesn't have the qualities to lead a team to a title. 

I think Durant realizes that there is one team coming out of the East, Cleveland.  Everyone else is just practice.

In the West, he could join GS who was the best regular season team.  He could join SA but Duncan is retiring.  He could stay and hope the team grows.  He took the first choice.

The league is an oligarchy now.

I cannot wait for the lockout when the NBAPA talks about a hard cap in ways that makes it look like a bad thing.  A hard cap will stop players from moving wherever they want.

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We interrupt Durantathon to report that Nick Young had an accident yesterday where a firework blew up in his hand. No injury, just stupid on Swaggy JPP's part

(And yes. I wrote a whole paragraph to get to that joke)

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35 minutes ago, evilwaldo said:

I think Durant realizes that there is one team coming out of the East, Cleveland.  Everyone else is just practice.

In the West, he could join GS who was the best regular season team.  He could join SA but Duncan is retiring.  He could stay and hope the team grows.  He took the first choice.

The league is an oligarchy now.

I cannot wait for the lockout when the NBAPA talks about a hard cap in ways that makes it look like a bad thing.  A hard cap will stop players from moving wherever they want.

Why shouldn't players be allowed to move wherever they want? You actually want the billionaire owners to have more power?

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How fucking amazing would this be if Durant pulls a Deandre on them, after they've basically blown up the team to accommodate him.

 

West and potentially Pachulia joining them. Wonder who pays 60 mill too much for Ezeli? Speights would be a great pick up (I'd almost be content paying Speights the money the Lakers did on Mozgov). Barbosa I expect would stay. Rush on a vet minimum probably adds a bit of versatility, but dispensable. 

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38 minutes ago, Burgundy LaRue said:

Why shouldn't players be allowed to move wherever they want? You actually want the billionaire owners to have more power?

You missed the point.  That is how the NBAPA will cry.

Right now the salary cap is nothing more than a sham.  Nobody pays any attention to it.  The important number is the luxury tax figure.  Right now the league is a complete mess in terms of competition.  There are two serious contenders, one spoiler, and everyone else used as practice.

When the owners opt-out of the CBA this will be a dogfight.  The NBAPA will fight tooth and nail over a hard cap.  I cannot imagine the owners enjoy being farm teams for a couple of clubs.

Everyone is so enthralled over Durant they are missing the bigger picture.  It is a two team league with one possible spoiler.  The only teams with a shot at winning the Championship are Cleveland, Golden State, and San Antonio.  Everyone else is just practice.

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The NBA has always been about the haves and have-nots, though.  Even when free agency wasn't as rampant, there were only 3-4 teams who had legitimate chances at glory with maybe 1 dark horse in each conference, such as the Rockets occasionally sneaking past the Lakers during the 1980s.

I could see a harder cap being put in place, but players have evolved--not just physically, but also in how they approach the game as a true business. I don't see them allowing themselves to be dragged down the same path NFL players have to deal with in terms of a weak players' association and no power. 

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The PA has been slapped around the last two lockouts so they are not as strong as one would think.  The owners will cite how much they pay in salaries as a percentage of basketball revenues when they opt-out.

There are a lot of problems with the NBA and competition is one of those problems.  Teams play to empty buildings in most cities.  The attendance numbers are all padded.  Horford cited playing in an empty area in Atlanta as one reason for wanting to leave.  

The QO is a complete debacle including the second contract for a player.  There is a clear lack of a development system for guys coming out.  Horrible contracts given out by GM's.  The whole system needs an overhaul.

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Coming from someone who has no serious idea about how NBA contracts work - isnt it a little strange that Durant only signed for 2 years with an opt out? He is basically only committing to GSW for one season yeah?

So whats the plan then? Go all in for a championship next year then opt out and then go get paid somewhere else? Join up with the next "super team"??

I dont understand why GSW would take that risk either. It's not like the Lakers with Howard where they were trying to convince him to stay out of desperation or whatever it was. GSW are already a top team. Why blow it up for only a single locked in season?

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4 minutes ago, L_W_P said:

Coming from someone who has no serious idea about how NBA contracts work - isnt it a little strange that Durant only signed for 2 years with an opt out? He is basically only committing to GSW for one season yeah?

So whats the plan then? Go all in for a championship next year then opt out and then go get paid somewhere else? Join up with the next "super team"??

I dont understand why GSW would take that risk either. It's not like the Lakers with Howard where they were trying to convince him to stay out of desperation or whatever it was. GSW are already a top team. Why blow it up for only a single locked in season?

Glass half empty situation is pretty much what you're suggesting. Glass half full I assume is just giving himself an opportunity to get more money when the cap extends next year? The Curry deal is going to be very interesting next year also. 

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5 minutes ago, L_W_P said:

Coming from someone who has no serious idea about how NBA contracts work - isnt it a little strange that Durant only signed for 2 years with an opt out? He is basically only committing to GSW for one season yeah?

So whats the plan then? Go all in for a championship next year then opt out and then go get paid somewhere else? Join up with the next "super team"??

I dont understand why GSW would take that risk either. It's not like the Lakers with Howard where they were trying to convince him to stay out of desperation or whatever it was. GSW are already a top team. Why blow it up for only a single locked in season?

The idea behind doing the 2 year/ opt out contract is knowing that the cap will jump again, so he can continue to sign a large deal year on year and keeps some leverage in how the team is put together. Players like Durant and Lebron are basically bullet proof, so they don't need the security that a five year max contract brings. They could get hurt for a year or play poorly and still have 29 teams ready to pay them the max. 

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What about the train of thought that Durant should've been the centerpiece of a big three this whole time if the idiot Thunder brass had never traded Harden and thus would've easily had a title or two by now? What's the difference in Durant going to another city and making Steph his little buddy the way Lebron did with Wade? I mean wasn't that the most unfathomable part of "the decision" Lebron committing the sin of going to somebody else's team? This whole backlash will die down as long as Durant sticks around and asserts himself as the lead dog on multiple Championship teams.

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1 hour ago, FluffSnackwell said:

What about the train of thought that Durant should've been the centerpiece of a big three this whole time if the idiot Thunder brass had never traded Harden and thus would've easily had a title or two by now? What's the difference in Durant going to another city and making Steph his little buddy the way Lebron did with Wade? I mean wasn't that the most unfathomable part of "the decision" Lebron committing the sin of going to somebody else's team? This whole backlash will die down as long as Durant sticks around and asserts himself as the lead dog on multiple Championship teams.

LeBron's backlash was handling The Decision like a douchebag complete with a 30 minute ESPN special.  If there was no special there would be no backlash.  The whole thing started an ego trip where Nike then had him accept the moniker of a villain.  

The whole thing was annoying for the media spectacle and circus that ensued.

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That was only part of it. Lebron had built up this image of playing for his hometown team, then after being unable to get job done, had to join a superteam to win a ring. The special was only the whipping cream on top of the shit sundae. . .

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The fact that the NBA is headlining sports news in July, I said JULY, over the 4 major sports (yes, even the NFL) tells me all I need to know about open free agency being bad for the league and the "hard cap" threats. Parity isn't the NBA.

Lakers still haven't waived Nick Young by now?  Is it a contract thing?  I don't get it.  

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1 hour ago, Kuetsar said:

That was only part of it. Lebron had built up this image of playing for his hometown team, then after being unable to get job done, had to join a superteam to win a ring. The special was only the whipping cream on top of the shit sundae. . .

He didn't really build an image of playing for his hometown team. He played for his hometown team. He wasn't unable to get the job done, the Cavs general management was. Lebron isn't faultless, but it's hardly fair to say it was his failure when the second best Cav during his first stint was Delonte West. Lebron was so good at basketball that people were convinced that he could win a championship with Sasha Pavlovic playing major minutes. They didn't trade for Amare Stoudemire in his prime because they were unwilling to include JJ Hickson in any trade. I'd leave too.

I'm as big a Cavs fan as there is, but they squandered 7 years of a basketball force of nature. Why toil away with people who at times looked like they were taking bets on whether Lebron could get to the playoffs with a D League team? 

The backlash to the decision was almost purely based in Lebron having a total lack of self awareness. I also think that it was overblown in part because the sports media loves nothing more than to portray midwesterners as morons, so a town that was mostly saddened and shocked that one of their own had left was distilled to clips of assholes burning clothing. Perhaps I'm totally off base, but if Lebron was from New York and left the Knicks under the exact same circumstances, the coverage of the decision and it's aftermath would have looked decidedly different. 

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7 hours ago, evilwaldo said:

Everyone is so enthralled over Durant they are missing the bigger picture.  It is a two team league with one possible spoiler.  The only teams with a shot at winning the Championship are Cleveland, Golden State, and San Antonio.  Everyone else is just practice.

So, instead of 4 teams, there are three? 

That's how the NBA has always been because great players are such a larger part of the equation than any other sport. It was Lakers vs. Celtics throughout the 80's and the only slight dips in that was when the either team screwed up, got injured, or got old because it's possible future franchise player died of a cocaine overdose. It was the Bulls vs. Everybody Else once they beat the Pistons as nobody outside of NYC ever took the Knicks seriously and the West was always one team taking it's shot at the King and missing, only the challenger changed each year. Then, it was the Lakers vs a destroyed East, with the Pistons getting incredibly lucky one year with the Spurs & Kings causing problems. 

The truth is, even if somehow Durant, Kyrie, and Draymond were all on seperate teams and are replaced with replacement level players on the Warriors and Cavs, that'd just mean the Cavs and Warriors might take 6 games to beat some teams in the earlier rounds than 4. Having the best player on the floor is such an insane advantage in basketball than unless spots #2-5 are better on the other team, the best player will prevail and sometimes, not even that helps until the Finals (see any Cavs run pre-Decision). 

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