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Durant was contacted about the trade.

Source please

The Warriors are going to be KD's team and not Curry's? Don't see that happening.

I´m sorry, if I expressed myself the wrong way. I wanted to say, that I suspect some internal issues with KD and Russ. It is still not clear, if Russ is going to staying with OKC next year. I´m also confused about the news, that Al Horford went to the celtics, because Durant and Russ didn´t assure him to stay in OKC for long terms. (http://newsok.com/article/5508075)

Barnes was only disappointing during the Finals. Bogut played his role perfectly and was a big part of the Warriors blitzing the Cavs early on. An argument can be made that if Bogut doesn't go down, the Warriors are two-time champions.

To me HB was the weakest starter. To me he was not only in the finals but during the playoffs a dissappointment . But that might be, because I had so much hopes for him and expected him to perfom much better. During the Playoffs there were probably around 4 Games, where I would say, he perfomed really well. During the other games, his shooting and decision making was underaverage.

-> To make it clear: HB has probably the potential to become an All-Star and I hope he will develop his talents in Dallas to become a very good player. But during the last season, he missed so many open shots, that he suppposed to make. Thats why I consider him replaceable, although it is sad, that we couldn´t develop the player to his fullest.

In my opinion Andrew Bogut was the reason, we could tourn the WCF-Series to a 4-3. And yes maybe he the series vs the CAVs would have gone to an other ending, if he didn´t injured during game 5. I don´t deny that he was very important of our way of basketball. And maybe I´m too critical about him. And still. His early foul troubles, his delays in helpside-defense, his lack of concentration. It´s natural to have a bad day, but still they happened too regualary during the quarter of the season. As I said, maybe I´m too critical and might be wrong. It is just my feeling, that he had to many bad days and wasn´t in the best physical condition.

I see your point, when you are arguing with the old past super teams. Therefore the rules have been chance, trying to prevent that. The move, of Durant, goingt to the finalist of the previous season is possible, because of 2 important details.

First: Curry is horribly underpaied, caused by his early career injuries. Some might have forgotten it, but there was a serious discussion, if Golden State should trade Monta Ellis or Stephen Curry.....just a little reminder.

Second: With the new tv-deal, the nba tried to keep increasement of the salary cap as low as possible. But the National Basketball Players Association was against this idea, because they wanted the palyers to receive the money as fast as possible. That´s way we now have that huge increasements of the salary cap and therefore the possibility, to sign a Kevin Durant.

Another problem, why this deal was possible is, that the minimum wage, wasn´t increased. So the minimum wage contract does now cost relativly less to your salary cap.

To make it short: The league tried to prevent the possibility of these kinds of moves, but it were the players, who wanted the big money and now, we are in this kind of situation.

I´m sorry, I missunderstood your point. I thought he would have been informed before the Ibaka-trade was completet.

I think the more interesting story is how all these unlikely events lined just right for this free agency move to happen:

1.) The Big Three come together on the Heat in 2010.

2.) Durant signs a 5 year extension in June 2011.

3.) Resentment about the big three in the NBA, create a situation where the next NBA CBA negotiation the teams implement a punitive Luxury Tax, where the tax multiplies each year you stay over the threshold. This is done, under the guise of protecting small market teams (which will become ironic shortly).

4.) During the same CBA agreement, the Rose Provision is also instated, allowing teams to commit up to 30% of the salary cap to one player.

5.) The NBA automatically applied the Rose Provision to the Durant contract, which is unusual, because in the event you have a player that's eligible for the Rose Provision you generally negotiate for the extra percentages. This is a big deal, because it was several million dollars per year committed to Durant when they also had Westbrook, Harden and Ibaka's contracts coming up. (http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7372795/kevin-durant-fi...)

6.) Thunder make the Finals, everyone thinks the Thunder are the future dynasty of the NBA.

7.) The off-season arrives. Thunder's owner is notoriously cheap regarding the aforementioned Luxury Tax, which was now worse due to the CBA and thus the Thunder panic.

8.) James Harden is traded for a bunch of pieces that amount to roughly Steven Adams. Thunder get Jeremy Lamb, Kevin Martin, 2 1st round draft picks (Mitch McGary & Steven Adams was later selected), a 2013 2nd round draft pick (Alex Abrines was later selected).

9.) The league, realizing this was unfair, refunded the money from the Rose Provision to the Thunder. Would they still have made a trade? Maybe, Harden wanted to be a star, but it wouldn't've been so desperate. Nonetheless, it was too late... Harden is gone. (http://newsok.com/article/3863784)

10.) Westbrook then has three knee surgeries, a pair of extended absences and a strict maintenance program. Westbrook missed nine playoff games in 2013, thus ending that playoff run.

11.) In the 2014 playoffs Ibaka only missed three games, unfortunately all playoffs games. Including two games of the Western Conference Finals, in which the Thunder lost both to the Spurs. When he came back he wasn't quite the same and the Thunder lost the series.

12.) A new TV deal is struck, one that will drastically increase the NBA's revenue and raise the cap. (It's going up in 2017 too, btw)

13.) Durant's foot and to a lesser extent Ibaka's knee injury ended the 2014-15 season campaign.

14.) The Players Union rejects the proposed "cap smoothing" that would gradually increase the cap over time thus creating an enormous amount of space for the 2016 off-season. (http://www.sbnation.com/2015/3/11/8192081/nba-salary-cap-...)

15.) Despite only 55 wins, The Thunder are finally healthy and they catch a break in the playoffs, Curry isn't 100%... Thus achieving what previously seemed impossible, pushing the Warriors to 3-1. The Thunder absorb two of Draymond's flagrant fouls and tire the entire Warriors team, most notably Iguodala. Unfortunately, the Warriors still managed to win the series.

16.) The Warriors now depleted from the Thunder series, hobble into the Finals. Warriors manage to go up 3-1, but epically collapse. A painful reminder of the effect of health in the NBA playoffs. Seems silly, but if the Warriors had won, it would've been a historic win based on the number of games missed by their starters: (https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/the-warriors-have-be...)

17.) Thus with large amounts of cap room, Durant was available to be courted by a plethora of teams, including a 73 win team that couldn't win the championship. Meanwhile, because of bad luck, decisions a

Last edited by Phat Panda at 7/5/2016 5:50:22 PM

just hand the trophy to the dubs theres no need to even watch the nba.

Even the most stacked teams only enter the playoffs with around a 60% chance of winning the titles. Health has been and always will be the indicator that establishes the ceiling of playoff success. That's before we count in random luck.

So...

BB status:

3-6 seassons tanking + 1 seasson spending the amounts of money acumulated + Good pick trained


NBA status:

1-2 seassons tanking + 1 season recruiting and grouping 2-3 starplayers + Good roleplayers

NBA teams take many years to form. Take the best four teams from last year:

1.) Cleveland - 4 seaons of rebuilding/tanking, then pick up LeBron.
2.) Golden State - 4 seasons of draft picks, 2 years of Mark Jackson then a coaching change to catapult into title form.
3.) OKC - 3 seasons of tanking, then multiple seasons building around top players. 5 years to get that young team to the Finals, 9 years to mature.
4.) San Antonio - Over a decade of carefully calculated decisions.

I don´t know where you found this, but it´s absolutely well researched and interesting. Thank you :-)

lol the NBA is gonna be a joke with KD on the Warriors

He could've won a ring anyways this year with the Thunder, one of the only teams who could've dethroned the Warriors throne. Oladipo I feel is a bigger upgrade over Ibaka as he is a nice perimeter defender and Kanter and Adams would take the paint defensively and be alright.

But nooo, KD wussied out after they blow a 3-1 series lead to go to the team that beat him. hilarious! Hope they gel well otherwise if they fail to win a championship, the hate on KD will get to levels Lebron ain't seen. It'll be 10x worst.


I will be rooting against the Warriors every game I get to see them, now surpassed the Lakers and Mavs as my most hated team.