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