Durant News/Speculation

[dannyboy35]

the 1997 Ping Pong Balls are STILL haunting us---No Way Spurs and Popovich EVER become this kind of Dynasty--and Player Destination--if the Balls fell where they should have...If they get Durant now---it still goes back to that dark day in 1997.

  Well said. Pop is undoubtedly a super coach and GM but probably would have zero titles without that luck. I DO expect he ends up in San Antonio only if he doesn't return to okc.

[celticsclay]

I think the series is about how, not how many.

If OKC makes this a competitive series but loses, I think Durant returns.

If they drop the next three in abysmal fashion, he's probably gone.

I don't know. How does Durant justify staying on OKC when A) they cement themselves as the third best team in the West, B) they can't win a series against the second best team, let alone the Warriors who are on an even higher level, and C) they don't really have much room to improve themselves this offseason between Durant and Waiters being free agents? I think this is do-or-die for him, which it should be.

Now if an injury happens that's different. But even if they lose in 7 in a fair, hard-fought series, that takes a major leap of faith to think things will improve for them next year when they can't even beat the Spurs and not even make it to the Warriors.

A lot could happen. This offseason is so unpredictable cause there has never been this kind of situation before with so many teams having cap money to throw around. What if the warriors lose   Ezeli, Barnes, Speights, Barbosa. They could really lose their depth which is a large part of what has made them so scary. This may not happen with the cap hit, but often happens to really great teams. Other teams overpay for their players because of the allure of their team success, and the team gets robbed of valuable depth. Don't get me wrong a team of Klay, Draymond, Curry will still be a great team. However, Livingston, Bogut and AI2 are all on the downside of their careers and can play less minutes each year. They do need to get an infusion of young talent to grow into their roles with the big 3 (like the Spurs have been so succeessful).

Speaking of the Spurs if Manu, Diaw, Duncan all retire this offseason do they seem a lot less formidable? Parker is in rapid decline and Green never really developed like I thought he would.

[passesofftodj]

Well, if KD goes to SAS, they will contend, but for how much longer? He'll be middling forever in OKC if he stays. If he comes to Boston, he contends AND the team grows and gets better every year. Especially if Smart reaches his full potential and Isaiah is still killin it. That'd be scary.

Boston has no one on the level of Westbrook. Or Ibaka. Or Adams, for that matter.

So why does Durant leave the "middling forever" Thunder to join a "contending" Boston team?

No one close to Westbrook but he is a free agent next year and has demonstrated (at least to me) that he cannot be a consistent quality facilitator at the end of important playoff games.  I guess we'll see how the rest of the playoff goes but so far OKC made the one Finals where they got shellacked and are clearly number three in the West.  In other words they were clearly passed by GS and the rumors of the Spurs demise were greatly exaggerated.

IT may not be Westbrook but he is an awfully good player and is clearly better than Adams and probably better than Ibaka (yes, different positions).  All those bigs don't help OKC versus the Warriors much.  Waiters sucks.  Celtics are younger and better at defending the wings.

Boston is already close to as good in the East as OKC is in the West.  The path to the Finals is easier in the East.  Adding Durant and another max along with a trade or impactful rookie plus the BK picks plus an excellent coach in CBS going forward means something. 

Durant would be the clear #1 option and Stevens would be drawing up better end of game and out of bounds plays than OKC has.  This year has lead me to think the problem may be hero ball and lack of clear delineation among the 2 stars in OKC rather than the coaching.  If Durant stays, as he is likely to do on a 1 year, we'll see if they are better in year 2 of Donovan.