If you were Durant would you rather go here, Golden State or San Antonio? Face it, both those other teams have a better shot at the title with him than we do. Even Oklahoma State has a better chance I think.
I am hoping but we are not his best chance to win a title.
I think many here over value our assets, I think Ainge does as well. We learned post draft that there were some reasonable deals out there but Ainge won't do one unless he wins the deal. I love Ainge but the army of misfit toys is not as valuable as some think and the picks lost value once we did not get 1 or 2. There is always next draft though.
Sure, in a vacuum they have outright more talented teams, but fortunately context is important in reality.
First, Durant highly risks his reputation and legacy as a top player in this league by going to Golden State. The narrative will be that the lesser players joined up to beat Lebron, which actually in a sense would be true. There's also the question of fit. If he doesn't like having to share the ball with a guy with horrible shot selection in Westbrook, then he's going to be twice as bad with two guys with questionable shot selection and high usages in Curry and Thompson. There simply just won't be enough shots to go around for all those three, let alone Green, who has already in the past complained of his role in the offense. Going to Golden State is far from a slam dunk, and I highly doubt he ends up going there to play second or even third fiddle behind the Splash Bros.
Now San Antonio is a little better fit for him, but it's no slam dunk either. First, they'd have to lose at least one if not more of Green, Diaw, and Parker to fit him in, along with probably renouncing the majority of their free agents. That's a big hit. Second, it's not a perfect fit with him, Leonard, and Aldridge. That would essentially force Leonard to play the two full-time, which isn't ideal. Third, they're also in the more difficult Western Conference. Instead of just having to deal with Cleveland to get to the NBA Finals, they'll have to deal with both Golden State AND LAC, in addition to any other Western teams that might make the jump this offseason, e.g. Houston, Portland, etc.
Thus, no, it's not necessarily true that they have a better shot at the title than us. For example, if Durant and Horford would come here and we'd make a trade for someone like Noel, I think we have the better shot at a title than either San Antonio or Golden State. Let's also not forget that we've played Golden State the best of any team in the regular season the last two seasons, and this past season it took Aldridge going Superman in the final minutes of the game for them to beat us both games.
