all those that think this is simply about him going to a team of his choice are ignoring the ‘cap manipulating aspect’ of taking less money to build the super team....the league can definitely and should stop that.
Kevin Durant, "cap manipulator." Riiiiggghhhhhtttt.
And what exactly should the NBA do to stop people from taking a lower salary for a better job? How would that work? There is no possible method for such a thing.
I mean, there are certainly conceivable ways they could prevent players taking less money, they're just not likely or necessarily desirable.
The league could, for example, have some kind of arbitration process by which a reasonable range of annual salary is determined for any given free agent, and players / teams may only agree to terms within that range during the normal free agency period. Only after the free agent period has concluded (i.e. July/August) would a player be able to sign for less than the stated range (i.e. for the veteran minimum).
That's an extreme example of how it could work, but it's conceivable. It'll never happen, but it's not an impossible thing either.
Anyway, we usually laud players for taking less for the sake of winning and for the better of the team, except when it's perceived to create a competitive imbalance that is unsurmountable for virtually every other team in the league to overcome.
I tend to think that a superteam that is obviously far more talented than every other team, or almost every other team, is not a bad thing for the league per se, but it becomes a big problem if that superpowered team is able to stay together for more than a year or two.