Woj: Warriors "significant frontrunners" to sign Kevin Durant
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 1:07 pm    Post subject: Woj: Warriors "significant frontrunners" to sign Kevin Durant

The Vertical‏@TheVertical
The looming, growing threat of Golden State in the pursuit of Kevin Durant. @WojVerticalNBA column.. http://yhoo.it/1Ko2jXU

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The Golden State Warriors’ plan of pursuit predates their 2015 championship run, a bold plot to declare the futility of resistance. It isn’t only that the NBA champions are determined to recruit Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant. The truth is that they’re the most intriguing destination to him. If Durant leaves the Thunder, the Warriors are the significant frontrunners to sign him, league sources told The Vertical.

The Warriors already have everything and yet they’re threatening to take more now. Steph Curry. Klay Thompson. Draymond Green. Committed ownership. Bob Myers, the executive of the year. Steve Kerr, a championship coach. Yes, Golden State has everything, including the ability to create the salary-cap space and a belief that Durant’s persona could fit seamlessly – even onto a potential two-time defending champion.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/sources--warriors-serious-threat-to-sign-kevin-durant-182559375.html


https://media.giphy.com/media/suqg0jRPpDMze/giphy.gif

Woj finally has caught up to what I've been saying for months now about Golden State and Durant.

Anyway, have fun
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RG73
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 3:14 pm    Post subject:

If this happens, game over until they all retire. There would literally be no point to having a season.
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 3:29 pm    Post subject:

GST would be a great fit for him, but as I see it right now - even if they allow all their restricted and unrestricted FA's to walk, they would not be able to offer him a MAX at KD's rate.

Sort of like Spurs/LMA could see GST make a move to free up more space and like Durant take that.

If Durant does leave, I can see him go to a place like GST because it's low key relatively. I can't see him wanting to sign somewhere the media is a huge presence although at this point in his career a ring or two is critical for him to be recognized as an all time great. He may willing to deal with the media scrutiny if there's a realistic path to a ring.

BTW, theoretically, the Clippers if they move Reddick for an expiring contract (which I think they could) would also have same type of room Golden State would. But Durant would have to deal with the LA media, which would be less as a Clipper than Laker.

Can't believe teams like the Warriors (Curry, Dray, Thomspon) or Clippers (Paul, Griffen, DeAndre) could be adding a player like Durant this coming summer but it is possible. Either team getting a Durant would make them front runners for the ring in 16-17.

I'm not quite sure what Presti is thinking. As much assurance as Durant gives you, if I were him, I'd have settled this last summer. Trade him a year earlier than too late and lose a talent like that for nothing. You'd still have a year to put forth a competitive team for Westbrook in 16-17 to convince him to stay longterm.. If Durant walks, won't be long before Westbrook walks as well, IMO.
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 3:45 pm    Post subject:

RG73 wrote:
If this happens, game over until they all retire. There would literally be no point to having a season.


You never know. Plenty of great teams that looked like for sure winners on paper didn't win on the court. You never know what kind of chemistry issues might come from adding a superstar while losing some bench players to make up his salary.
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 4:15 pm    Post subject:

Durant ain't ring chasing on his prime. Not gonna happen.
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 4:53 pm    Post subject:

dmorans1 wrote:
Durant ain't ring chasing on his prime. Not gonna happen.


I think Durant wants a team to himself not share it with Steph Curry
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 4:59 pm    Post subject:

He should go to the East if he's going to leave a title contending team in the West. I mean he can't really get better than Westbrook as a teammate at this point.
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 4:59 pm    Post subject:

So no Basketball Reasons this time?
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999
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 7:36 pm    Post subject:

Isaiah wrote:
So no Basketball Reasons this time?


Can't call basketball reasons in free agency
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 8:03 pm    Post subject:

999 wrote:
dmorans1 wrote:
Durant ain't ring chasing on his prime. Not gonna happen.


I think Durant wants a team to himself not share it with Steph Curry

i think those days are long gone. ended with the zone, my friend. i'd bet money durant does not care. if the warriors want him, he's going there.
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 8:07 pm    Post subject:

SuperboyReformed wrote:
999 wrote:
dmorans1 wrote:
Durant ain't ring chasing on his prime. Not gonna happen.


I think Durant wants a team to himself not share it with Steph Curry

i think those days are long gone. ended with the zone, my friend. i'd bet money durant does not care. if the warriors want him, he's going there.


Which is fine, just make sure that when they play any team in the 82 season, that the team shake hand with them on the court and walk off the court so there is no game forcing Silver to trade away Green, Klay, Iggy, and Livingston and move GS to Seattle and tell Curry that his mom miss him and want him home.

Also Donkey face will go to the Lakers while we also get Ben Simmons. I just want GSW to be in ruin. I live in the Bay area and I hate GSW and their fans.
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 9:30 pm    Post subject:

SuperboyReformed wrote:
999 wrote:
dmorans1 wrote:
Durant ain't ring chasing on his prime. Not gonna happen.


I think Durant wants a team to himself not share it with Steph Curry

i think those days are long gone. ended with the zone, my friend. i'd bet money durant does not care. if the warriors want him, he's going there.


This.

He knows he could not get it done on a team with Westbrook, Ibaka and Harden. And he knows, he has to go through teams with Curry/Klay/Green or Lebron/Love/Irving or, oh Duncan/Aldridge/Parker. If he can't beat those guys now with Westbrook putting up Oscar Robertson numbers, he is not delusional enough to think that if he goes to a team with no all-star talent that he's going to beat the existing super teams on his own.

These guys know that they can't win without playing on a superteam they're not going to win. And they also know that history is going to judge them by rings. So....yeah, he'll go to a loaded team. And the only team that is more loaded than the one he's on and that can pay him is Golden State.

This notion of "being the man" on the championship team is really a Jordan-Kobe thing. It is a myth they cultivated. But when you look back at it, they had stacked teams too. Like almost every championship team since ever. Westbrook is the one I can see following in the hero ball mode. Durant? He just strikes me as the type who would fit easily into the mentality of a team like the Warriors or Spurs. I mean what does he have to prove as the man? That he can average 30 ppg in his sleep? He's done that already. Now is about winning.
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 9:35 pm    Post subject:

RG73 wrote:
SuperboyReformed wrote:
999 wrote:
dmorans1 wrote:
Durant ain't ring chasing on his prime. Not gonna happen.


I think Durant wants a team to himself not share it with Steph Curry

i think those days are long gone. ended with the zone, my friend. i'd bet money durant does not care. if the warriors want him, he's going there.


This.

He knows he could not get it done on a team with Westbrook, Ibaka and Harden. And he knows, he has to go through teams with Curry/Klay/Green or Lebron/Love/Irving or, oh Duncan/Aldridge/Parker. If he can't beat those guys now with Westbrook putting up Oscar Robertson numbers, he is not delusional enough to think that if he goes to a team with no all-star talent that he's going to beat the existing super teams on his own.

These guys know that they can't win without playing on a superteam they're not going to win. And they also know that history is going to judge them by rings. So....yeah, he'll go to a loaded team. And the only team that is more loaded than the one he's on and that can pay him is Golden State.

This notion of "being the man" on the championship team is really a Jordan-Kobe thing. It is a myth they cultivated. But when you look back at it, they had stacked teams too. Like almost every championship team since ever. Westbrook is the one I can see following in the hero ball mode. Durant? He just strikes me as the type who would fit easily into the mentality of a team like the Warriors or Spurs. I mean what does he have to prove as the man? That he can average 30 ppg in his sleep? He's done that already. Now is about winning.


this!! teams are too stacked today. his only chance to win is to join a stacked team. and (bleep), be the man on the team maybe, average 25ppg and make a huge impact and nobody is calling you some sort of 2nd fiddle


Last edited by KeepItRealOrElse on Tue Feb 02, 2016 9:46 pm; edited 1 time in total
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 9:43 pm    Post subject:

Well the Durant has always be a wuss so that nothing new. He not an Alpha like Westbrook.
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 03, 2016 5:58 am    Post subject:

999 wrote:
Isaiah wrote:
So no Basketball Reasons this time?


Can't call basketball reasons in free agency


Oh, right.
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 03, 2016 6:22 am    Post subject:

Well, moving Durant into their lineup might not be the manna from heaven they really want. He's all-NBA based upon his scoring but he's only a decent defender. He's become vulnerable to injury. He's exceptionally expensive.

If I make myself the GSW front office for a minute, I would seriously weigh how well Barnes and Looney together - with some other cheaper player added in as well - represent the better future and better two-way fit with the main stars.
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 03, 2016 9:22 am    Post subject:

thehotsung8701A wrote:
Well the Durant has always be a wuss so that nothing new. He not an Alpha like Westbrook.


It has nothing to do with being a wuss.

Westbrook, without Durant, will probably average low to mid-30s on very low 40s shooting and he'll lose. He'll be just like post-Shaq, pre-Pau Kobe. Lots of amazing heroic games with ridiculous numbers and first round flame outs in the playoffs.

I'm not sure how anyone thinks that in this day and age hero ball is going to win anything. I mean it never actually did win anything. At the end of the day, neither Jordan, nor Kobe, nor anyone else, single handedly beat another team for a championship. Those games where Kobe outscored Dallas singlehandedly through 3 quarters (another game he could have easily gotten 80+), his 81 point game, etc....those don't happen in the playoffs. So the notion of "the man" is just outdated. Just look at how well it worked for Lebron last Finals. Meanwhile you had role players like Iggy and Livingston killing it.

Great individual talent gets you into the race, but teams win.
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 03, 2016 9:28 am    Post subject:

The funny thing is WB is becoming more of a team player this year. IIRC, shot attempts, usage, PPG down. APG and general ball movement up.
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 03, 2016 9:42 am    Post subject:

yinoma2001 wrote:
The funny thing is WB is becoming more of a team player this year. IIRC, shot attempts, usage, PPG down. APG and general ball movement up.


You can't really compare his numbers last year to the rest of his career. KD was out almost the whole year and Ibaka was shut down for the last month. He's sitting at 33.8 this year which is right in line with his last 5-6 years. 31.6/32.7/32.8/34.4/38.4<-KD injury year. His usage/ppg etc last year were an anomaly. He's still #1 in the league with that astronomical figure. His apg are up but ball movement is the same as it's always been. It's still pound the heck out of the ball but this time it ends up in a pass whilst teammates look on as opposed to a shot. The narrative on the other hand will be "he's getting his teammates involved" or "he's learning to trust his teammates".

I'm obviously nitpicking a superstar but the best thing Russ can do is eliminate those 4-5 three point jacks in the game. Unless you're Antoine Walker, if you're shooting below 30% on 3's you probably shouldn't take too many of them.
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 03, 2016 10:21 am    Post subject:

I think the Golden State franchise would be best served by a taste of Spurs talent management. The Warriors have reached championship form. What talent Golden State has now works. Chemistry is valuable. Don't screw with it unnecessarily.

I wouldn't make a big move now pursue Durant aggressively, at least as long as Barnes is happy there.

The best move for them from here is to instead position themselves to replace the aging complementary pieces (Iggy, Bogut, Livingston) sometime within three years. Be choosy. Free agents will be lining-up to come here. The next two or three drafts will bring some late first rounders, usually where a wing or two can be had.

Looney might be a good Iggy replacement and Stretch-four option. Find a big man to replace injury-plagued Bogut, before another foot injury befalls the guy. That's where the club is most exposed to risk right now.
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 03, 2016 11:52 am    Post subject:

RG73 wrote:
This notion of "being the man" on the championship team is really a Jordan-Kobe thing. It is a myth they cultivated. But when you look back at it, they had stacked teams too.


This predates Jordan and Kobe.

Bird was definitely the man on a very stacked Boston team, for example. Can't imagine anyone would argue with that.

Even on stacked teams, you often have a guy who is looked on as the primary star -- Curry is the man in GW, Lebron was the man in Miami, and on and on.

That said, you need a lot of talent to win a ring.

We've never seen a MVP-guy in his prime joined a championship team, so this is unexplored terrain if it happens. The closest would be reigning MVP Moses Malone joining a 76ers team with Dr. J that had made the finals the year before.
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 03, 2016 12:50 pm    Post subject:

activeverb wrote:
RG73 wrote:
This notion of "being the man" on the championship team is really a Jordan-Kobe thing. It is a myth they cultivated. But when you look back at it, they had stacked teams too.


This predates Jordan and Kobe.

Bird was definitely the man on a very stacked Boston team, for example. Can't imagine anyone would argue with that.

Even on stacked teams, you often have a guy who is looked on as the primary star -- Curry is the man in GW, Lebron was the man in Miami, and on and on.

That said, you need a lot of talent to win a ring.

We've never seen a MVP-guy in his prime joined a championship team, so this is unexplored terrain if it happens. The closest would be reigning MVP Moses Malone joining a 76ers team with Dr. J that had made the finals the year before.


Bird was always a team player. Yes, he could beat you by himself, but that was never the narrative he painted. It wasn't like most of the plays Boston ran were isos for Bird. Bird's career usage was around 26% and I think he only hit 30% once in his career. Compare that to Jordan and Kobe who are both over 30% for their career and both hit 38% usage rates at one point or another in their career.

In fact, there is only one guy pre-Jordan era in the top 10 all time in usage, and that was the Gervin. Among the other older era guys in the top 20 are guys that were called ballhogs at various points in their career like World B Free, Dominique, Aguirre and Bernard King. There is a definite bias towards more modern players with usage rate though because Jordan made it acceptable for one guy to dominate the ball.

Consider this, no one in ABA history ever broke 30% usage for their career. That was a league that had a reputation for being for showboat players. That was a threshold that was crossed by Jordan, and then replicated by wing players since, and now, finally, being dialed back.
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 03, 2016 1:10 pm    Post subject:

RG73 wrote:
activeverb wrote:
RG73 wrote:
This notion of "being the man" on the championship team is really a Jordan-Kobe thing. It is a myth they cultivated. But when you look back at it, they had stacked teams too.


This predates Jordan and Kobe.

Bird was definitely the man on a very stacked Boston team, for example. Can't imagine anyone would argue with that.

Even on stacked teams, you often have a guy who is looked on as the primary star -- Curry is the man in GW, Lebron was the man in Miami, and on and on.

That said, you need a lot of talent to win a ring.

We've never seen a MVP-guy in his prime joined a championship team, so this is unexplored terrain if it happens. The closest would be reigning MVP Moses Malone joining a 76ers team with Dr. J that had made the finals the year before.


Bird was always a team player. Yes, he could beat you by himself, but that was never the narrative he painted. It wasn't like most of the plays Boston ran were isos for Bird. Bird's career usage was around 26% and I think he only hit 30% once in his career. Compare that to Jordan and Kobe who are both over 30% for their career and both hit 38% usage rates at one point or another in their career.

In fact, there is only one guy pre-Jordan era in the top 10 all time in usage, and that was the Gervin. Among the other older era guys in the top 20 are guys that were called ballhogs at various points in their career like World B Free, Dominique, Aguirre and Bernard King. There is a definite bias towards more modern players with usage rate though because Jordan made it acceptable for one guy to dominate the ball.

Consider this, no one in ABA history ever broke 30% usage for their career. That was a league that had a reputation for being for showboat players. That was a threshold that was crossed by Jordan, and then replicated by wing players since, and now, finally, being dialed back.



I don't equate being "the man" only with having a 30% usage, so you are talking about a completely different topic than I am.

Oh, and Dominique Wilkins career usage was in the top 10 at 30.27.
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 03, 2016 5:17 pm    Post subject:

activeverb wrote:
I don't equate being "the man" only with having a 30% usage, so you are talking about a completely different topic than I am.

Oh, and Dominique Wilkins career usage was in the top 10 at 30.27.


Dominique overlapped with MJ for much of their careers, hence "Jordan era."

And yes, I'm not sure what you're talking about then. This got brought up over the comparison of Westbrook and Durant, wherein it was suggested that Durant was a "wuss" because he didn't want to be "the man" like Westbrook.

I suppose you mean "the man" as in the clear, undisputed leader of the team. Whereas I'm talking about guys who are pathological in their dominance of the ball and do not merely want to the be leader, but want to single handedly attempt to beat the other team by themselves. I was using usage rates merely to show that it was very, very rare for a player to have 30%+ usage prior Jordan showing up on the scene. Then there were lots and lots of players, almost all ball handling perimeter players--Kobe, Iverson, McGrady, Wade, etc.--who were suddenly having these unprecedented usage rates. Why? Because they were, more often than not, "trying to take over the game" as Byron would put it.

So whatever we both mean, I think Durant does not need to "be the man" and he can be content on a super team and shooting like 16 times a night and still scoring in the low 20s.
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 03, 2016 5:29 pm    Post subject:

RG73 wrote:
SuperboyReformed wrote:
999 wrote:
dmorans1 wrote:
Durant ain't ring chasing on his prime. Not gonna happen.


I think Durant wants a team to himself not share it with Steph Curry

i think those days are long gone. ended with the zone, my friend. i'd bet money durant does not care. if the warriors want him, he's going there.


This.

He knows he could not get it done on a team with Westbrook, Ibaka and Harden. And he knows, he has to go through teams with Curry/Klay/Green or Lebron/Love/Irving or, oh Duncan/Aldridge/Parker. If he can't beat those guys now with Westbrook putting up Oscar Robertson numbers, he is not delusional enough to think that if he goes to a team with no all-star talent that he's going to beat the existing super teams on his own.

These guys know that they can't win without playing on a superteam they're not going to win. And they also know that history is going to judge them by rings. So....yeah, he'll go to a loaded team. And the only team that is more loaded than the one he's on and that can pay him is Golden State.

This notion of "being the man" on the championship team is really a Jordan-Kobe thing. It is a myth they cultivated. But when you look back at it, they had stacked teams too. Like almost every championship team since ever. Westbrook is the one I can see following in the hero ball mode. Durant? He just strikes me as the type who would fit easily into the mentality of a team like the Warriors or Spurs. I mean what does he have to prove as the man? That he can average 30 ppg in his sleep? He's done that already. Now is about winning.

every sentence here is exactly on point.

I'm not up to date on all the salary stuff, but someone already mentioned that it is realistic they can get durant and keep green, curry, and thompson? i can't see durant passing that up for any reason other than some kind of force, like a death threat to his family or something like that, lol. Look how good curry looks in that system. curry has a lot of natural basketball disadvantages...he is on the short side, he is not a physical specimen (i.e. historically somewhat fragile), not super athletic, yet he is able to play so well on that team. Durant sees this, he knows he is goddam 7 feet tall, and those guys are going to be getting him tons of open looks, holy cow. and he can shoot, dunk, all that. it's going to be destruction. all those things i say about kobe doesn't apply to durant, and he's just about as good of a shooter from three, and much better scorer everywhere else. i don't even want to think about it.
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