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When Adam Silver met with his Board of Governors in July, he admitted he was "no fan" of Kevin Durant's decision to leave the Oklahoma City Thunder for the Golden State Warriors "fearing its implications on competitive balance."

From that moment on, the NBA's collective bargaining agreement negotiations were colored by the league's desire to make it more difficult for super teams to assemble. 

They became motivated to give smaller market stars greater financial incentive and flexibility to sign long-term contracts with their existing teams.

Privately, there are still small market executives who believe the NBA didn't go far enough. 

Via Adrian Wojnarowski/The Vertical

I dont think the money is why Durant bolted, but anything that provides incentive for players to stay with small market teams is a good one IMO.

Really, I'd rather the NBA adopt the NFL's style of contracts, but the NBAPA would never allow that. That would be true parity, just like the NFL. Hard caps, franchise tags, transition tags, ERFAs, RFAs tied to draft picks..

They became motivated to give smaller market stars greater financial incentive and flexibility to sign long-term contracts with their existing teams.

OKC had a chance to pay KD, Westbrook, and Harden max. They chose to trade Harden away. Imagine those 3 together now. Now that's a superteam with 3 MVP candidates...

likashing wrote:

They became motivated to give smaller market stars greater financial incentive and flexibility to sign long-term contracts with their existing teams.

OKC had a chance to pay KD, Westbrook, and Harden max. They chose to trade Harden away. Imagine those 3 together now. Now that's a superteam with 3 MVP candidates...

I don't think they would be the superstars they are today had they kept playing together. They are superstars today because Harden moved on to become his own man while KD and Westbrook made it work for them in OKC.

lilfishi22 wrote:

likashing wrote:

They became motivated to give smaller market stars greater financial incentive and flexibility to sign long-term contracts with their existing teams.

OKC had a chance to pay KD, Westbrook, and Harden max. They chose to trade Harden away. Imagine those 3 together now. Now that's a superteam with 3 MVP candidates...

I don't think they would be the superstars they are today had they kept playing together. They are superstars today because Harden moved on to become his own man while KD and Westbrook made it work for them in OKC.

Maybe re: their stardom.

But fact is they are all MVP candidates now.

OKC did let Harden go because they didn't want to pay the full max. They were trying to get a discount and ended up letting Harden go. Which is also a fact.

Giving them more options to pay, doesn't mean the small market teams will pay. That was my point.

likashing wrote:

lilfishi22 wrote:

likashing wrote:
OKC had a chance to pay KD, Westbrook, and Harden max. They chose to trade Harden away. Imagine those 3 together now. Now that's a superteam with 3 MVP candidates...

I don't think they would be the superstars they are today had they kept playing together. They are superstars today because Harden moved on to become his own man while KD and Westbrook made it work for them in OKC.

Maybe re: their stardom.

But fact is they are all MVP candidates now.

OKC did let Harden go because they didn't want to pay the full max. They were trying to get a discount and ended up letting Harden go. Which is also a fact.

Giving them more options to pay, doesn't mean the small market teams will pay. That was my point.

I was mainly talking about their development into the elite talent top 10 talent they are today. They isn't enough room for them to become what they are today if they had stayed with OKC, stayed hungry and attempted to share the ball.

I agree, giving them more options doesn't mean they will pay. But also, the reason could be that it wasn't financial sustainable for a small market team like OKC to go into the luxury tax long term keeping all three + Ibaka.

Funny how it was okay when LeBron did it and went back to Cleveland, but the league went on full meltdown when Durant did the exact same thing. LeBron only went back to Cleveland because he could cherry pick his way to a few titles. I hope the Warriors foil that party every single year.

Hoopzilla wrote:Funny how it was okay when LeBron did it and went back to Cleveland, but the league went on full meltdown when Durant did the exact same thing. LeBron only went back to Cleveland because he could cherry pick his way to a few titles. I hope the Warriors foil that party every single year.

What are you talking about cavs were a cellar dweller before lebron came back. And it wasn't until Lebron signed his new deal that Kevin Love officially added Cavs to his trade list. Lebron also didn't even meet with the cavs till they signed Kyrie to his 5 year max extension. Before Lebron came back to Cleveland - Timberwolves were having aggressive trade discussions with the Warriors for Love. Wolves were willing to take back David Lee contract and a protected first rounder but wanted both Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes. The Warriors were only willing to give up one of Barnes/Thompson and the talks broke off. Wolves also wanted warriors to eat Kevin Martin's albatross contract at the time. There was really no superteam the likes of Warriors or Heat in Cleveland even after Lebron arrived. They made their team better through trades.

Hoopzilla wrote:Funny how it was okay when LeBron did it and went back to Cleveland, but the league went on full meltdown when Durant did the exact same thing. LeBron only went back to Cleveland because he could cherry pick his way to a few titles. I hope the Warriors foil that party every single year.

Lebron to Miami maybe but I had no issue with Lebron going back to Cleveland.

Cavs had Irving but they were far from a superteam that reached the Finals just the year before. They picked up Love the day before they traded for Lebron but again, you can't compare that to a record breaking Warriors team that reached the Finals.

lilfishi22 wrote:

likashing wrote:

lilfishi22 wrote:I don't think they would be the superstars they are today had they kept playing together. They are superstars today because Harden moved on to become his own man while KD and Westbrook made it work for them in OKC.

Maybe re: their stardom.

But fact is they are all MVP candidates now.

OKC did let Harden go because they didn't want to pay the full max. They were trying to get a discount and ended up letting Harden go. Which is also a fact.

Giving them more options to pay, doesn't mean the small market teams will pay. That was my point.

I was mainly talking about their development into the elite talent top 10 talent they are today. They isn't enough room for them to become what they are today if they had stayed with OKC, stayed hungry and attempted to share the ball.

I agree, giving them more options doesn't mean they will pay. But also, the reason could be that it wasn't financial sustainable for a small market team like OKC to go into the luxury tax long term keeping all three + Ibaka.

The nba didn't do much to ban superteams in this new cba like the small market owners rightfully claim. The last cba - the nba negotiated much stricter luxury tax penalties to try to break up the Miami Heat but instead it lead to the breaking up of the Thunder who were a superteam based in one of the league's smallest markets. Than the nba vetoed the lakers cp3 trade because like how Dan Gilbert stated in a letter it was undermining the new luxuary tax system. The lakers were unloading the large salaries of Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol while giving up no draft picks or young players to get cp3. Than Dan Gilbert said the lakers would than use the young players and draft assets they still owned after a cp3 trade to land Dwight Howard from Orlando. And because of the new tv money - the luxury tax is not as harmful an obstacle for big market organizations like Warriors to break up their superteam which includes two former mvps in Curry and KD and two rising allstars just hitting their primes in Klay and Draymond. If Warriors keep their team together going forward and their stars are healthy they should be racking up all the titles throughout the duration of the new cba like Jordan's bulls before the 1998-99 lockout.

Hoopzilla wrote:Funny how it was okay when LeBron did it and went back to Cleveland, but the league went on full meltdown when Durant did the exact same thing. LeBron only went back to Cleveland because he could cherry pick his way to a few titles. I hope the Warriors foil that party every single year.

Damn. Your troll game is OP

Two things. 1- This will end up hurting the team that resign the player in the long term, because at some point the player will be getting older, and they end up getting injured frequently and that huge deal make them untradeable.

2- We will see who is about championship and who is about money.

IAMZOOTED wrote:

Hoopzilla wrote:Funny how it was okay when LeBron did it and went back to Cleveland, but the league went on full meltdown when Durant did the exact same thing. LeBron only went back to Cleveland because he could cherry pick his way to a few titles. I hope the Warriors foil that party every single year.

Haha. Lebron didn't go back to Cleveland to join a team that already won a chip and had the most wins in a season in NBA history. He also didn't join the league MVP and arguably the greatest shooting backcourt in NBA history. The Warriros broke records all season long last year. Durant just jumped on the bandwagon and figured he could easily upgrade the Harrison Barnes role on that team. I don't blame Durant for doing it either but you can't compare that to what Lebron did. In fact you can't compare Durant to Lebron at all. Lebron is a way smarter player, not to mention that he has guard skills in a Karl Malone body.

MitchB3 wrote:Two things. 1- This will end up hurting the team that resign the player in the long term, because at some point the player will be getting older, and they end up getting injured frequently and that huge deal make them untradeable.

2- We will see who is about championship and who is about money.

You think every player that signs a max deal is going to start getting hurt frequently?

Cool. I hope AD ignores the super max contract provision and joins the Raptors.

IAMZOOTED wrote:

MitchB3 wrote:Two things. 1- This will end up hurting the team that resign the player in the long term, because at some point the player will be getting older, and they end up getting injured frequently and that huge deal make them untradeable.

2- We will see who is about championship and who is about money.

You think every player that signs a max deal is going to start getting hurt frequently?

Super max or go home.

IAMZOOTED wrote:

MitchB3 wrote:Two things. 1- This will end up hurting the team that resign the player in the long term, because at some point the player will be getting older, and they end up getting injured frequently and that huge deal make them untradeable.

2- We will see who is about championship and who is about money.

You think every player that signs a max deal is going to start getting hurt frequently?

No I don't but some time right after the player inks a new contract they have difficulty staying healthy, i.e Eric Gordon, when he resigned with the Pelican when his contract was up 4 yrs ago, same goes with D-Rose; granted D-Rose injury was unforeseen but he had difficulty staying healthy.

MitchB3 wrote:

IAMZOOTED wrote:

MitchB3 wrote:Two things. 1- This will end up hurting the team that resign the player in the long term, because at some point the player will be getting older, and they end up getting injured frequently and that huge deal make them untradeable.

2- We will see who is about championship and who is about money.

You think every player that signs a max deal is going to start getting hurt frequently?

No I don't but some time right after the player inks a new contract they have difficulty staying healthy, i.e Eric Gordon, when he resigned with the Pelican when his contract was up 4 yrs ago, same goes with D-Rose; granted D-Rose injury was unforeseen but he had difficulty staying healthy.

Gordon was already injury prone as hell when he signed with the pelicans and rose suffered a freak injury

This is really a strange situation.

What if Green wasn't suspended and Curry wasn't fouled out?