KD to GS - Pt III

[NaturalThunder]

I've had guys telling me for years, OKC is never gonna win a title the way they were constructed...I didnt buy it....but they had their shot, multiple shots...let him move on....

OKC basically had two realistic shots: 2012 and 2016.

2011: A very young Thunder team announced their presence as a forced to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, Dirk and the Mavs halted their run in the WCF. The same Dirk led Mavs team that defeated LeBron, Wade, and the Heat in the Finals when Wade was still one of the 3-5 best players in the NBA.

2013: Was and still may be the best Thunder team of the Durant/Westbrook era. They finished a Western Conference best 60-22 and had the look/feel of a wrecking ball. They probably would've lost to the Heat in the Finals, but Westbrook's injury in the first round of the playoffs meant they never had a chance to prove otherwise.

2014: Ibaka gets hurt in the WCSF and misses games one and two of the WCF. OKC loses both games and finds themselves in an 0-2 hole. Ibaka comes back and they tie the series 2-2. The Spurs win game five decisively and the Thunder lose a close game six at home. OKC may not have won the series if Ibaka was healthy, but Ibaka was always the "X-Factor" for OKC against the Spurs. This could count as another realistic chance to win a title. If you do count it as one, then they still took a Spurs team that was a Ray Allen miracle three-pointer away from winning the title to six games with Ibaka missing two games.

2015: Durant only played 27 games, Westbrook misses 15 games, and OKC missed the playoffs with a record that would've been good enough for 5th in the West in 2016.


In 2012 they made the Finals as an extremely young, green team. The series only went five games, but OKC was in games 2-4 until the end. And in 2016 they lost in seven games to the 73-win Warriors in the WCF. In games 5-7, with a 3-1 series lead, Durant shot a combined 32/81 (39.5%). All three games were very winnable for the Thunder. Had Durant not laid a massive egg offensively, OKC would've won the series. Instead, Durant choke, OKC blows a 3-1 series lead, and Durant tucks tail and joins the team that came back from a 3-1 deficit in the WCF against him. Regardless, in their only two fully healthy years from 2011-2016, it's not like OKC as a team choked and lost titles as heavy favorites. Injuries and inexperience did them in.

[narmerguy]

When will you guys get it? The issue isn't that Durant shouldn't be allowed to choose what team he plays for. He has the right to pick his team and he has the right to not care about what anybody else thinks. But that's not the point! The point is that the league just became incredibly less competitive and exciting and it further sets the precedent that it's okay for superstars to team up and form super-teams. If that's the kind of league you want to be a fan of, fine. But don't sit there and play stupid and act like you don't see why that would rub the fans of the game the wrong way.

People defending this decision are either Warriors fans or people just trying to be edgy and go against the majority so they can appear as the logical, rational person.

When will people get it...the way to stop this is very simple...just get rid of max contracts. Players form super-teams because they want to win more than they want to be the only one doing the winning. If you lose trying to go it alone, eventually you suck it up and try to win another way. Max contracts make it so that players like Durant cost the Warriors similar money as players like Barnes. That just doesn't make sense. Max contracts really have to go to create parity. But other players don't want that, so this is what comes now.

Fans and the media have to change too. As long as players are only judged by how many rings they get,they will be pushed to do this. I mean there have even been people downplaying Lebron prior to this year because he only had two rings even though he's an epic player.

100% agree--I just have little faith the fans and media will give up on this myopic approach to evaluating players. Nothing so far has suggested that fans approach sports rationally, so I doubt it will start any time soon. I think it's absurd how much people pretend that rings have some sort of signal of how great an individual player is vs how great/stacked their team was compared to the majority of the competition. Lebron is probably the clearest example of this in my history of watching the NBA.

[Onus]

When will people get it...the way to stop this is very simple...just get rid of max contracts. Players form super-teams because they want to win more than they want to be the only one doing the winning. If you lose trying to go it alone, eventually you suck it up and try to win another way. Max contracts make it so that players like Durant cost the Warriors similar money as players like Barnes. That just doesn't make sense. Max contracts really have to go to create parity. But other players don't want that, so this is what comes now.

Fans and the media have to change too. As long as players are only judged by how many rings they get,they will be pushed to do this. I mean there have even been people downplaying Lebron prior to this year because he only had two rings even though he's an epic player.

100% agree--I just have little faith the fans and media will give up on this myopic approach to evaluating players. Nothing so far has suggested that fans approach sports rationally, so I doubt it will start any time soon. I think it's absurd how much people pretend that rings have some sort of signal of how great an individual player is vs how great/stacked their team was compared to the majority of the competition. Lebron is probably the clearest example of this in my history of watching the NBA.

Actually look at Karl Malone. Probably the best pf ever, Duncan is a center, and he's never in any conversation for one of the best ever conversations because he has no rings. Hell even in the player comparison board he's behind kg and dirk. Karl wins one of the 2 finals he was in and I'd bet he's seen in a completely different light.


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[baller16]

“After the 2011 season, Durant wanted to sit down with Sam Presti, and wanted a meeting with him to talk about Westbrook. I didn’t put this in the piece but I’m willing to say it now. The person who told me this said that Durant was telling people that Westbrook was literally the worst teammate he’d ever had, and he didn’t want to play with him anymore.”

http://clutchpoints.com/report-durant-westbrook-relationship-extremely-tenuous-early-days-thunder-franchise/

[suntzuballin]

When will you guys get it? The issue isn't that Durant shouldn't be allowed to choose what team he plays for. He has the right to pick his team and he has the right to not care about what anybody else thinks. But that's not the point! The point is that the league just became incredibly less competitive and exciting and it further sets the precedent that it's okay for superstars to team up and form super-teams. If that's the kind of league you want to be a fan of, fine. But don't sit there and play stupid and act like you don't see why that would rub the fans of the game the wrong way.

People defending this decision are either Warriors fans or people just trying to be edgy and go against the majority so they can appear as the logical, rational person.

Word/And1

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[Upperclass]

Durant said some really weird things today.. and has a strange aura about him right now.. Im starting to wonder if he maybe tanked those last few games vs GSW.. knowing that if they pull it out and they win.. then he CANT go join them. He seems very afraid of Lebron as well.. its odd

[XxIronChainzxX]

Fans and the media have to change too. As long as players are only judged by how many rings they get,they will be pushed to do this. I mean there have even been people downplaying Lebron prior to this year because he only had two rings even though he's an epic player.

100% agree--I just have little faith the fans and media will give up on this myopic approach to evaluating players. Nothing so far has suggested that fans approach sports rationally, so I doubt it will start any time soon. I think it's absurd how much people pretend that rings have some sort of signal of how great an individual player is vs how great/stacked their team was compared to the majority of the competition. Lebron is probably the clearest example of this in my history of watching the NBA.

Actually look at Karl Malone. Probably the best pf ever, Duncan is a center, and he's never in any conversation for one of the best ever conversations because he has no rings. Hell even in the player comparison board he's behind kg and dirk. Karl wins one of the 2 finals he was in and I'd bet he's seen in a completely different light.


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If he won that title after leaving the Jazz to join the Bulls to win a ring, he'd be seen in a different light, sure, but not exactly a better one.

[qm22]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/HPbasketball/status/751158553885286400[/tweet]

Think about the Roc Nation & Nike conspiracies!

OT here but I can see why the NBA is introducing jersey sleeves. On normal people the bball jersey looks like a fat man in a speedo. It's just wrong seeing at a non-pro athlete in these things, it just highlights how unathletic they are.

[Geddy]

Durant said some really weird things today.. and has a strange aura about him right now.. Im starting to wonder if he maybe tanked those last few games vs GSW.. knowing that if they pull it out and they win.. then he CANT go join them. He seems very afraid of Lebron as well.. its odd

Add on top of that all the stories about how he became close with Draymond, and that the Warriors started the recruiting process years ago.

[NBAfan3024]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/NBAcom/status/751192676943400960[/tweet]

amazing to see

[baller16]

I'm fairly confident Durant threw away that series against GSW. It does sound far-fetched, but Durant is a snake, so who knows.

[CnG]

Westbrook goes 10/27 and 7/21 in B2B closeout games whilst KD goes 10/31 and 10/19, fewer TOs and FAR better defence, but KD's the snake that threw away the series

People will find any narrative they want...

[Adelheid]

That's some nasty conspiracy theories y'all got there...might be true, though

[Pillendreher]

“After the 2011 season, Durant wanted to sit down with Sam Presti, and wanted a meeting with him to talk about Westbrook. I didn’t put this in the piece but I’m willing to say it now. The person who told me this said that Durant was telling people that Westbrook was literally the worst teammate he’d ever had, and he didn’t want to play with him anymore.”

http://clutchpoints.com/report-durant-westbrook-relationship-extremely-tenuous-early-days-thunder-franchise/

And yet Russ has been carrying this team like Durant never could.

[DreDay]

Westbrook goes 10/27 and 7/21 in B2B closeout games whilst KD goes 10/31 and 10/19, fewer TOs and FAR better defence, but KD's the snake that threw away the series

People will find any narrative they want...

Seriously. KD was the best defender on the court. If that's him throwing the series I can only hope to see him trying to win.

[Pennebaker]

Westbrook goes 10/27 and 7/21 in B2B closeout games whilst KD goes 10/31 and 10/19, fewer TOs and FAR better defence, but KD's the snake that threw away the series

People will find any narrative they want...

Seriously. KD was the best defender on the court. If that's him throwing the series I can only hope to see him trying to win.

That was him trying to win. Over the last 3 games he shot 39% from the field, 27% from three, and averaged as many turnovers as assists (3). But hey, Curry also lost a series when he was up 3-1, so maybe they deserve eachother.

[Pennebaker]

Westbrook goes 10/27 and 7/21 in B2B closeout games whilst KD goes 10/31 and 10/19, fewer TOs and FAR better defence, but KD's the snake that threw away the series

People will find any narrative they want...

Durant averaged 3 turnovers on 3 assists a game. Westbrook averaged 4 turnovers on 12 assists a game. The "fewer TOs" thing is actually not a thing.

[DreDay]

Westbrook goes 10/27 and 7/21 in B2B closeout games whilst KD goes 10/31 and 10/19, fewer TOs and FAR better defence, but KD's the snake that threw away the series

People will find any narrative they want...

Seriously. KD was the best defender on the court. If that's him throwing the series I can only hope to see him trying to win.

That was him trying to win. Over the last 3 games he shot 39% from the field, 27% from three, and averaged as many turnovers as assists (3). But hey, Curry also lost a series when he was up 3-1, so maybe they deserve eachother.

Over the last 3 games, Westbrook shot 37% from the field and 26% from the field. See how dumb it is judging a player in 3 games?

[NBAfan3024]

Westbrook goes 10/27 and 7/21 in B2B closeout games whilst KD goes 10/31 and 10/19, fewer TOs and FAR better defence, but KD's the snake that threw away the series

People will find any narrative they want...

Seriously. KD was the best defender on the court. If that's him throwing the series I can only hope to see him trying to win.

That was him trying to win. Over the last 3 games he shot 39% from the field, 27% from three, and averaged as many turnovers as assists (3). But hey, Curry also lost a series when he was up 3-1, so maybe they deserve eachother.

If they Winning championships together i'm sure they would deserve each other.

Amazing how anybody can look like anything people want on a small sample like 3 games.

[MisterHibachi]

I hear Curry told Durant he doesn't care who wins MVP, he'll still cheer him on if Durant is up on that podium. How naive are these two? They still expect MVP awards after this?