Is Durant now the Savior?

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Re: Is Durant now the Savior? 

Post#121 » by shawn_hemp » Tue Mar 21, 2017 5:46 pm

The Cavs won 17 (19 w/e) wins the next year because they promptly started tanking.

KD left a team with a player he didn't want to play with to join a team that actually played as a team

And yeah, if you go by a fringe portion of the population (realgm posters), then KD will always be a villain and Nikola Jokic is the greatest player of all time and Sam Hinkie is both a genius and an idiot at the same time and everyone is an expert 2 years after the fact

Get back to me when Durant wins a championship and nobody cares about him leaving OKC

I'm not apologizing for him leaving, I'm just saying that him joining the Warriors is a lot less of a big deal to most people than to someone who posts on a basketball forum in their spare time
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Re: Is Durant now the Savior? 

Post#122 » by nbafan38 » Tue Mar 21, 2017 5:47 pm

BucksPackers wrote:Man do I hate warriors fans. They are even worse than Nuggets fans.


I feel bad for some warriors fans actually, their team was bad for so long and now they've been only good for three years and everyone hates them but it's because of Durant they get so much hate. I know some warrior fans who didn't like the move and preferred the homegrown team but the ones on realgm who all jump to defend and rationalize Durants decision everytime some criticizes him are the ones who get very annoying.
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Re: Is Durant now the Savior? 

Post#123 » by shawn_hemp » Tue Mar 21, 2017 5:48 pm

nbafan38 wrote:
BucksPackers wrote:Man do I hate warriors fans. They are even worse than Nuggets fans.


I feel bad for some warriors fans actually, their team was bad for so long and now they've been only good for three years and everyone hates them but it's because of Durant they get so much hate. I know some warrior fans who didn't like the move and preferred the homegrown team but the ones on realgm who all jump to defend and rationalize Durants decision everytime some criticizes him are the ones who get very annoying.


Yeah because those 3-1 lead jokes were always real knee slappers

People who hate on KD are more so annoying IMO

Not like I made this thread
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Re: Is Durant now the Savior? 

Post#124 » by devilsace » Tue Mar 21, 2017 5:50 pm

nbafan38 wrote:
MartinToVaught wrote:
shawn_hemp wrote:Wow it's crazy how much 2 championships will change the opinion of a player.

Literally none of that was used to describe LeBron when he joined Miami.

Funny how history re-writes itself

"Miami wasn't even that good of a team"

sure dude

I'm not rewriting history at all. I was saying the same things at the time.

Believe me, I know full well that LeBron was vilified for signing with Miami. But that was before Durant showed the world what a truly anti-competitive free agent move looks like. Equating what Durant did with what LeBron did just shows a total lack of perspective. The only similarity between them is that they both switched teams in free agency.


Lebron was villified and rightfully so but boy did he make up for it by coming home and winning a ring, people seem to convienently forget that part, lebron was still fairly disliked when he was in Miami even after he had won two rings.


I'm really tired of this Lebron coming back to Cleveland to win them a ring narrative...are you really telling me he came back to Cleveland just so he could win a ring with his hometown...its great for his legacy and all but are you telling me him leaving Miami had nothing to do with Wade and Bosh **** the bed in the playoffs against San Antonio, a budding star in Cleveland and a promise of getting K.Love joining them had nothing to do with it...Thats just naive...He saw a better situation for himself to win a title then his current location...He left and it worked out that his hometown was ready to compete...KD's move was frustrating for any fan who wants to see competitive basketball and worse because he went to a 73-9 team, but just like with Lebron i think whatever anybody says or acts like now championships will change everybody's perception and this whole thing will fade as some other big star makes a big move like this
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Re: Is Durant now the Savior? 

Post#125 » by BucksPackers » Tue Mar 21, 2017 5:52 pm

nbafan38 wrote:
BucksPackers wrote:Man do I hate warriors fans. They are even worse than Nuggets fans.


I feel bad for some warriors fans actually, their team was bad for so long and now they've been only good for three years and everyone hates them but it's because of Durant they get so much hate. I know some warrior fans who didn't like the move and preferred the homegrown team but the ones on realgm who all jump to defend and rationalize Durants decision everytime some criticizes him are the ones who get very annoying.


I hate the ones that think Green is never at fault for anything and hes the best player in the league. The durant thing was icing on the cake for most people to hate them. I also hate all the bandwagon fans around the country that all of a sudden loved the warriors their whole lives.
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Re: Is Durant now the Savior? 

Post#126 » by BucksPackers » Tue Mar 21, 2017 5:53 pm

shawn_hemp wrote:
nbafan38 wrote:
BucksPackers wrote:Man do I hate warriors fans. They are even worse than Nuggets fans.


I feel bad for some warriors fans actually, their team was bad for so long and now they've been only good for three years and everyone hates them but it's because of Durant they get so much hate. I know some warrior fans who didn't like the move and preferred the homegrown team but the ones on realgm who all jump to defend and rationalize Durants decision everytime some criticizes him are the ones who get very annoying.


Yeah because those 3-1 lead jokes were always real knee slappers

People who hate on KD are more so annoying IMO

Not like I made this thread


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Re: Is Durant now the Savior? 

Post#127 » by nbafan38 » Tue Mar 21, 2017 5:56 pm

devilsace wrote:
nbafan38 wrote:
MartinToVaught wrote:I'm not rewriting history at all. I was saying the same things at the time.

Believe me, I know full well that LeBron was vilified for signing with Miami. But that was before Durant showed the world what a truly anti-competitive free agent move looks like. Equating what Durant did with what LeBron did just shows a total lack of perspective. The only similarity between them is that they both switched teams in free agency.


Lebron was villified and rightfully so but boy did he make up for it by coming home and winning a ring, people seem to convienently forget that part, lebron was still fairly disliked when he was in Miami even after he had won two rings.


I'm really tired of this Lebron coming back to Cleveland to win them a ring narrative...are you really telling me he came back to Cleveland just so he could win a ring with his hometown...its great for his legacy and all but are you telling me him leaving Miami had nothing to do with Wade and Bosh **** the bed in the playoffs against San Antonio, a budding star in Cleveland and a promise of getting K.Love joining them had nothing to do with it...Thats just naive...He saw a better situation for himself to win a title then his current location...He left and it worked out that his hometown was ready to compete...KD's move was frustrating for any fan who wants to see competitive basketball and worse because he went to a 73-9 team, but just like with Lebron i think whatever anybody says or acts like now championships will change everybody's perception and this whole thing will fade as some other big star makes a big move like this


I think it was both, I think Lebron really wanted to get Cleveland a ring but also saw an opportunity, I mean yea what would be the point of him coming back for either himself or for the cavaliers if he didn't come back to the kind of roster that could win a ring?

I think the difference between Lebrons Miami move and his Cleveland move vs Durants move is Lebron ensures he has a roster that CAN win a championship WITH HIM where as Durant joined a roster that arguably CAN win a championship WITHOUT him.
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Re: Is Durant now the Savior? 

Post#128 » by Warriorfan » Tue Mar 21, 2017 6:00 pm

Durant is not the savior but he is part of the plan to retake the Champioship.
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Re: Is Durant now the Savior? 

Post#129 » by Patches Perry » Tue Mar 21, 2017 6:06 pm

shawn_hemp wrote:The Cavs won 17 (19 w/e) wins the next year because they promptly started tanking.

KD left a team with a player he didn't want to play with to join a team that actually played as a team

And yeah, if you go by a fringe portion of the population (realgm posters), then KD will always be a villain and Nikola Jokic is the greatest player of all time and Sam Hinkie is both a genius and an idiot at the same time and everyone is an expert 2 years after the fact

Get back to me when Durant wins a championship and nobody cares about him leaving OKC

I'm not apologizing for him leaving, I'm just saying that him joining the Warriors is a lot less of a big deal to most people than to someone who posts on a basketball forum in their spare time


If KD didn't like playing with OKC - that's fine. Nobody is condemning him for leaving OKC. If he wanted to join a team that plays more as a team, nobody would condemn him for that either. It's joining the team that A) doesn't need him to win a title and B)beat him 5 weeks prior to him joining.

Even then, if he just wants to play ball and have fun, more power to him. He just doesn't get to enjoy the same "credit" a championship team's best player normally gets for leading his team to a title, because his circumstances are extremely unique. For example, Pippen's 6 titles aren't held over Bird's 3 titles.
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Re: Is Durant now the Savior? 

Post#130 » by MartinToVaught » Tue Mar 21, 2017 6:12 pm

shawn_hemp wrote:The Cavs won 17 wins the next year because they promptly started tanking.

They weren't even tanking. They were just that bad. When LeBron signed with the Heat, he left the Cavs with a starting lineup of Ramon Sessions, Anthony Parker, Jamario Moon, JJ Hickson and Anderson Varejao. That's not even getting into the reserves, which were full of no-names like Jawad Williams, Samardo Samuels, and Manny Harris, and washed-up vets like Ryan Hollins and Leon Powe. They had no time or assets to upgrade on that. That season exposed how broken the foundation of the Cavs truly was around LeBron.

KD left a team with a player he didn't want to play with to join a team that actually played as a team

He left a player he was content to hide behind as the scapegoat for all of his playoff failures, and joined a team that he felt could carry him to a ring without much effort on his part.

And yeah, if you go by a fringe portion of the population (realgm posters), then KD will always be a villain

It's not just RealGM. Just look at any other basketball forum or social media. Talk to your casual-fan friends or people at your local barber shop. The vast majority will tell you the same thing as we are about Durant.

If anything, RealGM is far softer on players than anywhere else. For instance, take an unrelated topic like resting players. People on RealGM will complain about it, but there will be plenty of people who understand why teams feel the need to do it and try to come up with sensible solutions to make it less common. Anywhere else, you're likely to be subject to a bile-filled rant about how players these days are "soft" and "entitled" compared to the "good old days."

The same applies to players and their reputations. If even RealGM is angry at a player, chances are the general public is enraged at that player.

Get back to me when Durant wins a championship and nobody cares about him leaving OKC

You'll be waiting a long time for that - and that's even assuming Durant stops choking in the playoffs and ends up winning any titles with the Warriors. When not even going back to Cleveland and ringing there has made many fans forget about LeBron's Decision, what chance does Durant have to change anyone's mind? Role-player rings in the Bay Area certainly aren't going to do it.
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Re: Is Durant now the Savior? 

Post#131 » by MartinToVaught » Tue Mar 21, 2017 6:24 pm

devilsace wrote:I'm really tired of this Lebron coming back to Cleveland to win them a ring narrative...are you really telling me he came back to Cleveland just so he could win a ring with his hometown.

I do, actually. Why else would he have come back? When LeBron returned, the Cavs were the most dysfunctional franchise in the league. They still hadn't sniffed a .500 record, let alone made the playoffs, since he left. They got obscenely lucky in the lottery, but they wasted some of those picks (Anthony Bennett and Dion Waiters come to mind) and their latest draft pick (Andrew Wiggins) had yet to play an NBA game and would soon be shipped out of town. Meanwhile, Kyrie was gaining a reputation as a bust and a locker-room cancer. The Cavs had just rehired Mike Brown the year before, only to fire him after one season. They were still owned by the same guy who had previously failed to put a real team around LeBron and wrote that embarrassing letter when he left.

LeBron could take any team to the Finals, but nothing about any of this screams "best possible situation to win a title." If LeBron wasn't born and raised in Northeast Ohio and/or didn't feel even a twinge of regret about how he left, he would have never considered returning to Cleveland.

its great for his legacy and all but are you telling me him leaving Miami had nothing to do with Wade and Bosh **** the bed in the playoffs against San Antonio

Even with how rough things were beginning to look in Miami, it was still better than what Cleveland had to offer from a pure basketball perspective. If you think about it, it's crazy that LeBron left a team that had just made the last four Finals and won two of them and joined a dysfunctional lottery team.
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Re: Is Durant now the Savior? 

Post#132 » by KG_Wolves » Tue Mar 21, 2017 6:28 pm

He's still riding the coat tails of the Splash Bros, aka still a servant
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Re: Is Durant now the Savior? 

Post#133 » by Starboy » Tue Mar 21, 2017 7:13 pm

nbafan38 wrote:
BucksPackers wrote:Man do I hate warriors fans. They are even worse than Nuggets fans.


I feel bad for some warriors fans actually, their team was bad for so long and now they've been only good for three years and everyone hates them but it's because of Durant they get so much hate. I know some warrior fans who didn't like the move and preferred the homegrown team but the ones on realgm who all jump to defend and rationalize Durants decision everytime some criticizes him are the ones who get very annoying.


I'm good. I don't really care why or how he joined. I like having a strong team and a chance to see my team win the most championship rings that it can. :nod:


also, "clippers fan" stop pretending to be one. 99% of your posts are about Lebron.
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Re: Is Durant now the Savior? 

Post#134 » by Patches Perry » Tue Mar 21, 2017 7:23 pm

Me: I'm a Thunder fan, my team couldn't beat the Warriors, so I'm a Warriors fan now
Sports world: You're a bandwagon fan! You're not a real fan and Warriors winning means nothing to you!

Kevin Durant: I'm a Thunder player, my team couldn't beat the Warriors, so I'm going to become a Warriors player
Sports world: Player empowerment! He can do as he pleases, it's his life! Championships are all that matter! He deserves to be haaaappppyyyy!

If Kevin Durant joining the Warriors isn't a bandwagon move, then me becoming a Warriors fan isn't a bandwagon move for the same reasons. I just want to be happy and give myself the best chance to root for a championship team, right?
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Re: Is Durant now the Savior? 

Post#135 » by devilsace » Tue Mar 21, 2017 7:24 pm

MartinToVaught wrote:
devilsace wrote:I'm really tired of this Lebron coming back to Cleveland to win them a ring narrative...are you really telling me he came back to Cleveland just so he could win a ring with his hometown.

I do, actually. Why else would he have come back? When LeBron returned, the Cavs were the most dysfunctional franchise in the league. They still hadn't sniffed a .500 record, let alone made the playoffs, since he left. They got obscenely lucky in the lottery, but they wasted some of those picks (Anthony Bennett and Dion Waiters come to mind) and their latest draft pick (Andrew Wiggins) had yet to play an NBA game and would soon be shipped out of town. Meanwhile, Kyrie was gaining a reputation as a bust and a locker-room cancer. The Cavs had just rehired Mike Brown the year before, only to fire him after one season. They were still owned by the same guy who had previously failed to put a real team around LeBron and wrote that embarrassing letter when he left.

LeBron could take any team to the Finals, but nothing about any of this screams "best possible situation to win a title." If LeBron wasn't born and raised in Northeast Ohio and/or didn't feel even a twinge of regret about how he left, he would have never considered returning to Cleveland.

its great for his legacy and all but are you telling me him leaving Miami had nothing to do with Wade and Bosh **** the bed in the playoffs against San Antonio


Well you seemed to kind of gloss over my points for him wanting to leave Miami...yes Lebron could take alot of teams to the finals but losing in the finals has really hurt his legacy....The season Lebron left in the playoffs, (esp the finals), Wade looked like a shell of himself and Bosh didnt really help him against San Antonio. Also, yes Wiggins hadnt played an NBA game yet but the trade was already in the works for getting K.Love...If I remember correctly in his article all the current Cavs were mentioned who he was excited to play with but Wiggins was missing...He came back home and won a Championship for his hometown, that is great and has really helped his legacy, but saying he did not have ulterior motive when Miami had the biggest point differential finals lose ever the year before is naive.
Even with how rough things were beginning to look in Miami, it was still better than what Cleveland had to offer from a pure basketball perspective. If you think about it, it's crazy that LeBron left a team that had just made the last four Finals and won two of them and joined a dysfunctional lottery team.
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Re: Is Durant now the Savior? 

Post#136 » by NZB2323 » Tue Mar 21, 2017 7:36 pm

nbafan38 wrote:
BucksPackers wrote:Man do I hate warriors fans. They are even worse than Nuggets fans.


I feel bad for some warriors fans actually, their team was bad for so long and now they've been only good for three years and everyone hates them but it's because of Durant they get so much hate. I know some warrior fans who didn't like the move and preferred the homegrown team but the ones on realgm who all jump to defend and rationalize Durants decision everytime some criticizes him are the ones who get very annoying.


I would love for superstars to come to the Bulls and have everyone hate the Bulls.
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Re: Is Durant now the Savior? 

Post#137 » by thejigglyroom » Tue Mar 21, 2017 8:02 pm

BucksPackers wrote:Man do I hate warriors fans. They are even worse than Nuggets fans.



Meh.

Don't know you.

Don't care.

Hate away


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Nyk_Fatboy:
Carmelos better than durant, Lance stephensons better than harden, Wade, Wall, Derozan, Parker, Westbrick and i prefer antetokoumpo over Griffin, bosh and dirk but its debatable
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Re: Is Durant now the Savior? 

Post#138 » by GQ Hot Dog » Tue Mar 21, 2017 10:14 pm

thejigglyroom wrote:
BucksPackers wrote:Man do I hate warriors fans. They are even worse than Nuggets fans.



Meh.

Don't know you.

Don't care.

Hate away


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