Who do you blame most for the current state of the nba?

[Scott Hall]

Why can I only pick one option?

[Higgs Boston]

Players not wanting a progressive cap space isn't an option? this is what allowed KD to sign with warriors.

[LAL]

The owners. They couldn't handle the Lakers' dominance so they decided to change the CBA in 2011 to make it easier for small market teams to compete. This gave the opportunity for GS to build a contender, instead of having them just act as a farm system for the Lakers. This helped the NBA's popularity overall, so the league made more money and then the owners allowed the players to decide on the cap spike instead of smoothing. Now the NBA is ruined though because of their policies, and the short term gain of letting teams other than the Lakers be good will be negated by the long term decrease in popularity because of the Warriors utter domination.

[JayMKE]

Silver, the owners, and the players all deserve blame.

[RIPskaterdude]

Lebron started it

This. I think the Durant to GS move is much lamer but Lebron and the Heatles started this garbage.

Wrong.

That team lost to Spurs and Mavs and broke up after 4 years. GSW could go for 4-6 rings before it's all over for them.

[Grits n Gravy]

Just to throw one more option out there - The Players Union. They absolutely refused to allow any sort of easing of the salary cap and insisted it all came at once(even though they are guaranteed the same amount of BRI regardless). The result? Allows Kevin Durant to (imo) ridiculously sign with a 73 win team and leads to an absolute spending spree that results in countless awful contracts being handed out while depriving actually valuable players making their money. Effectively allowed those fortunate to have their contracts expire in that off season to cash in and to hell with the rest. Obviously front offices get a huge amount of blame for this as well.

[scrabbarista]

Players' Union for the cap spike. I don't blame Durant at all. I would have done the same.

[zimpy27]

People blaming players of this generation must be quite young.

[Boneman2]

David Stern

Damn straight

[Yank3525]

LeBron started it.

Durant would have never had the balls to go to GS if Bron never went to Miami. Anyone saying Durant is full of it.

[My Main Man]

Lebron started it

This. I think the Durant to GS move is much lamer but Lebron and the Heatles started this garbage.

Wrong.

That team lost to Spurs and Mavs and broke up after 4 years. GSW could go for 4-6 rings before it's all over for them.

I didn’t say that they were better. They just started the fad of all-stars teaming up which turned into this absurd thing we have going on right now.

[LeMasta]

the media is to blame

without all this rings talk players would be content with just 1 ring

[jlokine]

i voted kevin durant.. but comes to think of it, it's probably danny ainge who formed the big 3 of the modern era.. KG allen and pierce.. that move created the heatles.. before that we were talking about dynamic duals: kobe and shaq, kobe and gasol, jordan and pippen, parker/duncan, stockton and malone, now people just ring chase cause they make so much off endorsements and with smart people investing their money..

[Aurelius]

Why do people think Adam Silver can just say no? He does not own the teams and sure as hell does not own the players to tell them where they can and can't play.

[dynamic duo]

the coward who joined the already title favorites in 73-9 warriors who also took a massive paycut for the very same team.

[Dr Aki]

"He started it"

What are we? 5 years old?

[R-S-M]

Easily Lebron and the Heatles. It's why i hated that move then and same reason i hated the durant going to the warriors. Yes, there are differences in types of team (new vs already constructed), confusion on whats a super-team (creating one yourself or joining a well drafted team), on and on. However, at the end of the day each choose to take the easier route by teaming up with other superstars in their respective conference. Did they each do it legally, sure and yes. However, both decisions were wrong here as far as NBA competitiveness goes. Lebron definitely led the way of the new NBA, and durant just copied and took it even further. It's probably only going to get worse. I still remember how heated I was seeing three players in their prime join forces in an already depleted eastern conference.

I am all for the positive that came out from what Lebron did - which is player empowerment and making it less of a stigma against players taking their careers into their own hands. However, the down fall is this is basically going down the path of players taking 1/2 year deals to team up in different cities. It's no longer who put together the best team to win, but instead will become a "hey lets all team up and win one in Atlanta, NY, Chicago etc etc." Which as far as sports goes is a joke.

Ideally, I would love for two things to happen here. Revert the power of the NBA back to the teams and away from the players. It just make sports more fun to watch as its more about strategy and planning, and less about which players want to team up to win where. However, in return the salaries should go up for players to what they are really worth. Not sure how this would work but as far as NBA as business goes, the players are deff underpaid.

[StepBackCrack]

the coward who joined the already title favorites in 73-9 warriors who also took a massive paycut for the very same team.

Just tattoo this post on your body lmao
Might make you feel a bit better.

[ChartFiction]

The face of the NBA sets the precedent. Players look up to Lebron and follow his lead. He made it cool.

[jimmy keys]

Honestly whoever plays game 1 versus GS should just hire a random guy to 10 day contract, put him in starting 5 & have him take Durant out when he's in the air. That's where my head's at right now.

But seriously looks like a hard cap is the next logical step.